Question :

I have a Canon CanoScan 5600F scanner that worked great with my previous Mac, but now I have upgraded to a new M1 Mac running macOS 13 Ventura.

I’ve looked on the Canon website and searched the internet, but there is no macOS 13 Ventura compatible driver available for this scanner.

Is there any way to use this CanoScan 5600F scanner in macOS 13 Ventura ?

Answer :

Yes, there is …and it is reported to work on M1 (and M2) Macs also [ thanks ! @Stefan ] :

• goto Canon’s US website : https://www.usa.canon.com
• choose Support > Scanners > Film & Negative Scanner > CanoScan 5600F
• or use this link : https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/scanners/film-negative-scanner/canoscan-5600f/canoscan-5600f?subtab=downloads-drivers
• there, choose the “Drivers & Downloads” tab
• then, choose “macOS Mojave v10.14” (even though your on macOS Ventura v13 – don’t worry) as your operating system and “English” as your language
• then, choose the “Drivers” tab
• now, you will see 2 drivers listed :
  • > 5600F Scanner Driver Ver.14.11.5h (Mac) : msd_-mac_cs5600f-14_11_5h-ea8_2.dmg
    • > ICA Driver Ver.4.1.4a (Mac) : misd-mac-ijscanner2-4_1_4-ea21_3.dmg
• download both of them
  • note that despite the fact that both are versions from 2018, these will still work with macOS 11.0 Big_Sur
• goto your downloads folder
• first, double-click on the file named msd_-mac_cs5600f-14_11_5h-ea8_2.dmg
• this will mount the ScanGear_CanoScan 5600F_141105.pkg
• again, click on that and version 14.11 of the ScanGear driver installer will open
• now, follow the on-screen directions and the latest ScanGear driver will be installed
• then, double-click on the file named misd-mac-ijscanner2-4_1_4-ea21_3.dmg
• this will mount the Canon IJScanner2_040104.pkg
• again, click on that and version 4.1.4 the IJScanner2 driver installer will open
• now, follow the on-screen directions and the latest IJScanner2 driver will be installed
• when done, goto System Preferences > Printers & Scanners
• if the CanoScan 5600F is already listed on the left, click it
• if not, click the +sign (plus-sign) to add the scanner first
• when done, click the CanoScan 5600F in the list on the left
• when the scanner details open on the right, click on the “Open Scanner”-button
• now, the built-in macOS scanner-app will open and it will immediately do a preview scan of whatever is in the scanner

NOTE : you might run into a small problem every once in a while ; when the automatic scanning preview starts, you might get an error saying “Scanner reported an error – Cannot communicate with scanner for these reasons: – Scanner is turned off. – USB cable is disconnected. Please check and try again.” If so, just flip the scanner’s ON/OFF-switch in OFF-position manually and then back into ON-posistie. That should help in making the scanner preview work again.

enjoy 😉