M1 MacBook Pro Sonoma: Image Capture scan error

Question

M1 MacBook Pro Sonoma: Image Capture scan error

M1 MacBook Pro Max running Sonoma

I scanned a bunch of documents last week using Image Capture with no problem from a Dell multifunction laser printer/scanner on my home network. It has worked exactly as I've done time and time before, same as last week.

Tonight, however, when trying to scan a document, it previews the document, lets me select the area and set the specs of the capture, and lets me choose where I want to save the file. I hit scan and the scanner begins to do its thing, humming away.

The filename then appears in the Scan Results box, but only for a split second before it disappears. Then I get the message in the Image Capture window...

Scanner reported an error

An error occurred during scanning.

When I click OK, it pops up one more time where I have to click OK again. No document anywhere to be found.

So far, I've...

Tried the flatbed and the document feeder
Restarted the laptop
Power cycled the scanner
Uninstalled and reinstalled the printer/scanner from the Printers list
Used Terminal to killall "Image Capture" and tried scanning again
Scanning through Preview
Scanning on a different, older 2017 Macbook Air with newly downloaded and installed driver software

The kicker... scanning works as expected using my wife's Lenovo laptop on the same network.

Granted that the printer is about 12 years old, but it's crazy that everything worked perfectly as it should a week ago. Anyone else have this issue?

MacBook Pro (M1 Max, 2021)

Posted on May 13, 2026 9:47 PM

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Answer 1

May 14, 2026 8:58 AM in response to Christian Sebes1

Christian Sebes1 wrote:

• M1 MacBook Pro Max running Sonoma

I scanned a bunch of documents last week using Image Capture with no problem from a Dell multifunction laser printer/scanner on my home network. It has worked exactly as I've done time and time before, same as last week.

So far, I've...

• Scanning on a different, older 2017 Macbook Air with newly downloaded and installed driver software

This implies this 2017 MBAir also failed to scan. Did this 2017 MBAir ever work with this scanner? Or more recently?

If both Macs no longer work, then I would suspect a networking issue is involved since I would not expect the 2017 MBAir to have a software issue if your newer Mac wasn't having issues a week ago. Maybe power cycle your router making sure to wait at least five minutes for it to finish restarting.

Are the two Macs on the same local subnet as the printer/scanner? How are you connecting to it (IP address, DNS name)?

Other possibilities are your router's configuration has changed (sometimes settings can become corrupt even), or maybe your printer/scanner has changed its connection to your router. If it was a custom setup, the printer/scanner may have returned to a default network connection. This could affect just the Macs and not the Windows PC due to the different driver configurations & expectations between Mac & Windows.

Also, can you print to this device from your Mac and it is just the scanning portion which is not working?

Is your Mac using a VPN? Or any anti-virus software, cleaning/optimizing apps, or third party security software?

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

105,869 points

May 14, 2026 4:34 AM in response to Christian Sebes1

Worst case scenario for older scanners

VueScan

https://www.hamrick.com/

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

125,368 points

May 14, 2026 4:29 AM in response to Christian Sebes1

What you omitted is whether you recently updated/upgraded the operating system on that M1 Max and now that vendor driver for that 12-year-old multi-function device is no longer compatible with Image Capture. You also omitted the multi-function device make and model.

Some older devices actually provided a specific ICA driver (in addition to a printer driver) for Apple's Image Capture. It is doubtful that the vendor is still maintaining current driver software for that old device.

A Lenovo running Windows would not have this issue as you have shared. Entirely different driver support. That does not violate the least surprise law.

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