Connect & choose a scanner
Detect scanners, pick the right device, and use diagnostics when one doesn’t appear.
To scan, Scanix Desktop first has to find your scanner. This page walks you through detecting connected devices, choosing the one a job should use, and recovering with built-in diagnostics when a scanner doesn't show up. Once a device is selected, Scanix figures out how to talk to it for you — you never pick a driver protocol by hand.
Scanner support is Windows-only. Scanix talks to scanners over the standard Windows driver protocols, so a connected USB scanner with its manufacturer driver installed is the prerequisite for everything below.
Detect a scanner
Open the Scanner page. Scanix probes for connected devices automatically the moment the page loads, so most of the time your scanner is already listed under USB Scanner with a green dot beside it. If it isn't, run detection yourself.
Connect the scanner
Plug the scanner into the PC over USB and make sure it's powered on. Install the manufacturer's Windows driver if you haven't already — Scanix relies on that driver being present.
Open the Scanner page
Go to the Scanner page. Detection runs on its own; while it works the device area shows Detecting....
Screenshot placeholder — scanning-scanners-and-sources-01: the Scanner page USB Scanner panel with one detected device and its green status dot.
Re-run detection if nothing appears
If no device is found, the panel reads No scanner detected. Connect a USB scanner and click detect. Click Detect Scanners to probe again. When devices are found, Scanix confirms with Found N scanner(s); when none are, it shows No scanners detected.
Choose the device and scan
Detected scanners are listed by name in the USB Scanner panel. Click Scan to start a capture with the connected device. For a template-driven capture, use the per-template Scan from Scanner action, which shows the connected scanner's name and is disabled (greyed out, labelled No scanner detected) until a device is found.
After you pick capture settings and start, pages flow straight into the Viewer. To set resolution, colour mode, paper source, and duplex before a free-form scan, see Scan settings.
Scanix auto-routes the backend for you
You never choose a driver protocol. Scanix talks to scanners through two backends — TWAIN, the industry-standard Windows driver protocol, and WIA, the older Microsoft API used as a headless-friendly fallback for scanners whose TWAIN driver behaves poorly unattended. The scan router picks the right backend per scan, invisible to the operator.
There is no "TWAIN vs WIA" switch to toggle and no "advanced" mode to find. Connect the scanner, pick it, and scan — the routing happens underneath.
Canon imageFORMULA / DR scanners
Canon imageFORMULA DR-series scanners (for example the DR-S, DR-C, DR-G, DR-M, and DR-F families) are driven through Canon's own engine so their feeder features land correctly. In particular, duplex — front and back captured in a single pass through the feeder — routes to the Canon engine, and pages stream live: each sheet appears in the Viewer as it feeds, rather than waiting for the whole stack to finish.
Canon hardware text-orientation is not validated for customer use. The scanner's hardware feature that rotates upside-down or sideways pages upright during capture is wired but has not been confirmed on a current device, so it is not offered as a supported option. To straighten pages, use Scanix's own Auto-rotate on a template's Scan & Image tab instead — see Scan settings.
Run Diagnostics when a scanner doesn't appear
If detection keeps coming up empty even though the scanner is plugged in and powered on, run the built-in probe. In the USB Scanner panel (when no device is listed), click Run Diagnostics. While it works the button reads Probing..., then a report appears in place.
The single most common cause of an "invisible" scanner is a driver bitness mismatch: Scanix is a 64-bit application and needs a 64-bit scanner driver, but only a 32-bit driver is installed. Diagnostics calls this out directly.
Run the probe
Click Run Diagnostics. Read the report top to bottom — each line tells you how far the scan path got.
Screenshot placeholder — scanning-scanners-and-sources-02: the Run Diagnostics report listing TWAIN DSM, Sources visible to DSM, 64-bit drivers, and 32-bit drivers.
Read the report
The report lists, in order:
- TWAIN DSM — whether the Windows driver manager was located (or not found at any candidate path).
- Sources visible to DSM — how many scanners the driver manager can see.
- 64-bit drivers — registered 64-bit drivers, or none registered.
- 32-bit drivers — registered 32-bit drivers.
- Last error — the most recent failure, if any.
Fix a bitness mismatch
If the report shows 64-bit drivers: none registered while a 32-bit driver is present, Diagnostics flags it plainly: wrong bitness! Install the 64-bit driver. Download and install the manufacturer's 64-bit Windows driver, then click Detect Scanners again.
Troubleshooting
For wider scan failures — pages not arriving, the dialog hanging, or capture errors — see Scanning issues.
Next steps
Scan settings
Set resolution, colour mode, paper source, and duplex before you scan.
Scanning overview
How capture, import, and processing fit together in Scanix.
Scanning issues
Fix detection failures, hangs, and capture errors.