Questions about Cloning an Mac M1 to another iMac M1

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Questions about Cloning an Mac M1 to another iMac M1

Questions about Cloning an iMac M1 to another iMac M1

I need to build two M1 iMacs with Ventura installed. They both will be duplicate machines for two graphic designers. There is cloud based registered software like Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft365, Quark Express etc.

There is a lot of meticulous software configuration involved so I don’t want to have to do it all over again on the second iMac M1. So, my idea is to build the first machine to spec then clone it onto the second iMac.

I haven’t cloned a mac for years so I don’t know if this is still a good workaround with the newer OS’s. I do have licenses for the two employees for all software that will be installed on both machines.

So after I make the clone and start launching the software does anyone know if the cloning process will break the apps like Adobe Creative cloud, Microsoft365 etc. I’m hoping that when I launch the apps on the clone that they will open nicely and simply ask me to log-into them with the second employees info and then start right up. No hassle, right?

Any pitfalls to watch out for when doing this? I’m going to use an app called SuperDuper cloning software. I just want to make sure everything will play nicely with the cloning procedure.

Also, the clone will have the same Admin name so what is the best way to change it on the cloned machine in the Users and Groups section of system settings?

thanks!

iMac 24″

Posted on Apr 20, 2023 10:45 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 20, 2023 11:55 AM in response to Hair Farm

Making bootable clones on Apple Silicon is a risky endeavor assuming it still works since making a bootable clone may not be available with a later macOS update.

Another concern with Apple Silicon Macs is "Ownership" which is assigned when creating the first macOS admin user account. "Ownership" is something the security enclave on Apple Silicon Macs utilize. If you don't create a macOS admin user account on the "cloned" Apple Silicon Mac, then you may not be able to do certain things later on because none of the users are the "Owner". Here are a copy of articles regarding the new concept of "Ownership":

Use secure token, bootstrap token, and volume ownership in deployments - Apple Support

https://eclecticlight.co/2023/03/15/ownership-of-apple-silicon-macs-matters-how-it-can-stop-external-bootable-disks/

The developer of the other macOS cloning app, Carbon Copy Cloner, has already posted information about how making a bootable macOS clone is now just a "best effort" since it relies on Apple's low level "asr" utility to perform the clone now (SuperDuper must use "asr" as well). The developer of CCC has already outlined a suggested alternative going forward.

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/cloning-macos-system-volumes-apple-software-restore

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Answer 2

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,793 points

Apr 20, 2023 4:19 PM in response to Hair Farm

Perhaps you can just backup the data volume on one and then copy that over to the other. This would be similar to using migration assistant. You could use Carbon Copy Cloner to do this and then you would not have to worry about the boot ability issue.

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