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ScanSnap Users Should Delay Sierra Upgrades

Fujitsu (a TidBITS sponsor) is warning users of the company’s ScanSnap document scanners and accompanying software to avoid upgrading to macOS 10.12 Sierra at this point. Fujitsu has identified a variety of problems associated with its ScanSnap software when running in Sierra. They include:

  • Some scanned pages in a PDF may become blank, either when opened, after being edited, or when the document is converted to a searchable PDF. These issues can apply to previously scanned documents as well.

  • Black-and-white pages modified in Sierra may be unexpectedly saved as color, which increases the size of PDF files.

  • When exporting images through the Quick Menu, the images may be displayed as blank pages in the preview screen.

  • Using the Merge Pages feature of ScanSnap Organizer may delete some pages.

  • When using duplex scanning with business cards, data on the back sides of cards isn’t imported to CardMinder.

These problems affect documents created with all ScanSnap scanners including the ScanSnap Evernote Edition.

Fujitsu does not provide an estimated date for an update that will provide Sierra compatibility, but we’ll be sure to mention it when it appears. Until then, we recommend that anyone who relies on a ScanSnap scanner delay upgrading. The problems are not guaranteed — one ScanSnap user on TidBITS Talk reported no issues with scans he made with Sierra’s public beta — but because they can also apply to previously scanned documents, they merit serious caution.

If you use a ScanSnap scanner and have already upgraded to Sierra, Fujitsu recommends opening files only with ScanSnap Organizer Preview. And, if you do use other apps to open PDFs, be sure to avoid saving any changes.

After the initial publication of this article, David Hamrick, developer of VueScan, told me that VueScan is compatible with Sierra and supports ScanSnap scanners with its independent drivers. As such, VueScan doesn’t suffer from the problems facing the ScanSnap software, although using VueScan won’t address issues with previously scanned documents.

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