Using ScanSnap S510M on macOS Catalina

Question

I have an old Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M scanner that works perfectly well from a hardware perspective. However, as of my upgrade to macOS Catalina, the software no longer works, which effectively bricks it. Per Fujitsu's support page on the question:

The ScanSnap software (*) is not available on macOS 10.15 Catalina. To keep using your ScanSnap, use it on the current version of macOS. When you update your macOS, please consider purchasing a ScanSnap that is currently available.

Details

The ScanSnap software (*) is not available on the macOS as it does not support any 32-bit applications.（No further updates will be provided to the ScanSnap software.）

If you will use macOS 10.13 or earlier, you can keep using ScanSnap S510M on the OS. When you use macOS 10.14 or later, please consider purchasing a ScanSnap that is currently available.

(*) e.g. ScanSnap Manager

Is there any way to keep using ScanSnap Manager S510M in macOS Catalina?

Answer 1

Here's a solution that worked for me - I installed MacOS Lion in Parallels (running on my Macbook Pro Catalina) and was able to get back to the same functionality from the original supported Scansnap software from Fujitsu.

Note: I tried a lot of different versions of MacOS and Lion was the only one that worked without issue. YMMV with other versions of MacOS.

Answer 2

Per this page on Apple's discussion forums:

Hamrick Software, maker of VueScan scanning software, supports the S510M as well as too many others to count.

You can download VueScan here. It's got a free version that puts a watermark on scans and a paid version that doesn't. The watermark-free paid versions cost $40-$80, although at those prices it isn't all that much more to just buy a new scanner.