I am glad the bug has been fixed by Apple in the latest update. I have been using SuperDuper since 2005, and have always recommended the program to colleagues. The program stopped working for me, however, do to the bug in that it wasn't performing the scheduled updates and did not inform me that there was a problem. Keeping my research backed up is critical to my job, so I bought a license to Carbon Copy Cloner. I have to say I really like the program. I especially like getting an email message after each backup.
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SuperDuper & OS10.15.5
- Thread starter flowrider
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My possible concern is Shirt Pocket Software waiting for a fix after OS 10.15.5 was released. Unless Dave had a "secret" contact at Apple, that was never a guarantee. And in fact, Bombich Software, the company that makes Carbon Copy Cloner, issued a fix right away (ie, within 2 days after OS 10.15.5 was released), and then a "more permanent" update about a week or so later. So, Bombich Software is "ahead of the game", just in case this issue comes up again in Big Sur. Hopefully if it happens, Shirt Pocket Software can address this issue correctly.
I actually went back to OS 10.15.4 while all this was going on, so that I could have a reliable, bootable SuperDuper! backup for each of my Macs. But I'm glad it is fixed in OS 10.15.6, as 1) that will, most likely, be the last release Apple will have for Catalina (always possible that security updates can be released), and 2) I can continue to use all my software (including SuperDuper!) with Catalina until I am ready to move to Big Sur. That will, most likely, not be until the .3 version of OS 11 is released by Apple.
My possible concern is Shirt Pocket Software waiting for a fix after OS 10.15.5 was released. Unless Dave had a "secret" contact at Apple, that was never a guarantee. And in fact, Bombich Software, the company that makes Carbon Copy Cloner, issued a fix right away (ie, within 2 days after OS 10.15.5 was released), and then a "more permanent" update about a week or so later. So, Bombich Software is "ahead of the game", just in case this issue comes up again in Big Sur. Hopefully if it happens, Shirt Pocket Software can address this issue correctly.
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I meant to write that I agree and I am glad I switched to CCC for all the reasons you state. Moreover, the program is really nice.
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I meant to write that I agree and I am glad I switched to CCC for all the reasons you state. Moreover, the program is really nice.
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Yeah, CCC is an excellent program. But given that I had already paid for SuperDuper!, and that I have always been pleased with it, I wanted to wait for a possible resolution of the issue. Well, it looks like it has been resolved. although in a "backwards" sort of way. But if SD was still problematic, I was planning on moving to CCC.
Your comments, though, are both appreciated and useful.
I wonder how many actually test the cloned drives vs just assuming they will work?
I did test my CCC clones and they did not work for a few days but CCC was on top of it and within about 3 days I had a clone of Catalina that was bootable again - and before the apple fix - kudos to CCC
It was a bit of a PITA - since at that stage - it required a complete new back up from scratch (not an incremental) - but it worked.
Some of the criticism here of SuperDuper seems a little harsh given that the problem was created by Apple. Dave provides brilliant support and I've never been charged a penny for an update in 15 years.
I always test my cloned drives. Until the last two firmware updates, I had to remove my NVMe drive from my Trashcan and put in the original Apple drive to get the latest firmware updates, so I always made sure my clone, which was on the original Apple drive, would boot the computer. Now I can simply reboot from the external cloned drive to test it, which will be much easier. My switching to CCC was in no way a criticism of SD. Like I said, I have used SD since 2005 without a problem. I just suddenly found myself without the ability to backup/clone my drive. If suddenly the internal drive went out, I would not be able to recreate the data I would loose. For the record, I also use time machine, cloud backup, and synch backups of just data to external drives. I just find it comforting that one of my backup solutions is a clone drive. If anything goes wrong, I reinstall from the clone and I am back working without too much fuss.
For the few days that your backups did not work ,did you get emails saying all was well?
I received the update / warning below - June 6th and upgraded right away - after the update CCC advised to wipe the drive clean do a new back up from scratch - I did test the external clone and it booted fine
Edit - I don’t have the email set up for Catalina
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CCC is available free as a trial for 30 days. I tried it and did not like the interface or the options. If I did, I would have bought a license. But, as I postulated on the preceding page, I believe Dave was betting on the come - and was not truthful about it.
Lou
Lou
So, did this issue come up after CCC was upgraded with a permanent fix for the OS 10.15.5 issue? Or are you talking about when OS 10.15.5 was released? CCC did release a fix a couple of days after that, and then the more permanent upgrade about a week or so later.
For my purposes, I always do a full, complete backup with SuperDuper!. I actually have no need for an incremental backup.
Yes, that is definitely true for me also. But the lack of any kind of update with the issue created by OS 10.15.5 is disturbing. Also:
Yeah, betting on a fix seems risky to me.
All in all, though, it seems to have worked out.
I don't remember the exact dates or order - but there were a few days / weeks where when I would often get warnings from CCC - see above post screen shot - CCC 5.1.18 Build(6004) < CCC 5.1.18 Build (6009) then later upated to 6.1.19 Build (6027) present version.
The screen shot above is June 6th - but this issue was going on before that and I had already updated CCC once or twice before that screen shot and was following CCC website comments and reading the CCC web site updates.
Everyone does things differently - I am quite happy with Incremental back ups - much faster
True regarding speed, but when I do my backups on Saturdays, I am multi-tasking, ie, cleaning our place. So, speed makes no difference to me.
There is another possible reason for a full backup: purgeable space on your target volumes.
Ever since APFS disks may waste a considerable amount of space on it, and when it will be
used is not clear to me. Both SD! and CCC said "don't worry", but I don't want my targets
to overflow with any new kind of problem. Therefore: full backup to prevent problems.
;JOOP!
Good stuff to consider ?
However it does take loonnggeerr . . .
I use CCC - safety net off - incremental back up - dedicated drive for each back up (ie MBP or other drive) and no additional volumes on the drives ( unless created by the back up) - and no encryption etc.
My Mojave MBP (daily driver) is backed up 2 times per week on separate drives (in case one back up is messed up) - same with Music drive - Saturday and Wednesday
Catalina is every 2 weeks on only one drive - since it is still "not" my daily driver I don't mind rolling back 2 weeks if need be.
In addition to longer back up times full back ups must (IMHO) stress out the drives more and reduce life expectancy of the drive? especially on the source drives?
just a few thoughts . . .
f one sits by their machine while a backup happens, then yes, an incremental backup is way faster. But I will not, and do not, just sit there. As I mentioned above, I am doing other non-computer related tasks (hence making efficient use of my time), and thus no matter how long the full backup takes, I do not complete those other tasks anyway. Hence, the speed is no concern to me.
OK, I just completed "upgrading" both of my Macs to the latest version of Catalina, OS 10.15.6. Here are the steps I took:
1. On Thursday, I used dosdude1's patcher to download the full installation file for OS 10.15.6.
2. Today, I did my normal weekly cleanup/maintenance/repair, and backup, tasks. I first ran Onyx, then Tech Tool Pro, and finally SuperDuper!, making 2 backups to two external SSDs.. As expected, everything went smoothly, and the SD backups were of my OS 10.15.4 systems on both of my Macs. (I had the OS 10.15.6 Installer file saved, and it was included in the backup).
3. Restarted each Mac from its respective, just completed SD backup.
4. Launched Disk Utility from that backup, and Erased and Formatted, as APFS, the internal SSD for the respective Mac.
5. Navigated to the OS 10.15.6 Installer file, launched it, and did a fresh, clean installation of OS 10.15.6 onto the respective internal SSD.
6. After that completed, as usual, I was offered the opportunity to migrate/copy needed "stuff" from a backup. I chose the just completed SD one, and everything migrated flawlessly.
7. Each Mac restarted, and the final thing I needed to do was to create the eDrive that is part of the Tech Tool Pro application. That does take some time, especially on my Mac Book Air, but it completed flawlessly also.
So it looks like I am good to go. Just hope when I do my SD backups next week of my OS 10.15.6 systems, those backups will be bootable. Supposed to be.
1. On Thursday, I used dosdude1's patcher to download the full installation file for OS 10.15.6.
2. Today, I did my normal weekly cleanup/maintenance/repair, and backup, tasks. I first ran Onyx, then Tech Tool Pro, and finally SuperDuper!, making 2 backups to two external SSDs.. As expected, everything went smoothly, and the SD backups were of my OS 10.15.4 systems on both of my Macs. (I had the OS 10.15.6 Installer file saved, and it was included in the backup).
3. Restarted each Mac from its respective, just completed SD backup.
4. Launched Disk Utility from that backup, and Erased and Formatted, as APFS, the internal SSD for the respective Mac.
5. Navigated to the OS 10.15.6 Installer file, launched it, and did a fresh, clean installation of OS 10.15.6 onto the respective internal SSD.
6. After that completed, as usual, I was offered the opportunity to migrate/copy needed "stuff" from a backup. I chose the just completed SD one, and everything migrated flawlessly.
7. Each Mac restarted, and the final thing I needed to do was to create the eDrive that is part of the Tech Tool Pro application. That does take some time, especially on my Mac Book Air, but it completed flawlessly also.
So it looks like I am good to go. Just hope when I do my SD backups next week of my OS 10.15.6 systems, those backups will be bootable. Supposed to be.
The ShirtPocket site could use some modernization. It has a (I'm working out of my Mothers basement feel to it.) Although that's not necessarily indicative of SuperDupers capabilities as product.
I have to agree with you on that point. It looks like it hasn't been updated in at least 10 years and it's not even mobile friendly. A more modern site would certainly create a better impression of the software.
OK, earlier today, I performed my weekly cleanup/maintenance/repair/backup tasks for both of my Macs running OS 10.15.6. That is, I ran Onyx, and then Tech Tool Pro for the cleanup/maintenance/repair tasks. Finally, I launched SuperDuper! and did my usual two backups per each of my Macs to two separate SSDs. After all of that, I was able to restart each of my Macs from their just completed SD backups. So, all is well with SD and OS 10.15.6.
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Thanks I used those commands and it worked flawlessly and I even like how the backup gets the same name as the original disk. No need to even use SuperDuper or CCC any more for cloning machines or upgrading disks, I suppose for incremental backups there is still a need though.
FYI I didn't want to upgrade to 10.15.6 because of the VMWare bug
Don't think Dave would write something like that.
Also, an update to CCC came out last week, in which it "undoes" the fix contained in the earlier version.
Just to make sure I understand this correctly. I can create a bootable clone by entering this command from Terminal.app. (following the instructions in post #13).
sudo asr restore --erase --source / --target /Volumes/MyBackupDrive
Not from Recovery?
I'm a bit concerned about the --erase part of the command.
TIA
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