I use genius scan but same workflow. It's bulletproof
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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This is the transhumanism I like.
Jokes aside, how did you deal with your papers from the past? I do this with all new incoming mail, but I can't for the life of me find the time to scan the pile of taxes, bills, medical reports, etc. that has accumulated over 3 thousand years of family life.
I took my Very Important Documents!!-folder to a neighbour with a decent scanner. It's not that much, we scanned for an hour or two. Older, less important stuff stays in binders I most likely will never touch. If I do have to look at something from there, I snap a quick FairScan before I put it back. So it's not about perfection, I just try to make my live easier from now on. :)
You could buy an automatic scanner that takes a stack of docs and dumps the files to a network share.
Do you have any particular model in mind? What do you mean by "automatic scanner"? Any scanner I know needs quite a lot of manual preparation to scan a batch of documents.
Epson WorkForce DSβ730N
put 100 sheets on the tray, it scans them all and either puts them all into a single pdf or multiple pdfs. Then you split / merge them in software.
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There are companion apps for paperless (like Paperparrot for iOS) that simplify that process even more.
No need for syncthing.
Or βSwift Paperlessβ on iOS too, at least thatβs what I use
Paperparrot is flawless. The dev is also very responsive and helpful.
They also offer a similarly flawless app called Plappa as frontend for your audiobookserver.
Running both, super happy.
Wait, this is genius. When paperless has processed it and moves the original, it's also removed from your phone, right?
Yes, paperless deletes it from the import folder which is synced with syncthing, so on android the folder is also empty
No, I use a printer/scanner combo for scanning my files. I trigger a shell script via HomeAssistant which starts the scanner, cleans and fixes the order of the pages for two sided documents, and then puts them into the paperless folder.
But your idea is great!
would you mind to elaborate more on the script? Also, what output format do you use from the scanner?
Its a hacked together shell script. I wanted to learn shell scripting, but I should've probably programmed it in python.
But it basically does this:
- scan pages as png via scanimage in gray scale
- convert the image into a high contrast b/w one with image magick
- sort pages if I have to combine two scans (front and back side)
- create a single pdf of all the document pages via image magick
- move pdf to the paperless folder
I won't share it because it's really ugly and some of the functionality can be done with paperless native, like combining the pages of two scans. Which would've been easier.
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Why don't you use the mobile app? Mine works just fine
At least I think it does. Maybe all the docs that I upload are lost. Who knows π
Haha, thanks. I didn't know this existed! I already use Syncthing, so that's no problem. And I like that FairScan rotates my picture and adjusts it's angle. If the Paperless Uploader-app does this as well, I might use it. Taking a look right now!
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Heads up if your Paperless is installed via Docker: be VERY CAREFUL about your database version and do an export often!
Mine has been down for a while because I did a pull and it doesn't support my version of Postgresql anymore. So it's kinda a huge mess trying to figure out how to safely migrate it in the container.
I haven't been able to fix it yet so I've just left it disabled and gone without for a while. It's not fun.
Allegedly if you export from within Paperless, you can just start with a fresh updated database container and import when this happens. Oof.
This is a reminder for self-hosters to put their apps (and their data) on snapshotting filesystems with automatic, regular snapahots turned on; and fix the app versions to at least the major version, across all containers. This should bring similar disruption to bare minimum and makes recovery always possible, without relying on specific app backup features.
I don't think Postgres shouldn't be just left as :latest or anything. At least the way I handle it, DB upgrades require manual intervention.
I just got burned by accidental latest tag on a pg container for Nextcloud. They moved some paths internally and it could no longer find the db.
your version of postgres meaning that you use a db external to the docker container?
No sadly the upgrade path is a bit ducked. Their compose, their versions, still not working without intervention.
Well, crap
Thank you, yes, exactly what I meant. It's a bit baffling such a mature project doesn't have some kind of migration script. :(
I have configured an email address in paperless_ngx and send everything there. The appendix is then tagged as unsorted.
I do something similar but with the ADF scanner on my Brother printer. The scans automatically go to my server which processes them: deskew, combine with previous scan if it has the same amount of pages (because it might be me scanning the front pages first then the back pages), compress. After that, it's put on my NAS. I left the step of importing it to paperless manual, in that I have to copy or move the file from the Scan directory on my NAS to the Paperless ingest directory. This is so that I can first check if the scan came out okay.
Similar approach here:
- Lexmark scanner witg ADF
- Scan to FTP (SftpGO)
- Paperless has the FTP folder as ingest
It doesn't take more than 10 seconds to scan a doc this way.
That's what I do as well. My wife is a teacher and has already trashed heaps of paper handouts she kept for copying. It's all digitzed now and she had a a von client on her devices so she can access it from school
I have yet to use a consumer ADF scanner on a printer that didn't feed the paper at an angle until they are crushed and folded, doesn't matter if the guides are perfectly set for A4 either. It has never worked for me.
I use an hardware scanner which then puts the pdf via ftp on the inbox folder of paperless. So i can also all old stuff
I haven't used FairScan (yet!), how does it compare to OSS Document Scanner? Other than having a much much better name, obviously.
I tried OSS Document Scanner a year ago but never really used it. It has way more features but I didn't need any of them. With FairScan, you just take pictures, give them a name and save them either as a single PDF or a couple PNGs. Repeat if necessary.
Sounds like a great workflow!
Unfortunately, I just can't get syncthing to run in the background of my phone without chewing up the battery.
You can get it to run at time intervals. E.g. once an hour for 5 minutes. That's not bad on battery for me. I actually have mine once every 24 hours for 30 minutes so it can successfully transfer a few gigs of Signal backups.
I will look into this, thank you!
Oh man I just set this up. I just changed to a high deductible health plan with an HSA and need to save all of my medical receipts. I already had paperless set up but i was dreading setting up some automated way of getting files over to paperless. Thank you so much!
I'm using CamScanner, but I have to share every doc to paperless. Should have a look at an automatic ingest as well..
Thank you for introducing me to FairScan! Great app. I have a scanner but being able to snap stuff on the go is so much quicker.
I luckily have a professional document scanner for this, which has wifi and is able to store the PDF on a cloud drive. Started using ASN numbers recently, so I put a sticker on the letter before scanning. The letter gets archived and is found quickly if needed because of the ASN.
Yesterday I wanted to introduce syncthing as my main backup solution. However, I am struggling with setting up the discovery server and want to fix that before installing it on all my devices.
I have the same setup.
My backup is done with Restic. It's simple and that's why it's genious.
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Welp I guess there's another piece of software I have to setup now.. π
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing this flow! π
That's a very cool idea, seems great for receipts and quick stuff.
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