Skip to main content
Back to homepage →

Importing with "Scan" from a ScanSnap scanner imports one multipage document as multiple documents - Knowledgebase / Paperless for Mac OS / Scanners - Mariner Software

Importing with "Scan" from a ScanSnap scanner imports one multipage document as multiple documents

Authors list

When I press "Scan," why does Paperless import multipage scans from my ScanSnap Scanner as individual documents?

Issue


Typically the Scan and Scan Multi import multipage scans to Paperless as follows:

  • Scan: imports multipage scans as a collated (combined) library item. All pages scanned are imported as one library item.
  • Scan Multi: imports multipage scans as individual library items. All pages scanned are imported as separate library items.


For a more-comprehensive list of the results Scan and Scan Multi produce in Paperless, see this knowledge base article.

Occasionally, though, multipage scans imported with the Scan command might import as individual library items.  Although this may be unexpected, the solution may simply be a setting in ScanSnap Manager or Home.


Solution

A common reason for this is that a setting in ScanSnap Manager (which normally controls how multipage scans are imported to Paperless) has changed:


Options in the PDF File format option dialog in ScanSnap Manager/Home preferences (pictured above) control how PDF files resulting from scan jobs are imported to your Mac (and to Paperless). Here is how they work:


  • The option Multipage PDF (whole batch in one PDF) will cause PDFs to be imported to Paperless as collated (combined) library items. This is the default setting for Scan to Paperless.
  • The option Generate one PDF file per [ X ] page(s) will cause pages from a multipage scan to be imported as one PDF for every group of pages entered for [ X ]. If 5 is entered for X, for example, and a scan of ten pages was processed with a ScanSnap scanner, two documents (or library items) would be imported (each containing five pages) to Paperless.

These settings control how documents are imported to Paperless when the Scan command is used.


Steps to Troubleshoot

Use the steps below to determine whether this setting is related to settings in the PDF file format option dialog:

  1. Launch ScanSnap Manager/Home.
  2. Show preferences for the profile you are currently using to import to Paperless (by default, this is the Scan to Paperless profile).
  3. Navigate to the File Option tab.
  4. Under the File Option tab, select Option... This should raise a new dialog.
  5. In the Dialog that appears, check the setting currently selected. Ensure it is set to Multipage PDF (whole batch in one PDF).
  6. If you have made changes to this dialog, click OK and (in the main ScanSnap Manager options window, click Apply.

The next time you import a multipage library item to Paperless from your ScanSnap scanner with Scan, the document should be imported as a collated (combined) PDF.

Helpful Unhelpful

18 of 33 people found this page helpful