Apple Senior Support telling me Restore function doesn't work in Big Sur??

[wedgeman]

I've got 2 external USB drives (2TB ea, SSD).

Both are formatted APFS

I want to Restore one to the other, using Disk Utility.

It's failing consistently.

Finally got Apple on the phone to get help on this.
After going thru two techs who didn't understand that Disc Utility is an app (I swear their tech support is worse than I've ever seen in 35 years of being a Mac user), I finally got a "senior support" person, who told me I wasn't supposed to be able to format or erase external drives.

After getting a (somewhat) more competent support person, I've now been told that Big Sur doesn't support Restore from one volume to another volume in Disk Utility.

Please tell me this is just a training issue, and not reality.

 

[Gnattu]

I stopped trusting disk utility for disk clone long time ago because it is not reliable.
As you have 2 exactly same SSD, I suggest you to use old-school but reliable tools like dd.
When you dd, make sure you use de rdiskX instead of diskX as the former is the raw disk device that DD want to deal with, the latter will have lots of (uncessary) OS overhead for DD and will be very slow.

 

[Juicy Box]

Apple has slowly been nerfing Disk Utility since about El Capitan, and it isn't surprising if Disk Utility is losing another feature (if the last tech support person was correct).

Please tell me this is just a training issue, and not reality.

Just like almost every other company out there, support tech knowledge is hit or miss. I am probably harder on Apple Support though, as I hold them to a higher standard than other companies.

Back in 2015, I had a lot of problems with various Apple devices and services, and I was talking to Apple Support reps all the time. I was surprised at how some of them had no idea how certain Apple services worked.

When having an issue with iTunes Match, the first support rep I got was completely useless. After talking to her for about 2 minutes, I quickly realized that she had no idea how iTunes Matched worked.

The majority of the time I talk to Apple Support, I feel like I am a lot more knowledgable about Apple products/SW/services than the people I am talking to. I love it when I talk to someone that is more knowledgeable than me, but with Apple Support, that happens a lot less than I would like.

 

[jazz1]

I am sad to hear this. A few months ago I was having an issue with my iMac. I called and got a generally helpful representative who said he was an Apple Genius, who was working from home due to the Pandemic.

I can't remember the dead end I came to about tech. or policy. I explained to him that I had no problem with him, his knowledge, or his services, but I wanted it escalated. He claimed there was no higher assistance available. Frankly, I find that hard to believe.

To be clear, I wasn't being a jerk, nor was I demeaning the "sun, the moon, and the stars". I just had a feeling there might be some additional help available. Having worked in non-tech. services for over 25 years, I kind of recognize the drill.

Maybe I am wrong? Again, he was very professional. But I suspect I was being "rope a doped" so the higher ups would not think he was not doing his job.