Epson Event Manager on macOS Sequoia & Sonoma: How to Fix Permissions & Button Issues

Apple's latest operating system releases—macOS Sequoia (version 15) and macOS Sonoma (version 14)—introduce aggressive privacy safeguards and sandboxing restrictions. While these features enhance system security, they frequently break legacy background utilities like Epson Event Manager. After upgrading macOS, users commonly report that their scanner is visible in Image Capture, but pressing the physical hardware buttons does nothing, or scanning to a folder fails with an unexplained permission denial.

In this guide, we detail how to grant essential macOS security authorizations to restore seamless one-touch scanning on all Intel and Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4) Macs.

Why macOS Updates Silence Scanner Buttons

To detect when a physical button is pressed on an external USB or Wi-Fi scanner, Epson Event Manager operates a background daemon that monitors hardware input events. macOS classifies this monitoring behavior under Accessibility and Input Monitoring. Whenever a major macOS version upgrade is installed, security privacy databases (TCC) are often reset or invalidated, revoking Event Manager's background monitoring privileges without showing any warning prompt to the user.

Step 1: Grant Accessibility Permissions

1. Click the Apple logo () in the top-left corner and open System Settings.
2. Navigate to Privacy & Security in the left sidebar, then click on Accessibility.
3. In the application list, look for Epson Event Manager.
4. Toggle the switch to ON (Blue). If it is already ON, toggle it OFF and back ON to force macOS to refresh security tokens.
5. If Epson Event Manager is not listed, click the "+" (Plus) icon, navigate to /Applications/Epson Software/, select Epson Event Manager, and click Open.

Step 2: Enable Full Disk Access

When you program a button to save scans automatically to your Documents, Pictures, or Desktop folder, macOS Gatekeeper may silently block file creation:

1. In System Settings > Privacy & Security, click on Full Disk Access.
2. Click the "+" icon, authenticate with Touch ID or your Mac password.
3. Add Epson Event Manager and ensure its permission switch is toggled ON.

Step 3: Allow in Background (Login Items)

macOS Sonoma and Sequoia actively monitor background processes that launch at boot:

1. Open System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions.
2. Under the "Allow in Background" section, ensure the entry for Seiko Epson Corporation or Epson Event Manager is enabled.
3. If disabled, Event Manager will terminate every time you log out or restart your computer.

Step 4: Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) Architecture Verification

If you are running an Apple Silicon Mac, verify whether your installed Event Manager build runs natively or requires Rosetta 2 translation:

• Open Finder > Applications > Epson Software.
• Right-click Epson Event Manager and choose Get Info.
• Under Kind, modern builds show "Universal", operating natively on ARM64 processors without requiring Rosetta emulation.

Step 5: Clean Reinstallation for macOS

If permissions remain unresponsive, perform a clean reinstall:

1. Drag /Applications/Epson Software/Event Manager to the Trash and empty it.
2. Download the latest macOS package from our verified Epson Event Manager Mac Download page.
3. Open the downloaded .dmg disk image, run the installer, and follow the setup wizard.
4. Restart your Mac and authorize the Accessibility prompts when prompted.

Conclusion

By properly granting Accessibility, Full Disk Access, and Background Login permissions in macOS Sequoia and Sonoma, Epson Event Manager will resume reliable background execution, ensuring your scanner buttons respond instantly every time.