Back up software recommendation for MacOS (Ventura)

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agrumpybirdphotographer

agrumpybirdphotographer

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Does anyone have a recommendation for some back up software for MacOS to complement rather than an alternative to Time Machine. I've just replaced my 2013 iMac with an M1 version and am in the processing of getting everything loaded and transferred over and was looking at an alternative to the Lacie supplied Intego software I was using. Many thanks.
 
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I use time machine (for system, app files and my documents) and "file synchronization" app to manage multiple local backup libraries of files/photos/vids etc.... on NAS drive and other storage hardware
I used to use backblaze and sugarsync as well but the cost outweighed the benefits.
I export lightroom catalogue backups and similar in capture one/resolve for project work when I have generated output.
 
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Grumpy…

I'm sorely in need of advice, too. My backup regime is definitely inadequate.

Here is the current situation:
  • TimeMachine
    • 3 portable hard drives (2x 5 TB conventional drives + 1x 4 TB SSD).
    • These are rotated—usually daily, and with no difficulty.
    • One of the TimeMachine drives is always off-site.
  • iCloud Drive
    • Apple bills me ~US$10/month for 2 TB storage.
    • I use ChronoSync to sync my Pictures folder (containing LrC Catalog, LrC Backups & LrC Photos) to this iCloud folder.
    • Put simply: my Pictures folder has a backup twin elsewhere on my MacBook Pro and this twin is backed up to Apple's cloud service.
    • When LrC files are deleted from the real Pictures folder, ChronoSync deletes them from its iCloud Drive twin but keeps the deleted files in a folder called _Archived Items.
  • Simple Backup
    • 2 TB SSD (leftover from 2013 MBP)
    • ChronoSync backups the Pictures folder to its twin on the 2 TB SSD (archiving deletions as necessary).

…David

  • 2023 MacBook Pro 16 (M2 Max processor; 8 TB storage)
  • macOS 13.3.1 (Ventura)
 
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Hi David thanks for the comprehensive reply. Your BU strategy is very similar to mine, multiple drives, Time Machine, iCloud and Dropbox to a lesser extent. Im just taking the opportunity to make it a bit more methodical rather than messy now Im changing to a new machine.

Thanks again for replying.

Gordon
 
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I use a Synolog Disc Station with 16Tb (on 4 HDD drives )on my NAS that automatically copies data from specific files in my Mac. I have another in a separate building nearby which is the backup, all automatic.
Big advantage is that I can access worldwide so long I get internet. It’s my own cloud and thus I’m not paying fees for a service and my data remains in my control.
in 10+ years I had one failure but no loss of data.
 
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agrumpybirdphotographer said:
Does anyone have a recommendation for some back up software for MacOS to complement rather than an alternative to Time Machine. I've just replaced my 2013 iMac with an M1 version and am in the processing of getting everything loaded and transferred over and was looking at an alternative to the Lacie supplied Intego software I was using. Many thanks.
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Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) is one of the best backup softwares for the MacOS. The developers are always keeping it current and it’s very easy to use. I stopped using Time Machine. When it works it’s great but I’ve had one too many instances where it stopped backing up or i had to reconfigure it and start over.
 
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I have a 96TB Synology NAS that is set up to use Snapshot Replication (think Time Machine) and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make system backups to HD's that are stored off site. CCC is designed to work very closely with MacOS and "knows" which files it needs to backup from the Mac HD in order to do a complete restore in case of disaster. FWIW I use simple high-capacity 3.5" HD's in an OWC Drive Dock for this purpose which works really well.
 
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I just bought a new 14” M2 MacBook Pro (32GB, 1TB SD) and backup as follows:
- Daily Time Machine backups for the Mac which typically includes the current batch of new files for culling.
- An external 5TB drive for primary catalog and image access.
- A 10TB LACie external with a 2TB partition for the above listed Time Machine baackup, and an 8TB partition that I use to backup the 5TB external using Super Duper. I also do a second external HD backup of the 5TB drive.
- I find Super Duper to be effective, efficient and easy to use. It does incremental backups after the initial whole disk backup.
 
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Synology NAS for Time Machine and I pay for BackBlaze to backup my files. I decided to go with BackBlaze since I didn‘t have good options for offsite backup storage and didn’t want to deal with doing something wonky with my own Cloud storage.
 
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agrumpybirdphotographer said:
Does anyone have a recommendation for some back up software for MacOS to complement rather than an alternative to Time Machine. I've just replaced my 2013 iMac with an M1 version and am in the processing of getting everything loaded and transferred over and was looking at an alternative to the Lacie supplied Intego software I was using. Many thanks.
Click to expand...

I use Time Machine but also do an off-site with BackBlaze.
 
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I use Goodsync. These days my photos are stored on my internal drive on Macbook Pro M1. I keep 3 external SSD drives and backup anytime I load new images or edit images. I keep one rotating drive at my mother's house who I visit every week so I always have my entire collection off-site. One of these days I plan to get setup on Backblaze.
Each drive has a 'read me' file with a link to a google doc where I have outlined in great detail the what and the where of each of these drives and the date of each backup. I went from no backup plan and no organization several years ago to a very detailed and documented process and oh what peace of mind that effort brought!
 
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I have used Super Duper for many years. I think the functionality is essentially the same as CCC. I use Time Machine for short term changes, and multiple hard drives stored on and off-site for long term back-up.
 
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1. Time Machine backing up to a 2 bay Raid Drive. Includes just my Mac. If one drive fails, hopefully the other is still working and backing up.
2. My original raw files are backed up to another 2 bay Raid Drive.
3. Off site back up to Backblaze with a 1 yr recovery. I prefer something off site besides Time Machine. Backblaze is about $85 a year unlimited terabytes backing up my computer plus any external drives including #2 above. iCloud for 2T is $120 and only backing up files on your desktop or laptop. Not external drives.

Time Machine vs Carbon Copy Cloner. With Time Machine, you can go back in time to let's say 2 months ago to restore a file but CCC is only making a mirror image of your current drive.
 
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Thanks Patrick 👍
calcal said:
I use Goodsync. These days my photos are stored on my internal drive on Macbook Pro M1. I keep 3 external SSD drives and backup anytime I load new images or edit images. I keep one rotating drive at my mother's house who I visit every week so I always have my entire collection off-site. One of these days I plan to get setup on Backblaze.
Each drive has a 'read me' file with a link to a google doc where I have outlined in great detail the what and the where of each of these drives and the date of each backup. I went from no backup plan and no organization several years ago to a very detailed and documented process and oh what peace of mind that effort brought!
Click to expand...
 
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Thanks very much everyone for taking the time to respond and pass on your suggestions. It certainly gives me food for thought and the diligence that you guys put into to a backup plan puts me to shame.

It certainly highlights that what I thought was robust plan isn’t the case 😳😳🙄

The change over to an new machine is the ideal time to make some changes especially since I am generating larger numbers of files with the Z9.

So thanks again everyone, very much appreciated.

Cheers

Gordon
 
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Just my two cents worth, when considering a backup plan it is important to consider three cases, hardware failure, unexpected file deletes or changes, and disaster. I have a machine backup that backs up all documents and settings, a manual sync backup process that I initiate to sync photo folders, and Backblaze that backs up all documents and photos to the cloud. I know some are concerned about the cloud backups but I have two other backups and I hope to never have to use the Backblaze backup but Backblaze does allow me to access any of my documents in a pinch remotely if needed.
 
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agrumpybirdphotographer said:
Does anyone have a recommendation for some back up software for MacOS to complement rather than an alternative to Time Machine. I've just replaced my 2013 iMac with an M1 version and am in the processing of getting everything loaded and transferred over and was looking at an alternative to the Lacie supplied Intego software I was using. Many thanks.
Click to expand...
With my Mac Pro workstation I added an internal drive and used the Mac OS to make a perfect duplicate of the primary boot drive. The Mac OS makes it easy to select the new drive as the boot drive and verify that the duplication was 100% successful. I did this every two weeks as I could start the process at the end of the day. I do this with an external USB thuumb drive on my Windows computers which is not nearly as simple or fast a process. My data files are either on my workstation on two drives that are mirrored as RAID1 or on a networked NAS with RAID VI.

It has been important for me to be able to recover quickly from any drive failure and be able to take care of it when it easiest to do and not have it impact my work.
 
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I don't believe I saw it listed above so I will add SuperDuper! to the list. I use it to back up my entire Mac as well as just my LR library to external drives. Very easy to use and they keep software up to date with each new Mac OS release. I've have been using it for years and highly recommend it if you are looking for local backup to drives.
 
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Like others I use copy software (Super Duper) to copy to on-site drives, have a Time Machine drive just because I can and off site back-up to iDrive.

I use to have at least one full clone of the boot disk kept totally up to date very easily by Super Duper. I really liked this and it had saved me a few times over the years from "updating" (and other) mis-adventures.

However, since Mac OS "Catalina", Apple has divided the bootable (now "read only") system drive to a separate drive partition from the data partition of that physical drive. You can see this in "Disk Utility" (but not usually in the "Finder"). This caused the clone software (Super Duper) to initially have issues (I think Carbon Copy had them also). Eventually Super Duper was updated to make a bootable clone but it is not the same as the earlier versions in that incremental backups ("Smart Copy" in Super Duper terms) are really just to the Data partition. (It use to be that "Smart Copy" incremental backups would make the entire drive a bootable, updated clone of the system drive)

To make the system "read only" partition up to date, at least at the present time, the entire cloned, bootable disk has to be fully erased then recopied ("Erase and Copy" in Super Duper terms). After it is made, the bootable drive does seem to work but, how much it all resembles the original startup drive's operating system looks to depend on how often it was erased and recopied.

For major upgrade trials (i.e. going from Monterey to Ventura) it is good to use the Mac OS feature that will make an install drive of the current Mac OS just in case the new OS is a bit too full of fun "features" causing a desire to revert backwards.
 
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