Sequoia 15.2 and Carbon copy cloner

+1 to what tbirtvet have reported.

CCC 6.1.11 still works for me after updating my Intel and Silicon Mac's to macOS 15.2.

FWIW I keep and use CCC clones to migrate from, rather than to boot from.

Carbon Copy Cloner works for me on my Mini M4 with Sequoia 15.2. I haven't tried to clone my boot drive to an external drive as yet but will do so in the future as a backup. But backups to another volume works as advertised.

I originally had CCC 6.xx in Sequoia, but it acted odd. Mainly, it would randomly complain that I needed to give it full disk access, even thought that was already active. I would have to restart the computer before it would run.

Upgrading to version 7.xx fixed those problems.

As far as making a bootable clone, I asked the developer about that at least two major releases of macOS back. His reply was, "Don't do that. The new security of macOS makes it impossible to know if everything was copied, or copied correctly."

He very strongly suggested the only correct way to do it now is to create an APFS volume on an external drive and do a backup without trying to use the Legacy Bootable option. When the copy is complete, it looks something like this:

To make a working clone on an external drive (to a different APFS volume), or to rebuild your main internal drive from scratch, you use either a bootable USB drive of a macOS installer, or install the OS from Recovery mode. When it gets to the end and asks if you have data to restore, you point it to your CCC backup. All of that gets merged in and you have an exact replica of your backup, which is also bootable.

It takes a bit more time this way than attempting a full clone, but it's guaranteed to work.

Mark Sealey wrote:

I'm nervous about upgrading from 15.1.1. to 15.2 if there's any chance that a CCC clone would fail.

Based on the SuperDuper! article, the problem is creating new clones, not with existing clones. You can always ask CCC.

I just used CCC 6 and and backed up my data. Then booted into recovery and installed Sequoia on my external disk and boots fine. I do not attempt to use the legacy boot feature with CCC as it is not reliable on Silicon Macs.

I have done all. I was running OS14 and before I update my internal I always update my external clone first to test to be sure no other issues come up. I updated my OS 14 clone to OS 15+ by booting up my clone and then updated to 15+ OS. As I stated when making a clone with CCC do not use the Legacy boot feature (with Silicon) as I have found it does not always work and it will not boot correctly if at all. If you are using an Intel Mac then the CCC legacy boot feature works fine. I know nothing about using SuperDuper.

A certain level of caution, as noted from Mike @ CCC which would still apply to CCC 7.04

https://support.bombich.com/hc/en-us/articles/20686422131479-Creating-legacy-bootable-copies-of-macOS

The biggest Impediment for Cloner Software Developers, is the requirement for them to use " Apple Software Restore, aka "ASR") 

That is not to say it will not work but . . ?

With SuperDuper one can still backup up ("clone") all one's files:

SuperDuper says "use 'Backup - all files' with 'Smart Update' to copy everything but the OS'

In fact both CCC and SuperDuper recommend against making clones where the clone needs to be bootable. That is because such bootable clones do not have full functionality (according to CCC and SuperDuper).

CCC says this: "we do not recommend that you attempt to make your backups bootable; we recommend that you proceed with a 'Standard Backup' instead. You can restore all of your documents, compatible applications, and settings from a standard CCC backup without the extra effort involved in establishing and maintaining a bootable device."

I think that because of the security of the sealed system volume, increasingly with the last several MacOS it has become more challenging to create fully functional clones with the MacOS included in that clone. Both CCC and SuperDuper discuss this extensively on their web sites. The preferred way seems to be to do a clean install on the target drive for the Backup and then clone all non-MacOS files. That's what both of those companies recommend. Or, simply use the cloning software to copy everything EXCEPT the MacOS.

With the more recent Mac models, a complete hardware failure of the internal (boot) drive will prevent booting from an external drive.

The approach Apple has been steering users towards increasingly has been to use only Apple's installers for MacOS to create bootable systems. Both CCC and SuperDuper warn that even if you are able to create a bootable external drive via cloning, you will not be able to update its MacOS and continue using it. It will be stuck at that version (at least that is what CCC and SuperDuper advise).

Carbon Copy Cloner 7.0.4 can make bootable clones just fine in macOS Sequoia 15.2 at least in my Intel Mac mini 2018. Yesterday I did that several times and it always worked. Silicon Macs might be more picky.

I use it often for testing various software by archiving bare bones clean macOS versions as "bootable" .dmg disk images that can be cloned to real bootable SSD volumes in just about 2 minutes. Much faster than the normal 30-45 minute macOS install.

Just an aside

Making a Bootable Clone on Apple Silicon machines will serve Zero purpose IF the internal Drive should Fail

The bootable clone will not save the day

Without the internal working the machine can not boot to the clone

I successfully cloned my Mac Mini M4 boot drive to an external SSD. I had contacted CCC to ask them if I was using CCC correctly in trying to clone my drive but kept getting errors.

Their reply and instructions for cloning the drive are as follows:

Apple's APFS replication utility is consistently failing, it's not going to be able complete this task. I wish I had any insight at all into what kind of corruption it's finding, how serious it is, etc, but Apple's tool just doesn't provide that level of detail.

So, on to plan B:

1. Boot into Recovery Mode

2. Erase the external disk in Disk Utility

3. Install macOS on the external disk

4. When the installation has completed, accept the offer to migrate data from your original source disk

Best wishes,

Rob

Bombich Software, Inc.

I followed the directions to the letter and got a bootable clone of my internal SSD. Then I can use CCC to update the clone user data from my internal SSD.

I'll let you know in a bit if CCC 7.0.4 will successfully clone a Sequoia boot drive to an external SSD. I'm doing it now. So far it seems to be plugging along nicely on my M4 Mini. "Video at 11".

So far ok with CCC on my Mac's.

You're welcome.

It's 11 and no video! I tried both CCC and SuperDuper and both failed. 😞. Next I'll try an installer for Sequoia 15.2 directly on the external SSD and then try cloning the User data.