In a comment to his ScanSnap iX500 review, some obviously uninformed person wrote this:
I’ve been thinking about the Wi-Fi to [computer] thing, and I really doubt Fujitsu is going to do it. The reason I think that is because I would imagine that they would be afraid of it cannibalizing sales of their network scanners, or might reduce the sales to offices. So, I would be very surprised if they end up adding the ability to scan to a [computer].
That uninformed person was, of course, me. Today Fujitsu has dropped a massive firmware and software update to the ScanSnap iX500 that adds the ability to do wireless scanning to a Mac or Windows computer.
I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the update come through.
Get The Wireless Update
If you aren’t automatically notified of the update, right-click on the ScanSnap icon in your Dock (for Mac users) or System Tray (for Windows Users), go to Help and then Online Update.
Once you do that, it will take you through the update process. You do need to have the iX500 plugged in via USB to set it up.
Set Your Computer Up For Wireless Scanning
As I mentioned, the computer needs to be initially plugged in via USB to set it up for wi-fi scanning. As you are going through the software installation, it should automatically start the ScanSnap Wireless Network Setup wizard.
Once it has been set up, you will see that your Dock icon on the Mac or your System Tray icon on Windows now has a little wi-fi signal.
Scan Wirelessly To Your ScanSnap iX500
Now it’s time to unplug the cord! Take out that USB cable, put some paper into your scanner, and hit Scan.
As long as you are on the same wireless network, and as long as the Wi-Fi switch is on at the back of your scanner, it should find your computer and scan to it using whichever ScanSnap Manager profile you had specified (or the Quick Menu if you roll that way).
Scanning To More Than One Computer
The way the ScanSnap iX500 wireless scanning works, the scanner is “paired” to your computer. If you want to scan to multiple computers, it is doable but not super seamless. I’ll cover that in a future post.
Here is how to change the computer that the iX500 scans to.
The Most Requested Feature
Many people felt that to this point, the iX500 didn’t have “true” wi-fi scanning because it only worked with mobile devices. Wireless scanning to a computer was by far the most requested feature from what I’ve seen.
That feature is now here. Let me know how it works for you. So far, so good for me. My wife says that I am wrong all the time – I’m just happy it is about scanning for a change.
