Carbon Copy Cloner copied over existing applications

[lil1998]

Stupid situation, unfortunately. I had stopped using CCC years ago after the options were getting more confusing (since my destination drive is usually intentionally a bit different than source). I was using SuperDuper but it recently stopped working, so I'm back on a CCC trial.

What I usually do is copy from desktop to external drive and then external drive to laptop. At some point CCC stopped letting you copy to the startup drive, and with SuperDuper I would reboot into the external drive to copy to the internal drive. In this most recent backup, I did this with CCC so I could copy some changes in the application folder. I have Adobe CS6 and Microsoft 2016 rather than subscription. After running CCC yesterday, Adobe is still working but I'm no longer able to use Microsoft. It's asking for my activation key, which is probably on my desktop computer and I'm not at home.

I'll figure this out somehow but I'm just wondering how people usually avoid this? Simply never allow CCC to copy the applications folder, even if there are new files/apps?

I hate how tedious it is to manually copy new files and how it changes the creation dates, but it often seems much more accurate than cloning apps...

 

[Fishrrman]

I'm wondering if the "support files" that Microsoft uses for "activation" are located NOT in the Applications folder, but somewhere else?

Probably in your home folder, somewhere. Others will have to jump in and help.

You could TRY using CCC's "task filter" to "de-select" either the entire applications folder, or perhaps just the MS Office folder, and see if that works in the future.

I know this doesn't help as an immediate solution, but...
... have you tried calling MS support? I've read similar accounts from others, and a call to support got them back up and running fairly quickly.

 

[Weaselboy]

After running CCC yesterday, Adobe is still working but I'm no longer able to use Microsoft. It's asking for my activation key, which is probably on my desktop computer and I'm not at home.

This is not really related to CCC and is more of a Microsoft thing. MS apps see you are on different hardware, so make you reenter the registration info.

 

[gilby101]

In general, copying apps from one computer to another is problematic. 1) Apps may have installation procedures that are more than just copying the .app. 2) Licensing may be for just one computer or a fixed number. 2) Licensing may require a license key or a login. The only apps I would be confident about copying are simple free apps which were installed by just copying the .app into /Applications. Anything else, do a new install of the app (following the installation procedure) and comply with licensing.

And, in this case, as @Weaselboy has said.

 

[edubfromktown]

This is not really related to CCC and is more of a Microsoft thing. MS apps see you are on different hardware, so make you reenter the registration info.

Yes.

@lil1998: in the past, it was possible to transfer Office Mac license to a new system by contacting MS support via telephone 800 936 5700.

I was also able to do it once via my login.microsoftonline.com account with Office 2016 reactivation.