Pixma MG3020 still won't scan from Mac "Image Capture"

[Asio]

My two Mac computers are unable to scan documents using Mac Image Capture. I've already downloaded drivers which I THINK are correct, but I don't know for sure. I'd be happy to solve this problem with just one if that's the best I can achieve.

I regularly use my 2012 MacPro (tower) to scan documents, have done so from the time I bought the MG3020. After installing a newer (old) operating system - Mojave - on the MacPro, the Image Capture program reports an error:

"Scanner reported an error....A required file is missing or corrupted, or settings are incorrect. Try the installation again.

Since scanning documents continues to be a necessity for me, I decided to try scanning from my MacBook Pro (laptop) currently running on the High Sierra operating system. That is the OS which had been fine on the MacPro tower machine before the OS update.

The very same error message appears when I open Image Capture on the laptop. 

My need for scanning documents is becoming more critical in the coming two weeks. Nothing I have tried has made a difference.

The key question is this: what "required file" is missing or corrupted, and is it the Canon driver or something the Mac application?

[Patrick]

Hi Asio,

Have you downloaded the ICA driver from the Support page of your PIXMA MG3020?

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/printers/inkjet-multifunction/mg-s...

Have you clicked on the Software tab, downloaded and installed IJ Scan Utility2 and then attempted to scan using that application?

https://ij.manual.canon/ij/webmanual/ScanUtility/M/MG3000%20series/2.0/EN/SU/Top.html

[Asio]

I did finally find a download that allows me to scan from the MacPro using Image Capture. It was a startlingly long and confusing download.

Part of that process required me to print out a page which would then be used for aligning the print head. I printed it, placed it on the glass for scanning, and waited for another step instructing me to do that scan.

None came.

Later, when I looked carefully at the printed "target", I saw that I needed to press a button on the scanner rather than activate scanning using screen prompts. There were none directing me to do that manually.

That was a major failing of the install process, an error of the design of the "installer" to require user to watch the screen for prompts, leaving user waiting for an instruction that never came to activate the scan MANUALLY. How hard would it have been to have an instruction on the screen to scan manually? Typical poor design by Canon.

At that point I moved on, expecting some later instruction about making the scan (which never came).

Eventually, the download launched into something called "Image Garden" with no explanation of what it was or why it was part of the download or why I might want it. I still don't know what that was. I responded in whatever way needed to proceed, not fully understanding the purpose. THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN SPECIFIED AS OPTIONAL with AN EXPLANATION OF WHAT IT WAS. It took so long, like 20 minutes, that I finally got disgusted and cancelled it. 

After escaping the gauntlet of this poorly explained installer, I was able to use the Image Capture ap on my Mac. Thankfully. 

I have not tried the same on the MacBook Pro. But before I try this install on that machine, I will work on getting the MG3020 to work wirelessly with the MBP. That's because, when I first bought this printer a few years ago and the wireless didn't work, two different Canon tech support agents FAILED to make the printer work wirelessly with the MBP. They just gave up! Hard to believe, I know, but that's exactly what happened. If they could not guide me through the set up, how much chance to I have getting it to work now, a few years later?

I am so over Canon.

[Asio]

Update on wireless operation:

I did finally get to a support technician, but only by calling the number for sales and explaining that WHEN I FIRST RECEIVED the MG3020 a few years ago, that two different technicians GAVE UP because they were unsuccessful in providing me with instructions for successfully enabling wireless use from my laptop. Fortunately, a kind woman who received my call last week was willing to send me to a technician who guided me through the steps to enable wireless operation. The MG3020 now does function wirelessly.

That technician then forwarded me to a "pro" support tech to pursue problem 2 – the issue with using my Pixma Pro 9000 Mark II printer, which is no longer supported by Mac Mojave or later operating systems.

He told me that he could only help me if that printer was "registered" (which it was), and pay a fee which I would have accepted.

But he told me that the Pro 9000 was not registered to my account. He assured me that he was looking at the "back end" of the record of my account, which I had established shortly after that system was first  rolled out. He said the system did not show the Pro 9000 printer as being registered. I repeated my assurance that the Pro 9000 had been registered, but he was firm in his position. So we were at a standoff;  there was nothing more that I could do but accept his finding and end the call to go add the Pro 9000 to my account.

When I did, the system told me that the serial number I had just entered was ALREADY REGISTERED, just as I had told the pro level support agent. Notice who was wrong here.

That reminded me that when I first received the MG3020 and promptly set out to register it on my account, the system told me that the serial number that I was seeing on the printer DID NOT EXIST. No matter that I was looking straight at it, in good light. I tried several times to no avail. The object plainly visible in front of me – with its factory installed serial number label – was not really there.

It took several phone calls and probably an hour of my time to get that resolved, so the MG3020 is now officially recorded on my account. I can't remember what kind of flimsy explanation they had for why the number I was reading directly from the label was not correct. What a waste of my time.

I have only two Canon products, the aforementioned MG3020 and Pixma Pro 9000 Mark II. 

The fact that BOTH of these products are encumbered by mistakes in Canon's account system shows how broken that system is.