Name: Microsoft Lens: PDF Scanner
Rating: 4.80626 (115710 reviews)

User Reviews for Microsoft Lens: PDF Scanner

4.81 out of 5

115.7K Ratings

3 years ago, BrianKann16

Invaluable, Priceless Camera App that EVERYONE Needs

This App is the camera App we have ALL always needed but couldn’t have known we did. We’ve probably all taken photos of important documents or photographs, articles, even the paused TV screen, and then cropped and cropped and tried to perfect (or correct) the images of. What a time waster! What frustration! Well, with a steady hand (which I struggle to have) you can make PERFECT photo images (like scans, but right from your phone, even from weird angles). You may sometimes need to get the area lighting correct, make sure you aren’t in the light, creating a shadow on your photo, etc. But you will LOVE LOVE this App! I have found, for some unknown (to me) reason, that MOST photos come out best by far of you always use the ‘Business Card’ setting. From no matter how far away. The TV, everything I’ve mentioned above all seem to like the ‘Business Card’ setting the best. Then, using your iPhone’s Photos App you can edit the lighting, after effects, coloring, contrast, sharpness, and whatever. I use this App, Microsoft Lens ALL THE TIME!

7 months ago, Mts0987654

Great app, but not so great with recipes [edited for new version]

This app is fantastic, but it has problems capturing recipes. A killer use case for this is taking pictures of recipes from books or magazines and dropping the captured text into OneNote. The version of Lens that I first used would frequently misread numbers. For example, if the recipe calls for “1/8 teaspoon salt” it might get read as “1/2 teaspoon salt” which, you can imagine, will ruin the recipe. I’ve learned to inspect all numbers in the ingredients and directions to make sure they are correctly captured. The latest update seems to have made progress at reducing these errors, but there’s another issue that hasn’t been fixed yet. The app will sometimes (but not always) read ingredient lists as two columns when they should be read as one column with tabs. For example, if the recipe says: “1 cup Flour 1/2 cup Sugar 2 cups Water” Lens will often read that as “1 cup 1/2 cup 2 cups Flour Sugar Water”. (Sorry, it looks like the app store review won’t let me use tabs or returns here.) It would be very nice if there was a way to tell Lens that the text should be read as one column, not two. Or maybe Lens should have some sort of AI to realize that the text is gibberish if read as two columns but makes more sense if read as one.

5 months ago, dfswan

Good, but hate the poor focus with close captures.

Cam Scanner was one of the first out but they want you to put the scans in their online database. Lens has the ability to put your scans almost anywhere. My biggest complaint is that on my iPhone 14 Pro, (I think all the Pro versions) It doesn’t focus correctly on small scans like business cards or receipts if you get close enough to fill the screen. You are left with three choices. Blurry image, lower resolution image because you need to pull back and not fill the screen, or take a picture with the regular iPhone camera and import it to crop and set the appropriate filters. I have chosen the latter, I’m reminded what a pain it is every time I use it. I love the fact that that you can store the images, particularly in OneDrive, which I believe is truly the best cloud storage. The problem is that even if you have one drive loaded on your phone and are fully logged in, you are required to log in again with your full password. It doesn’t remember the last 100 times you used it with the same OneDrive and the same password.😖 Again, a real pain. Otherwise the quality, functionality and ease of use are good. I was hoping Microsoft would fix the above mentioned issues, but so far no…. I’m hoping for a fix sooner verses later.

4 years ago, Apprat0r

Great scanning app

For documents/pictures/whiteboards. I’ve been using office lens for several years now and have been very happy with the flexibility and the accuracy. I’ve tried many scanning apps and stuck with office lens. I have given 5 stars, until the last update. The one thing that took a turn for the worse is the fact that I can’t adjust the borders with a zoomed in view. Previously I was able to pinch-zoom in while adjusting the borders so that I can see exactly where I’m making the border without losing text. With the latest update I’ve lost the ability and need to guess and hope I don’t lose any text. The auto recognition of borders has gotten better, but still is not accurate always. That’s when I want to use the zoom in. Hope the ability gets added back.

6 years ago, DonnaFlorida5

I’ll keep using my old scanner app

I received a great promo for Lens because I have an office subscription. It made me want to love Lens. But Lens is lacking features that I use all the time when scanning documents. The biggest problem is that it lacks important editing features, such as the ability to change a color document to B/W, and the ability to lighten or darken a document. Second, when I input images from my device (camera roll) into Lens, I must do it one page at a time. I am used to being able to select a number of images at once. (I use that scanner feature frequently to combine PDFs. (I convert the PDFs to images, and then bring the images (PDF pages) into my scanner app and make a new PDF.) Lastly, my old app will capture a page as soon as it detects the edges, without my having to touch the shutter button, but Lens doesn’t. That feature makes it easier to hold the device while scanning and it allows me to scan multiple pages quickly. Lens might offer new functionality for people who want to scan whiteboards. I don’t know and I don’t need that ability. For those of us who deal heavily with documents, Lens needs to step up its game. I can already easily send scans to one note (as an image or a pdf) so switching to Lens would not help me. I will hold off using Lens for now.

3 years ago, mdapa323

I love this app, but...

I really like this app. I've been using it for two years now. First on an Samsung phone, now on a iPhone. I use it everyday to submit assignments for school. There is one thing that I find extremely annoying. When I first got the app on my Samsung new files would just be automatically named what ever the date and time was. This was nice because it meant I never had to name the files and it was easy to figure out when a file was made. When I switched to iOS it worked like this for a little bit, maybe a month or so. But then it broke. Now if I take a scan, the go to the screen where you choose where to save the file to, the will be title is not updated. It shows the title being the date and time of the last time it was updated. The only way I've found to make it update is delete the automaticly set title and leave it blank, it then will title the page correctly. I know that it's just a little bug, but it used to work. I don't remember exactly when this started happening but it was about 8 months ago. Please fix this. It's the only issue with this app that I've encountered.

7 years ago, Easywater

Almost perfect

Everything works well enough for daily uses. I use it to scan and store most paper notes, receipts, documents, magazine clips... Most of the times the app detects the boundaries of the document and automatically crops the scanned image to remove unwanted background. However, sometimes when the contrast between the background and the document is not high enough and/or the light level is low, the app cannot tell where the boundaries are and keeps switching around and snaps on to the wrong boundary lines. I try to move & adjust the phone to different angles & positions to get the app to snap on the correct boundaries but before I can hit the button it switches away to the wrong ones again. If it cannot determine where the correct boundaries are then it should just pick one and allow the user to cycle through the options until he/she finds the correct one. Miscrosoft should add the annotate option after the picture is taken to hi-lite, circle, underline or add a quick note to the scanned image.

6 months ago, Vespuria

Great but stopped working!!

I have been using Microsoft Lens for years and it’s one of the greatest assets I have for getting through books for school. The immersive reader in this app is way more reliable than the in browser one on Microsoft Edge which never seems to work. Just recently however the immersive reader in this app has STOPPED WORKING! Every time I try to open the immersive reader it displays an error message that says “ There was a problem, and we didn't get all the data. Please try again.” This is so frustrating! I tried reinstalling the app several times which would make the immersive reader load but then it WOULDNT READ and just stayed frozen. Then I switched to a different account and when I opened up the immersive reader it asked me to sign in and after I signed in it just asked me to sign in again and again and never actually signs me in, it just keeps giving me a sign in page again. I’m running on iOS 17.4 on an iPhone 14 Pro. Please fix this issue!

4 years ago, Chappighetti

Good but issues

-do a better job of detecting orientation. Sometimes insists on rotating page to landscape. Can’t figure out what’s doing that. So then I have to rotate it post. Which brings me to...... - the touch up icons need to ALL be visible. I’m constantly having to rotate page back to proper orient. But that takes 3!!! Finger taps (not including how many times you rotate.). Once to tap “more” because rotate isn’t visible. Again to tap rotate and AGAINon the view screen so you can get the menu back to where you can select done. Talk about annoying. I’m looking at it right now and you could easily fit all icons AND the done button at same time. It would be so much faster. - also... for the filters, it needs to remember what filter I last selected. I’m scanning 20 pages, they all need the “none” filter because they were light pencil and subject to clipping. So I have to select the filter EVERY TIME?! Why? And again, that means tap filters, tap none, tap again to get out of the menu so you can hit done.... ugh.

4 years ago, hotshot365

So close to be ideal

I love the app on the whole. It does great with documents and it’s edge detection and document filter are great for making it look nice and not scanned. However, I have two annoyances with the app which usually happen with handwritten notes. 1) the app automatically tries to rotate the paper so the first line is flat. This can make handwritten documents look bad because then whole paper is rotated at a weird angle and makes the left margin at an angle. 2) even in document mode where it makes the paper pure white, if the size isn’t a perfect rectangle it will extrapolate the missing parts in an ugly black and white stripped pattern which looks bad and makes no sense. This problem is further exacerbated by issue one because the extra rotation means there is lots of missing parts in the corners and it looks super bad. Update: I tried to email the address you replied with but it says it only accepts mail from inside your organization. Is there an email address I can actually use??? Thanks!

4 years ago, Mekaneck84

Pictures get stuck transferring them.

I’m updating my review but staying with one star. There was an issue where the option to create a text box was disappearing but it has been resolved. The issue I still have, which is more concerning, is that some pictures get stuck in the “transferring” state when trying to save them to OneDrive. You’d expect this to be the most flawless option, since I’m keeping the image in the Microsoft ecosystem. But no, after taking a bunch of inspection photos and uploading them to my OneDrive, I go back to the office to find a few of the thumbnails still showing the “transferring” symbol. In this state you can’t view the picture or re-try. Force close the app, reboot the phone, nothing happens. I left them alone in the state for days, and nothing happened. The only option available was to delete the image. Do I call the customer back and ask them to tear apart their machine again so I can grab the pictures I need? I’m sure if I tell them the Microsoft software I was using is buggy, they’ll happily stop production and take their machine down again for me...

7 years ago, Xctual

It Works

I was actually impressed by this app. I usually use my normal camera to take notes for class, but this app enhances that. The most impressive thing I noticed about this app is how you can easily take a photo from the sides and it straightens it out with no image issues whatsoever. A minor issue I did notice however is that the user would have to manually turn off the Auto setting for the flash for every picture they wish to take. While this might be helpful for lighting in photos, sometimes in certain situations (such as a dark classroom) the flash would not be appreciated by others and forgetting to turn it off might be a little embarrassing. Other than that, this app seems very well made and works as directed. Five stars from me.

5 years ago, ColePar

This app is horrible

Upon initial installation, this app was my lifeline for college assignments but the more I used it the less functional it became. It started without being able to connect to my OneDrive, and then losing camera functionality altogether and now it won’t even run when I try to start it. Absolutely disappointed with the app at this point EDIT: I got a developer response so this is my reply, I’m on iPhone 6s Plus on the latest OS. (Not sure what the number is specifically). I have had camera issues in the past so I don’t believe it is your app not being able to open my camera. But when the app does work, it won’t save any PDFs to my one drive. Even if I uninstall and reinstall. Also even when it doesn’t open my camera, I still have the work around of going through to my camera library, but ever since the last update, the app won’t process me clicking the icons and takes forever to even open it. I’ve never had issues with device operation other than the camera being buggy but all my other apps work fine with no lag whatsoever

4 years ago, Warthorius

Can’t upload to OneDrive!

This type of app should make a tedious, frustrating job easier. Office Lens makes it more tedious and more frustrating. Since first installing the app I was always on edge if I will be able to upload a document with dozens of pages. It randomly asks me to sign in again (even when I am already signed in to multiple Microsoft apps on the same device). Right now I am stuck in a loop where it prompts me to sign in every time I try to upload this document to One Drive, and this is it for me. I am not scanning another 10 pages if I am not sure that I will be able to save them anywhere as a pdf document. This is awfull.

6 years ago, TMF-Mac

Not what it used to be

This has been my go-to app for some time now, and I ever since I began using it, I became a huge fan and have gotten many friends and colleagues hooked on this app. It used to be a 5-star app, but over the past few months it has become hit or miss on scanning documents. When in document scan mode, you visually see it detect all the edges properly; however, when you snap the image oftentimes it now cuts off a significant portion! What gives? I have deleted and reloaded the app, updated iOS, reviewed all settings, and it continues to happen. Previously this worked like magic. I didn't have to be careful of the angle or anything. I could quickly scan any document without fuss and it worked all the time. Sadly it's now less than 50/50 on capturing the entire document (despite it showing the correct edges onscreen). I am truly sad.

3 years ago, Jeff.B.Apple

Bugs in newest version

Bug 1) I have a personal one drive account and a business related account, I used to be able to have both accounts signed in to choose where the file was uploaded, now the app keeps deleting the business account even when it’s the only account I login to after deleting my personal account (and yes I’ve uninstalled and re-installed) Bug 2) When opening a file in the app it keeps wanting to open a web browser on my iPhone instead of natively in the app or even via my one drive which is signed into the same account I’m uploading to Bug 3) In settings there should be an option to set the default scan filters (for example Be able to set the “document” filter for the standard doc, instead of having to select that for every scan)

3 years ago, Himmeldonnerwetter

Good, but no way to apply a filter to all pages at once

I like the app. Very helpful. I would like it better if: 1. it allowed to go beyond 100 pages even or allowed to stitch two or three or … PDF documents together into a single one. 2. With whatever setting you took the picture, you can rectify a less than ideal setting by applying a filter before saving. But if you find that most pages would benefit from i.e. the Document or the Enhanced filter (great filter for mixed text / photo pages btw.) then you have to apply them page by page requiring more than one click per page to do so. It would be a great improvement to me if obe had the option to apply a filter either globally, to all pages or to pre-selected pages.

1 year ago, Agustinyeah

This app has always had my back

You really don’t need a scanning machine if you have a little patience and this app. Most of the time a scanning machine isn’t available so this is all you have to create a pdf anyway. I have used this for years and years and have never ever been disappointed. I do not write reviews but when this app straightened out a picture I took from an odd angle to make a pdf like I was standing in front of the whiteboard automatically, I was moved to write something to show my appreciation. I thought, wouldn’t it be great if it could…but nah it can’t do that…and, lo and behold, it did!

2 years ago, WBSupreme

Almost Unusable

I spent 15 minutes trying to scan four pages of a document this morning through Lens. In addition to needing to lookup how to scan multiple pages into a single document, the default file setting for scans seems to be JPEG and no option to set the default to PDF. Further, though I scanned multiple pages using the "Add" feature, when I tried to export the document, it automatically turned each page into a separate file. When I tried to delete these scans by selecting the specific scans I wanted to delete, hitting the delete icon failed to present an option for actually deleting these scans. I eventually jumped to Genius Scan and got my document scanned and sent to OneDrive in about three minutes. Easy peasy. When I chose to send feedback through the Lens app (which opens a new email draft), I described my experience and submitted it. Less than one minute later I received a message stating that my feedback was "undeliverable" because their address only accepts messages from those in their organization. As an Office subscriber I would like to use first-party apps. However, this experience was substantially more challenging than necessary and makes me wonder whether Microsoft has abandoned this app. I hope it gets better in the future.

1 year ago, AccuracyByVolume

Great app, needs more customization options in settings

Lens is a wonderful app for capturing documents, and images. I travel frequently for work and capturing receipts and all our important documents is important. Lens makes that super easy. Feedback for the developers: 1. Lens defaults to two images and then “resets” back to the main screen. This means I have to manually select the images I was just working on and continue adding images. 2. Give users the option to change the default location in OneDrive. 3. Instead of merely adding “to OneDrive” give users the ability to stick the image(s)/pdf to a specific folder inside OneDrive. Lens already has access to OneDrive so this shouldn’t be a big step…

5 years ago, Left Angle

Was Great... Once

Maybe it’s because my ancient 3 year old iPhone SE updates are interfering; maybe it’s because Microsoft’s updates are making bad things happen, but this once perfect app is no longer so wonderful. The orange outline disappears the moment the shutter button is pressed and the result is haphazard at best. The image captured may be what the entire viewfinder was showing, a portion of what was outlined the split second before the shot was taken or if you’re lucky, you got what you expected. It now takes at least 3 or 4 tries to make a usable image and more than once, I’ve discovered too late that an image I thought had covered the entire document was in fact, cut off at some random line of text. Time for me to start seeking another app. 2 stars because it kinda works... if you’re patient, willing to make several attempts and stay aware.

2 months ago, titounu

Much better than scannable

So far I love this app and it is a lot more flexible and considerably faster then what I had. I used SCANNABLE several times a week for years and I’m truly grateful that they provided a free app. Now they want to charge me over $125 per year , forcing the customer to link the scanner app to Evernote without having made improvements in accuracy, capture and automatic cropping, which was glitchy. Thank you, Microsoft for developing this and please be reasonable in your rates when you eventually charge for your product, I use this mainly to copy my printed sheet music in order to transfer PDFs to my iPad. Marti C

7 years ago, Storm's Other Son

Receipts and More!

Of the all the receipts I have already scanned and are still finding, although I no longer work where I used to, as far as their reimbursable policy goes, whether the supplies that, were needed I did not put in for, end up being a post employment donation to write off next year come tax time or they cut me a check, this application is so awesome! Even more awesome is the fact that it is not only for receipts and has different settings for documents, business cards and others! Impressed - does not do this awesome app justice. Surprised by this additional excellence from Microsoft - not in the least! Thank you!

2 years ago, cPol

Latest update rendered me unable to save or share anything

I use this app on a semi-frequent basis and last made use of it in October. Needed it today and when I try to save or share a new PDF locally, or try to share an old saved document, I get an error along the lines of my "IT group doesn't allow saving or sharing." On a personal, non-corporate device mind you. I can verify it last worried in early/mid-October, so I can only assume it's the latest update that broke it. Frustratingly, there are absolutely no search his on the internet for Lens and the error message I receive, so there's nowhere to go for help. And that basically makes this app useless. Hilariously, the email address listed on Microsoft's support site for Lens doesn't allow incoming emails from people not already in their address book. So, I ask you, what good is that?

3 years ago, Hr...yan

Great app, but...

Too complicated to upload files to cloud. No multiple selection of files to share. When scan is finished, next time you open the app, need to cancel previous scan manually, although it has been saved properly. Orientation is a problem: no manual orientation allowed and the automatic one does not work properly. Flash-on function does not work stable: after the first manual FLASH-on, you need to tap on flash icon again, although the flash-on is there. No function to reduce scan size, the scan of 40 pages turns into ~45MB, whereas the scan using conventional scanners gives couple of MBs with the similar quality. Not possible to scan more than 40 pages.

4 years ago, Lovedunicorn

don’t fail me now

Honestly, over all I really like the application and how it provides the ability to transfer pictures into a pdf format.(which has really helped with school on teams) Recently when saving an image as a pdf and transferring it to OneDrive has not worked. Each time I try it sends me to login to my office350 account and after I login it automatically sends me back. I am not sure if this happens to other people,but I already updated the app and everything so I’m not sure what to do. Please respond to my concerns, due to the fact that I use this for school and it has been the best so far don’t fail me now!😅

4 years ago, chloek200

Works well for my college needs

I have transitioned to online school this quarter and one of my classes needs daily homework and notes turned in in PDF form. I can easily take a picture of my page and export as a PDF file to my onedrive account I already have for school. Since it is automatically on my computer turning in the assignments is then super easy. Also, I trust this app more than the other ones which seem pretty sketchy to me and haven’t worked well for me in the past. Overall, it works well for this weird transition to online and does exactly what I need it to do.

7 years ago, Bors de Ganis

MUST ADD - Import Business Card Scans directly to Outlook

App works great for scanning documents, but for those of us who have a stack of business cards that we want to scan to Outlook contacts, the process is way too complicated. You can scan the business card to OneNote only and in order to then get it to Outlook you must get to a PC, download the scanned card from OneNote (App or Online) to the PC as a .vcf, then open Outlook and import as a separate file. COME ON MICROSOFT!!!!! Now that Office 365 supposedly allows these office apps to work with each other as never before; it seems being able to scan, save, and import from one Microsoft app to another should be much easier. This app should remove my need to purchase a third-party piece of scanning hardware in order to get business cards into Outlook.

6 years ago, VirtualGus

Used to be perfect...

Office Lens has been one of my favorite apps for a long time. I use it mainly for whiteboard pictures and scan documents and receipts. It worked flawlessly for a long time. I can’t understand why break something that works great? One of the many updates all of a sudden makes Lens to not auto-detect the correct doc size anymore. 90% of the times it crops it wrong. This used to work perfect everyday. I’ve tried of course with different backgrounds and light conditions and angles so I’m convinced it’s something in the app. Still a great app but sad to see an app like this to go down from amazing to ok.

6 years ago, Zullnight

One of my Primary Apps

This app is fantastic, use it all the time. Quick, simple, and gives quality results ever time. Even when documents are at an angle and lighting is not what it should be you still get a good result and perspective corrected. The interface for saving, could be improved, bit confusing to get use to and we’re it is going to be saved. But once learnt it is fine and taking quick scans to default location is simple. Changing names latter, is ok but could be improved UI wise Still it is very much a 5 star app!!

4 years ago, Mojo Workin

Not a good app for students

I rarely write review, how ever after using this app for an entire qtr I and totally frustrated and will look for something else. I am required to scan my math home work and submit on line. My math home work regularly goes over 20 hand written pages. I do my my home work in a spiral bound notebook. Every time I try to capture an image the selection box finds the page correctly, and frames the page in portrait as expected, when tap the capture button the image is rotated into landscape. It is very tedious to have to tap several times to get into edit mode so that I can rotate the image back into portrait before capturing the next page I am required to use pdf, I save to my phone how ever once I export it I can not seem to edit it any more on my phone If I wait a couple of days and start the app to capture my next assignment for unknow reason the pages wind up on the old document. I waste a lot of time deleting the old home work pages I expect a lot better from a major office productive app company like micro soft I have take to just using the iPhone camera and use preview on my Mac to edit and conver to pdf

7 months ago, Babyp944

Great app - one major issue

Why does your naming convention insist on using a / to separate day date and year. When most computer programs will not access a / as part of a file name? App would be 5 stars if someone would just think about how things work. When I first started using it it was possible to setup the name structure and it would use that for everything it scanned. Which was great for me as I use it for recording receipts for expense reports. The additional features for white boards etc has been a bonus but it is still my primary resource for my documentation or expenses.

3 years ago, Dcoded585

Great for travel expenses and whiteboarding

I LOVE this app! When I’m traveling it’s makes tracking expenses unbelievably easy to document and email to my expense account. And for whiteboards I’ve always used it to save the messy thought process if a good meeting. Somethings when it’s transcribed to notes you miss how the ideas flowed. My coworker said it looked like I scanned a piece of paper. Also a quick tip to remove glare and bad markers try applying the black and white filter to make the work pop (if you dont need colors).

2 years ago, JandV.Read

Annoying automatic cropping of attached photos to scans

In the last couple of versions of the app, it automatically started cropping pictures that were added to scans. Sometimes we are required to attach as many as 12 pictures to our scans. Then we have to go into each picture and reset the borders of the photos. We are doing this out on the road, and it takes up a considerable amount of time to have to go back and reset each photo. Arrrrgh Microsoft please fix! And just today the app quits in the middle of scans. 17 June 2022 Before these annoyances I would have rated the app 5 stars!

6 years ago, Fatheroftheyear

Great, but serious obstacles...

This app was a lifesaver for expense receipts when I first started using it a couple years ago. I still use it, but I have 2 major complaints: 1) Using it on an iPhone, the app does not stay logged into my Microsoft account, so almost every time I scan something, I have to retype my password to send to OneNote or OneDrive 2) Saving as PDF or to files is not easily accessible The above to problems make me look for a new app every month or so, but it still solves my needs better than others. I love how easily I captures docs for work and home. I just get annoyed at the extra steps I need to take because they can’t solve the login issues

6 years ago, George man22

Where the Heck is Local Storage?

Update: As promised, I’m updating to 5 stars since magically the ability to delete local scans mysteriously appeared. Thank you. I like this app. But please tell me what I’m missing, since these questions appear simple and I could not find the answers anywhere. I save scans to pdf and specify iPhone local storage. Then I send to Dropbox. When I’m done, there does not appear to be a way to delete the PDFs in the app, short of deleting the app and reinstalling. Yes - I tried holding, and swiping every which way. As for where on the iPhone these scans are stored locally, no one seems to know. I’ve looked in Photos, Files and every other location and can’t find where they are stored. This seems a simple question, but Googling this I find others are similarly frustrated. Am I missing some obvious usage paradigm? I’d give this five stars if I could just delete scans from the app.

4 years ago, Diarrhea Madman

Running into a Snag

After installing the app on my iPhone, I did a test scan before scanning the page I wanted to edit using Word. Upon clicking on “done” I was prompted to choose where I’d like to save the file. I choose OneDrive. I was then prompted to sign into OneDrive and did so successfully. I also created a new folder to save my file to. So far so good. Next, when I clicked on “save” there was no response or acknowledgement of any kind-no movement! Not sure if anything took place, I decided to sign into my OneDrive account on my laptop and was happy to discover that the file was there. Thinking that I could live with the minor flaw, I proceeded to scan the actual page I needed to edit. That time, upon attempting to save the file to OneDrive, I get prompted repeatedly to sign into my Microsoft account. What seemed as a promising app initially now appears unusable. Seeing that the app has so many positive reviews, I am open to the issue being on my end but not sure what. I will uninstall and reinstall it to see if that fixes it.

6 years ago, Littlebugs

What happened?! It was great!!

This app was a life saver when for a whole month intensive course of sight translation from English to Spanish and my prof never gave me a heads up on what text pages to adapt for my print learning disabilities!! I needed to have OCR STAT! Then I was able to easily enlarge the text and spaces between the lines and more!! If it wasn’t down I lost the whole class period of note taking, scribbling in key legal and medical terms that can’t be done with Microsoft nor G translate! Did mention it was a 4 week class vs 16 weeks!? I went to use it just now, with a text book page of grammar, the Immersive Reading feature distorts the text, and removes bold print of words. PLEASE please help! And I will happily change my stars and review. I am an adult with print and related dyslexia issues.

3 years ago, Hhshjsjjjjd

Terrible security risks of this app

I just found any scanned files with this app will automatically generate a embedded links and shared online without telling users! I have some files shared online to everyone with the link, either they just get the link by accident or they hacked. It is terrible! Microsoft cannot do this with telling users! There are complaints about this risk hole has been reported several years, and Microsoft just didn’t do anything! Stop using this app until the company really take care of information security of users!

5 years ago, YorkCounty

Reducing rating to 3 stars - shows photo album by default

I had this rated as a 5 star app for years. The latest version displays ones pictures from photos when scanning. In a business setting this is not appropriate; my pictures from a ski trip should not be visible to those standing behind me as I scan a whiteboard. Further, as near as I can tell, this adds little benefit to the usage of the app. When this gets changed I will reconsider my rating. It is now hard to recommend the app.

4 years ago, Azul Delphin

I keep trying others and keep coming back to Office Lens

Not being a Microsoft fan I keep trying other scanning apps in hopes of shifting. For better or for worse, I download and use other apps for a little while, get fed up with their quirks, and reinstall Office Lens. It’s solid and they actually keep improving it (more than can be said for way too many apps). It’s become very smart about document borders and provides far more output options than most (into photos, pdf, mail, etc, etc). All in all, the most useful doc scanner app yet.

2 weeks ago, Wmw2024-1

Not great

Microsoft recently changed the way we sync pictures to OneDrive and OneNote and it’s been frustrating to deal with the changes. - why does it try to auto crop my pictures? It doesn’t work properly and I have to press an extra button to turn it off for each picture. - the share to OneDrive and onenote doesn’t work which is plainly frustrating. - it’s less intuitive in general and more high touch. Why can’t the first/default mode take a regular picture with no auto cropping, and save to my OneDrive or phone? Instead I have to choose photo (the last setting) as opposed to business card or document. It asks me to save to OneDrive then asks me again where I want to save it to…strange.

4 years ago, CreativiTimothy

Almost perfect. Occasionally blurry and tendency to rotate horizontally

It’s great! No watermarks and such. A few flaws however. Unlike all the other apps like Cam Scanner, if you are too close to the paper, it might get blurry. Doesn’t happen with other apps though. Also, whenever I try to take a picture, the slightest movement of the phone makes it rotate horizontally. This is really annoying, I wish I could turn off auto-rotation and always make it vertical

4 years ago, julianflowers

Change the Icon

This is the best scanner on the App Store. I’ve tested them all for work - this one doesn’t require extra steps, very accurate, and easy to save PDF or email. I wish it weren’t the best because the icon is hideous. PLEASE update the icon to be I. Line with the other Microsoft office products, which have sleek, minimalist designs. This app also doesn’t show when you search “scanner” into the App Store which is such a terrible shame. I had to go out of my way to find it. Please change the icon.

2 years ago, edk012

Excellent, but want to be able to…

I would like to be able to set a default file type and location for scanned documents based on the user account. We use Microsoft for our small business and for a non-techie user this app can seem kind of complicated. If I could simplify the doc scanning process by having all scans be PDF and go to OneDrive for the work account then this app would be a no brainer and help keep my business data secure.

1 year ago, SlingGuru

Microsoft’s Lens’ review by small business people

It took a few minutes to understand how to work the App, and the first times I attempted to include the photos of business cards into my contacts App the App dropped/turned off. Luckily, it saved the information so I was able to correctly add the information into my Contact’s App (I believe, because i haven’t check my Contacts’ App yet to verify it worked - because Lens’ request to submit this review popped up while I was about to do exactly that). It took less than five attempts to get this App to work as promoted, so I’m not too bothered by the work I had to contribute to make Lens work with my Microsoft Outlook account. I do hope they keep improving this App, because it would be so helpful to quickly and completely include the information onto our Microsoft 365/OneDrive apps. High hopes for Microsoft’s Lens App! JC, SlingGuru™️

2 years ago, CupOfJoe2012

A Life Changer

This excellent app has replaced my scanner and sped up my work process by about 4x. Image processing can be done super fast in-app and sent to my desktop with a single tap. Scan quality is excellent and the portability of scanning on-the-go from my phone has immensely improved my quality of life as I can now work from truly anywhere. Highly recommend this app for office workers, digital artists like myself, and general ease of living.

6 years ago, [iPapi]

Cannot handle Impressionism/Pointillism

Several museums, multiple failures. Can’t render fine brushstrokes or subtle detail of many impressionist paintings (driven crazy by Monet) taken at museums where it’s allowed. Pointillism will come out looking like random clusters of dots separated by big white areas. End up using the regular camera for these. Works fine for others, although the colors tend to look too bright and more exaggeratedly gaudy than in reality. Do not like how it cuts off parts of picture frames willy nilly. If there are more than one flyers posted, it can’t seem to allow you to pick just one to image. Gets confused. This app is nice when it works, but it could use a lot of refinement.

4 years ago, Lin Lee Chun

Good edge detection, working most time

This app works most time when I need it. The edge detection is better than another app I’m using in my opinion. However, recently when I had an emergency and needed to scan several docs quickly, the app simply crashed and I was not able to restore it at all. I also found when having multiple docs to scan, the workflow was quite crappy and not intuitive. I would have given 4 stars if I did not experience that incidence, which made me decide to delete the app and to try other apps.

2 years ago, HarutReview

I keep needing to re-add my Hotmail account.

This doesn’t remember my OneDrive account settings and I have to re-add my OneDrive account each time with full 2 factor re-authentication. I rely on this app exclusively for PDF conversion and OCR capabilities together with my OneDrive account.... One big functionality missing is ability to choose destination folder when uploading this to cloud and optionally choosing a more descriptive file name... Alternatively or in addition to choosing destination folder it would be nice to be able to open whatever folder the file has been uploaded to in the native OneDrive app to be able to rename the file or move or copy it to another folder.

Description

Microsoft Lens (formerly Office Lens) trims, enhances, and makes pictures of whiteboards and documents readable. You can use Microsoft Lens to convert images to PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files, digitize printed or handwritten text, and save to OneNote, OneDrive, or your local device. You can even import images that are already on your device using Gallery. PRODUCTIVITY AT WORK   • Scan and upload all your notes, receipts, and documents • Capture whiteboard at end of the meeting to keep those action items on track • Scan printed text or handwritten meeting notes to edit and share later • Keep your business networking contacts handy by scanning business cards and saving them to your contact list • Choose to save as PDF, Image, Word or PowerPoint formats into OneNote, OneDrive, or local device as location PRODUCTIVITY AT SCHOOL  • Scan classroom handouts and annotate them in Word and OneNote • Scan handwritten notes to digitize and edit later (works with English only) • Take a picture of the whiteboard or blackboard to reference later, even if you're offline • Keep class notes and your own research organized with the seamless integration with OneNote Join the beta program at this link to get an early preview of the next version of Microsoft Lens and help make it better by providing us feedback: https://testflight.apple.com/join/aRahHf00