When disaster strikes, simply boot from your backup and get back to using your Mac. At your convenience, replace the failed hard drive and then let CCC restore the OS, your data and your settings directly from the backup in one easy step. Any backup application can save your stuff. A CCC bootable backup will save your productivity too! Carbon Copy Cloner, which is also called CCC, is an application for Mac OS X. It can be used on Mac for data backup and restoration, hard drive copy and clone. Most importantly, it can create bootable backups. When disasters happen on your hard disk, you can boot the Mac from your backup and keep working. Hoping to get an answer about a couple questions I have with CCC. I plan to migrate to it to use as my backup solution. I have long just made a literal drag-and-drop copy of my most important external drives to a hard drive every quarter or so as 'backup,' but I've decided that I. Note: When you open CCC on your backup volume, CCC will prompt to guide you in setting up a restore task, in which case the instructions here are redundant. If you decline this offer, CCC will indicate that your regularly-scheduled tasks are suspended. If prompted, choose the option to leave your tasks suspended. Carbon Copy Cloner is running all created jobs safe, easy and fast. A detailed interface showing the set job(s). Loads of options are available and a bootable clone is also part of the package. Carbon Copy Cloner is the easiest backup utility, not complaining about authorization issues with external discs.
CCC 5.1.23+ can make bootable backups of Big Sur on Intel-based Macs.
Update Nov 24:CCC 5.1.23 can now make bootable backups of a Big Sur startup disk on Intel-based Macs. Support for System volume cloning on Apple Silicon Macs is disabled for now because Apple's APFS replication utility does not currently work on that platform. When Apple fixes that, we'll post an update to CCC that restores support for making bootable backups on Apple Silicon Macs.
CCC is a native application on Apple Silicon and is 100% compatible with Apple Silicon Macs
CCC will automatically proceed with a Data Volume backup when backing up an APFS Volume Group on Apple Silicon Macs — that's a complete backup of your data, applications, and system settings. If you would like to make your Apple Silicon Mac backup bootable, you can install Big Sur onto the CCC Data Volume backup. Please keep in mind, however, that your CCC backup does not have to be bootable for you to be able to restore data from it.
With the announcement of macOS Big Sur, Apple has retired Mac OS X (10) and replaced it with macOS 11. As with every upgrade since the original release of Mac OS X, we have to make changes to CCC to accommodate the changes in this new OS. As the numeric change would suggest, though, this is the biggest change to macOS since Apple introduced Mac OS X roughly 20 years ago. The system now resides on a 'Signed System Volume'. This volume is cryptographically sealed, and that seal can only be applied by Apple; ordinary copies of the System volume are non-bootable without Apple's seal. To create a functional copy of the macOS 11 System volume, we have to use an Apple tool to copy the system, or install macOS onto the backup.
Does this mean that we can no longer have bootable backups?
I can certainly understand why people are concerned about the future of this solution. Thanks to these massive system changes and some bugs in the version of Big Sur that Apple intends to ship, nobody can make a proper copy of the System volume right now, not even with Apple's proprietary utilities. Based on that statement alone, and a suggestion from one of my competitors to just give up and use Time Machine instead (which does not make bootable backups, nor back up the System), someone could falsely conclude that it's impossible to have a bootable backup.
I think that pessimistic conclusions are also fostered by a concern that Apple is trying to turn macOS into iOS, or otherwise merge the two platforms. On top of that we're in the midst of a pandemic, and one would hope that Apple would cool their jets and defer these massive changes for a year. But no, we're not just getting a massive new OS this year, we're getting a new hardware platform too! We're seeing a lot of change at a time where we could really use some stability.
The changes in Big Sur definitely present some new logistical challenges, butyes, you can have a bootable backup of macOS Big Sur. Right now you can install Big Sur onto your CCC backup to make it bootable, and in the future we'll use Apple's APFS replication utility (ASR) to clone the Big Sur System volume. Apple has assured us that they are working towards fixing the problems in ASR that prevent it from cloning the Big Sur System volume.
Does my CCC backup have to be bootable for me to restore data from it?
No. Bootability is a convenience that allows you to continue working if your startup disk fails, but it is not required for restoring data from a CCC backup. You can restore individual folders and older versions of files (i.e. from snapshots) using CCC while booted from your production startup disk. CCC backups are also compatible with Migration Assistant, so you can use Migration Assistant to restore all of your data to a clean installation of macOS (e.g. on a replacement disk).
Here's why I'm really stoked about this new, 'proprietary' macOS, and optimistic about the future of bootable backups
Every year we spend hundreds of hours making changes to CCC to accommodate the new OS. Every year. CCC isn't like other apps that can easily roll with the changes; our solution is tied so closely to the logistics of the startup process, and that happens to be something that Apple has been changing a lot since the introduction of APFS. The logic changes required to accommodate APFS volume groups alone are mind blowing. All of that time spent is subtracted from the time we can spend on feature work. To put it plainly, we spend about a quarter to half of our year just making CCC work with the next year's OS. That's not a shiny new feature that users can swoon about (and pay for!), it's typically thankless work, and – fair or not – work that users have come to expect us to provide for free.
What if we didn't have to take the responsibility of making the startup logistics work on the backup disk? What if Apple provided that part of the solution? What if all we had to do was make the best backup of your data, apps and system settings, and then let Apple handle the logistics of the System? We'd be dreaming, right?
In fact, Apple has been making key parts of the startup process proprietary for years, but they've also been developing functionality within macOS that handles the proprietary parts. All the way back to the beginning of Mac OS X, in fact, we'll start with the 'bless' utility, which makes changes to the volume headers to make a volume bootable. We've been using bless for 20 years! Over that time bless has been adapted to the changing OS and hardware landscape, because Apple uses it too. With the introduction of APFS, we've had to leverage more Apple utilities; primarily diskutil, a command-line version of Disk Utility. We really started leaning on diskutil in Catalina for the manipulation of APFS volume groups. Finally, in macOS 10.15.5 we got the 'opportunity' to field test another Apple utility that has lurked in macOS since Mac OS 9: Apple Software Restore (ASR). ASR is a utility that Apple has used in factories to 'stamp' the system image onto every Mac, and more than a decade ago I developed a mass deployment solution around that utility. Like with the bless utility, Apple has been adapting ASR for APFS, and Apple is going to make ASR work with Big Sur too.
In the near future, I expect to be able to leverage ASR within CCC (again) to clone the Big Sur System volume, and then use our own file copier for maintaining backups of the data that actually matters – your data, applications, and system settings. That would create the perfect division of responsibility: Apple is responsible for the copying of its proprietary OS, and CCC is responsible for the backup of your data. All of this, though, will be neatly wrapped in the Carbon Copy Cloner bootable backup solution.
We need to share our concerns productively with Apple
It's easy to complain about how things don't work the way they used to (go ahead and get me started on Big Sur's new alert dialogs and progress indicators!). Rather than complaining, or giving up, though, we need to make it clear to Apple that we want these solutions, and we need to make it clear when they don't work. We can do that with bug reports, and to that end, we've been very transparent about our bug reports to Apple on issues within macOS that affect CCC, e.g.:
But we can also send a clear message to Apple with our choices. If Apple ships macOS Big Sur without fixing the underlying utilities that facilitate creating a bootable backup, you can choose to defer the upgrade. There is no urgency, no impetus to upgrade to macOS Big Sur. If we defer the upgrade choice, that sends a clear message that we're willing to wait for Apple to deliver quality software, rather than hitting an artificial deadline with an OS that's not ready.
In the meantime, if you're an early adopter by choice or by profession, you can still make your CCC backups bootable. CCC will automatically handle the logistics of making a complete backup of all of your data, applications and system settings. Once you have that, simply install Big Sur onto your backup to make it bootable. Again, we're planning to automate that part of the procedure in the future, but we've tested this scenario extensively and we're prepared to support it.
CCC 5.1.22 is qualified for use on macOS Big Sur, and this update is free for all current CCC v5 license holders. We have some additional resources that folks should check out as well as they consider the Big Sur upgrade:
Some Big Sur startup volumes don't appear in the Startup Disk Preference Pane
In the past, the Startup Disk Preference Pane would list all available startup volumes, including volumes cloned by CCC (whether CCC used ASR or its own file copier). Some Big Sur cloned volumes do not appear in the Startup Disk Preference Pane, despite being perfectly bootable.
We have reported this issue to Apple (FB8889774) and we are currently awaiting a response.
Workaround: To boot from the cloned volume, restart your Mac while holding down the Option key, then select the cloned volume in the Startup Manager. When your Mac has completed booting, you can optionally choose to set the startup disk to the current startup volume (i.e. if you want the Mac to always boot from the cloned volume).
CCC will not update the System volume on a Big Sur bootable backup
Starting in macOS Big Sur, the system now resides on a cryptographically sealed 'Signed System Volume'. That volume can only be copied using Apple's proprietary APFS replication utility ('ASR'). Right now, ASR will only copy whole volume groups (System and Data), we can't choose to clone just the System volume. As a result, every time an OS update is applied to the source, we would have to erase the whole destination volume (including any existing snapshots on that volume) just to update the system on the destination.
To avoid deleting your snapshots and the rest of your backup, CCC will not update the System volume on the destination when System updates are applied to the source.
We made a feature request to Apple in September 2019 (FB7328230) to allow ASR to clone just the System volume. Apple's APFS team acknowledged the request in June 2020 and clarified the requirements, and now we're waiting on the implementation.
Our recommendation: We recommend erasing the destination only for the purpose of establishing the initial bootable backup. CCC can then use its own file copier to maintain the backup of your user data, applications, and system settings. If you would like to update the OS on the backup volume, you can boot your Mac from the backup and apply any updates via the Software Update preference pane in the System Preferences application. This is not something that we anticipate you would need to do frequently, nor even proactively. You could apply updates before attempting to restore from the backup, for example, if that need ever arises.
Apple Software Restore doesn't yet support the storage in Apple Silicon Macs
In the current shipping version of macOS Big Sur (11.2.3), Apple's ASR utility cannot replicate the startup disk in an M1-based Mac. Attempting to do so results in an error:
'Apple System Restore Tool': Source volume format not yet supported in this version of macOS
Ccc Backup To Cloud
Apple is aware of the problem and is working towards resolving it for a future update to macOS. CCC 5.1.23+ will automatically perform Data Volume backups on M1 Macs and avoid any attempts to copy a System volume on those Macs — that's a complete backup of your data, applications, and system settings. If you would like to make your Apple Silicon Mac backup bootable, you can install Big Sur onto the CCC Data Volume backup. Please keep in mind, however, that your CCC backup does not have to be bootable for you to be able to restore data from it.
When Apple posts an update to macOS that resolves the ASR problem, we'll post an update to CCC that adds back support for copying the System volume on these Macs.
Finder will not show, nor allow you to set custom icons on other Catalina and Big Sur startup disks
Finder will show and allow you to customize the volume icon for your current startup disk, but not for other Catalina- or Big Sur-bearing startup disks that your Mac is not currently booted from. This problem is not specific to CCC backups, but we see this frequently because CCC creates bootable backups. This problem is the result of a design flaw in the implementation of custom icons in an APFS volume group. Up to macOS Catalina, the custom volume icon is stored in a file at the root of the startup disk named '.VolumeIcon.icns'. To keep the System volume read-only, yet allow the apparent modification of this icon file, Apple chose to create a symbolic link at the root of the startup disk that points to System/Volumes/Data/.VolumeIcon.icns. For the current startup disk, this path resolves correctly because the Data member of the volume group is mounted at /System/Volumes/Data. That's not the case for external volumes, those Data volumes are mounted at /Volumes/CCC Backup - Data (for example). As a result, the symbolic link to .VolumeIcon.icns is unresolvable for any volume that is not the current startup disk.
Ccc Backup Mac
We have reported this issue to Apple (FB7697349) and we are currently awaiting a response.
Other Catalina and Big Sur startup disks can't be renamed in the Finder
Finder will let you rename the current startup disk, but you won't be able to rename any other startup disks that have an installation of Catalina or Big Sur because the System volume is mounted read-only.
Solution: Unmount and remount the volume in Disk Utility, then right-click on the volume in Disk Utility's sidebar and choose the option to rename the volume.
We have reported this issue to Apple (FB8912480) and we are currently awaiting a response.
The System volume is not encrypted when FileVault is enabled on a Big Sur startup disk
This is not a bug, this appears to be a deliberate change on macOS Big Sur. When you enable FileVault on a Big Sur startup disk, the System volume member of the APFS volume group is not encrypted. Considering that this volume is identical on all Macs, encrypting its contents is not going to prevent someone from knowing what's on it, so the encryption does appear to be unnecessary. There is one undesirable effect of this change, however, regarding an encrypted, bootable backup disk. When you attach the device to your Mac, the System volume is mounted automatically, regardless of whether you unlock the associated Data volume. If you specifically choose to not unlock the Data volume, there are three results that range from confusing to annoying to alarming:
- The volume appears to be mounted in the Finder, despite not wanting to mount it
- None of the data on the volume is accessible because the Data volume isn't mounted, so you might be led to believe that your data has been lost
- There is no apparent way in the Finder to get the Data volume unlocked and mounted
You can unlock and mount the Data volume in Disk Utility to access the data. If you provided the volume's password to CCC, then you can simply run your CCC backup task and CCC will automatically unlock and mount the Data volume.
We have reported this issue to Apple (FB8918177) and we are currently awaiting a response.
Apple's SMB filesystem client causes system stalls on M1 Macs, leads to kernel panics
Ccc Backup
We have received several reports from M1 Mac users of kernel panics that occur while copying files to an SMB-mounted NAS volume. The kernel panic reports have confirmed that the SMB filesystem client (implemented via the smbfs.kext kernel extension) was stalled, which led to a 'watchdog' panic. These panic reports are automatically submitted to Apple, so we can presume that Apple is aware of the problem and working on a solution.
Ccc Backup Camera
Workaround: Users have reported that using AFP rather than SMB consistently works around the panic (in cases where using AFP is an option):
Ccc Backup Big Sur
- Eject the NAS volume if it's currently mounted
- Choose 'Connect to Server' from the Finder's Go menu
- Type in 'afp://{server address}' to connect to the NAS volume via AFP
- Open CCC and select the applicable backup task
- Drag the currently-mounted NAS volume (or folder or disk image on that volume) onto CCC's source or destination selector (whichever is applicable for your particular task)