SuperDuper! for Mac

Version 4.0.7 ships with a single, surgical fix: a workaround for a boot-registration visibility problem that appeared under macOS 27 Golden Gate. That kind of precision tells you a good deal about the software. SuperDuper! has spent years doing one thing — making faithful, bootable copies of a Mac — and it treats every edge case seriously.

Bootable clones: start up from an external drive after a failure

• Creating a bootable clone of your entire hard drive, so you can start up from an external disk if the internal one fails.
• Setting a scheduler to run automatic, periodic backups without thinking about it.
• Using checkpoints to return to an earlier system state after a problematic update or configuration change.
• Running custom scripts before or after a copy, for users who want fine control over what gets included.
• Manual copying: you can also select a source folder and push it to external media directly.

Localised only in English across every menu and dialog

• Localised in English only; the interface does not switch to other languages.
• Requires macOS 10.13 or later; works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
• Launch the app from Launchpad once the copy finishes — straightforward, but note the sequence.

Apple Silicon support arrived without any Rosetta dependency

SuperDuper! does not chase feature bloat, and the version history reflects that. The jump to 4.0 brought native Apple Silicon support: no Rosetta translation layer, no hesitation when cloning an M-series Mac's internal drive. For anyone who upgraded from an Intel machine and kept an older SuperDuper! on a backup disk, that single change meant the clone would actually boot the new hardware without a firmware mismatch.

Version 4.0.7 is quieter. Its only listed change is a workaround for a boot-registration issue under macOS 27 Golden Gate — the kind of arcane problem that only surfaces when Apple reworks how the system identifies startup volumes. In daily use, you will never see the fix. You will simply notice that your external clone appears in the Startup Disk pane when you need it, instead of vanishing after a system update. That is the pattern with Shirt Pocket: the release notes look small, but the thing they prevent is the exact scenario where you reach for a backup and find it invisible.

Earlier incremental updates tightened Smart Update handling on APFS volumes, reducing the time a clone takes when only a few hundred files have changed. For users who run a nightly schedule, that turned a twenty-minute wait into something closer to three or four. The interface stayed the same throughout — two dropdowns, a button, a log — so the improvements accumulate behind the scenes while muscle memory stays intact.

Clone on Apple Silicon: APFS formatting with a single volume

Will a SuperDuper! clone really boot a Mac with Apple Silicon? Yes — if the external drive is formatted as APFS and has a single volume, and if you grant the copy process full disk access when prompted. The app handles the rest. People sometimes worry that bootability is a dying art on modern Macs; it is not dead, it just requires an app that keeps pace with Apple's boot policy changes.

Does it work alongside Time Machine? It does, and many people run both. Time Machine gives you hourly versioning and easy file recovery; a superduper mac full clone gives you an immediately bootable volume. The two do not conflict because they write to different destinations. A common setup: Time Machine to a network volume for daily safety, SuperDuper! to a portable SSD for the moment the internal drive fails entirely.

What happens if the clone drive is smaller than the source? The copy will proceed as long as the used space on the source fits within the destination capacity. If it does not, the app warns you before writing a single block. You can then exclude folders using a copy script, or choose a larger destination.

Full Disk Access: grant it before your first full clone

Before your first full clone, open System Settings and grant SuperDuper! Full Disk Access. Without it, the copy will run but the result may not be bootable, and Smart Update will miss protected files. The app prompts you, but it is easy to click past a permissions dialogue when you are eager to start.

Run the first clone manually and watch the log. It prints every step, and if something is skipped — a locked file, a system volume that needs mounting — the log tells you plainly. Once you trust the process, set a schedule. Evening works well: a daily Smart Update at 2 a.m. to an external SSD means you wake up with a clone that is never more than a few hours stale.

Test the clone. Reboot while holding the Option key, select the external drive, and confirm that your desktop, applications and accounts all appear as expected. Do this once after the first clone, then again after any major macOS update. A backup you have never booted from is a theory, not a safety net.

If you use scripts, start with the built-in examples — they show how to exclude caches, large media folders or virtual machine bundles. Modify one rather than writing from scratch. A small scripting mistake can exclude the wrong directory, and a clone that is missing your home folder is worse than no clone at all.

Snapshot navigator: what stays when you choose the simpler tool

Carbon Copy Cloner shares the same core promise: bootable, scheduled clones with Smart Update logic. It adds a snapshot navigator and a more visual task-history view. SuperDuper! strips that away. Where Carbon Copy Cloner offers a dashboard, Shirt Pocket offers a single window with a source, a destination and a button. Both produce identical results for a straightforward clone. The choice often comes down to whether you want the extra interface or prefer something that disappears into the menu bar.

ChronoSync is broader. It synchronises folders, merges data between two live Macs, and handles cloud-to-local transfers — territory SuperDuper! never enters. If your need is a bootable clone alone, ChronoSync is overbuilt. If you also want to keep a documents folder mirrored between a laptop and a desktop, ChronoSync covers that and SuperDuper! does not.

Disk Utility can restore one volume to another, and it is free on every Mac. It cannot schedule, cannot run a Smart Update that copies only changed blocks, and will not let you exclude folders with a script. For a one-off migration to a new drive, Disk Utility works. For a nightly safety net you can actually use, it is not in the same category.

A boot-registration visibility issue that appeared under macOS 27 Golden Gate now has a workaround, so startup drives remain properly listed after cloning.

• macOS 10.13 or later
• Intel and Apple Silicon Macs