Using a Twain scanner in Yosemite

[unkleE]

He everyone, I have a Macbook running Snow Leopard, and I'm starting to find websites and Youtube won't play any more because my versions of Safari and Flash are old. I have enough RAM to upgrade to Yosemite, so I decided to try it out by installing on a USB drive.

I have done that successfully, and quite like what I see. I can connect my printer OK, but I'm having trouble getting my Canon LIDE 70 scanner to work.

According to what I read on the web (principally Jan Elgil and MacManus), Apple may not encourage Twain scanners any more, and the latest Canon driver for this scanner is for Mountain Lion. But these people say that I can still run the scanner if I install Twainbridge and use the Mountain Lion driver, and/or install some files to use the SANE protocol (which I don't really understand).

I think I have tried everything they suggest, but the scanner, which runs fine in Snow Leopard, is not recognised by Yosemite - it doesn't show up in System profiler or VueScan or anything else.

Can anyone here tell me please how to get this working (otherwise I may not be willing to upgrade to Yosemite)?

Failing that, can anyone tell me what is required for Yosemite to recognise a scanner - what files in what locations?

Thanks.

 

[Command]

I would consider upgrading to Mountain Lion, instead. It'll get you back into the realm of support across the Web but not limit you on your pre-existing options. Honestly, with a Mac old enough to come with (or older) Snow Leopard, you're probably going to be better off in the long run from a performance standpoint, anyway. Unless you actually need something Yosemite offers - your Mac is not capable of many of its flagship features, anyway. Handoff, SMS forwarding, calls from your phone, etc. will not work because it has an older Bluetooth version.

My opinion is that it's worth the $20 to put you in a comfortable place.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion

If you entertain this, be sure to read the page and how it is installed / obtained from the App Store, etc., just so there are no surprises.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd just like to add that I believe the advice given by Command above was sound.

For you, 10.8.5 may be the best option for now...

 

[flur]

If anyone has an recommendations on how to do this in Yosemite, please post them. I'm in a similar situation with my Canon P-215II, but I can't roll back to a previous OS because I have a 2015 machine.

 

[unkleE]

OK thanks. No I don't have any reason to run Yosemite except I want to be able to run video and visit websites without the telling me my Safari is outdated. I'll consider what you suggest.

It would still be interesting to know if I can use the scanner or not.

 

[Dandu]

I use TwainBRIDGE (from this blog : http://janegil.net/2014/01/twain-scanners-in-os-x-maverick/) and a Canon P-208 scanner with no problem with Yosemite.

Just install the TwainBRIDGE from Mountain Lion *and* the TWAIN driver for Mountain Lion and it works for me.

 

[unkleE]

I use TwainBRIDGE (from this blog : http://janegil.net/2014/01/twain-scanners-in-os-x-maverick/) and a Canon P-208 scanner with no problem with Yosemite.

Just install the TwainBRIDGE from Mountain Lion *and* the TWAIN driver for Mountain Lion and it works for me.

Hi Dandu, thanks for offering your help. I'm sorry to delay getting back.

Did you get those two files from the Jan Elgil page? Does the Twain driver work for all Twain scanners? I think I installed a LIDE 70 driver, so I will try what you say if I can figure out how to get the generic driver.

Thanks.

 

[Dandu]

Yep, i have downloaded the file on the website.

It works virtually with all TWAIN scanner, but only if you find a driver (like for Mountain Lion, or Lion). For my Canon, i have downloaded and installed the driver for Mountain Lion and it works.

If there is no TWAIN driver for Mac OS X, there is no miracle : it's "just" a bridge between TWAIN driver and the actual API.

 

[unkleE]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work, then buying Mountain Lion is the next option.