PDFs not coming into DTPO scannable from ScanSnap

When I scan a document from my ScanSnap s1300i and it goes into DTPO, it is not scannable. However, when I look at the doc it saved in Finder outside of DTPO, it is scannable. Also, if I try to convert that document within DTPO to scannable, it doesn’t work. I’m on MacOS 10.12.2.

When you say “scannable”, do you mean OCR to PDF? Due to Sierra’s PDF bugs, ScanSnap and other PDF app developers have had problems working with PDF and have needed to roll out updates. I did download ScanSnap updates from their website and now don’t have any problems.

That’s a severe bug of 10.12.2. Scanning/converting TIFF/PNG/JPEG documents instead of PDF documents should work around this. In addition, please disable the option to enter metadata after the recognition (see Preferences > OCR).

The upcoming version 2.9.9 will include workarounds for this major bug of 10.12.2 but this bug affects also other PDFkit applications like Preview.app.

Mine is not working either. I have had this problem for awhile now off and on. I have the latest
Scansnap ScanSnap Manager for Mac Update (V6.3L60) and DTPO version 2.9.8 Please help with fix.

Best regards,

PA

Correct. ScanSnap seems to be working correctly. If I change the app in the ScanSnap setting to Preview, it works OK. The problem seems to be in DTPO.

I was just taking the file that ScanSnap saved and dragging it into DTPO as a workaround. Is there any issue with that?

Should be definitely safe as long as you don’t edit it.

Gentlemen from Devonthink Support:

Do you find a way to convert OCR the already scanned pdf files?

Please say yes, because the past two days I scanned the past 4-5 years of pension agreements, salary statements, tax stuff and a bunch of other documents via Scansnap.

:open_mouth:

(All the older documents I scanned some 4-5 years ago via ScanSnap are OCRed.)

Just to add to this… I have a slightly different workflow but perhaps it’s a related problem?

When I use “Import Images (with OCR…)” my PNG files are successfully converted to searchable “PDF+Text” files as before.

However, when I then try to merge one or more of these “PDF+Text” files they lose the text and become plain old “PDF” again — this never used to happen.

My workaround is to right click and “Convert to Searchable PDF”. This works although the metadata in DTPO incorrectly labels it a "PDF rather than “PDF+Text”.

One more inconsistency… if I try and highlight text in a “PDF+Text” file, the moment I save DTPO again incorrectly changes the label to “PDF” (although text is still searchable!)

Hope this is helpful!

@qwertzy0815: As cgrunenberg noted, we are working on fixes in the next release. Also note, our team is enjoying some well-deserved holiday time. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

We have no sense of what Apple’s doing. Note: The problem doesn’t destroy the scan. It removes the OCR layer. As a precaution, you could keep the documents and rescan (though I personally suggest that anyways, regardless of this issue).

The third public beta of 10.12.3 seems to fix this.

That’s good. Where does one find this public beta. I have to do some OCR right about now.

Declan

That would be Apple: beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

However… macOS 10.12.3 is a beta release and should NOT be used in mission-critical or production environments, nor should it be expected to behave as expected. Betas are a moving target code-wise. Again, you should NOT run beta operating systems on a machine you need to be working.

That’s true. I got confused there a minute. Thanks.

Declan

It looks fine here but you really should check for yourself too.