macOS Sequoia 15.3 Fixes SuperDuper Bootable Backups Bug

[MacRumors]

Apple's latest macOS Sequoia 15.3 update appears to have resolved a bug that prevented popular backup utility SuperDuper from creating bootable backups, according to developer Dave Nanian.

The fix addresses an issue introduced in macOS 15.2 that caused SuperDuper to fail during the final stages of creating bootable backups due to a "Resource Busy" error when attempting to copy system preboot or recovery files.

Apple requires third-party apps to use Apple's own replication tools rather than directly copying the operating system. When these tools malfunctioned in macOS 15.2, it directly impacted SuperDuper's ability to create bootable backups.

"macOS 15.3 is now out, and with it, a fix for the broken replicator," Nanian wrote on his Shirt Pocket Watch blog. "As such, macOS copying will work again with 'Erase, then copy' backups."

However, Nanian cautions that while the specific replicator bug has been fixed, this doesn't guarantee that booting from backup copies will work in all situations. This is largely due to changes that Apple has made in macOS and recent Mac hardware in the name of enhanced security.

For example, Apple Silicon Macs require that the internal SSD remains functional for external booting to work, meaning a Mac with a failed internal drive won't boot from a SuperDuper backup, even if the backup itself is perfectly intact.

Article Link: macOS Sequoia 15.3 Fixes SuperDuper Bootable Backups Bug

 

[Infinite Vortex]

I love SuperDuper! as an app but I stopped using it quite a number of years ago given Apple making it difficult.

 

[lkrupp]

Apple locking down macOS is the direct result of users not caring about security and privacy yet expecting to be made whole when their bank accounts and credit cards are compromised. It helps but you can’t fix stupid.

 

[Moka Akashiya]

Yeah, prohibit booting from external SSD when internal one is dead is definitely about security, and nothing about buying new motherboard/mac from Apple. You know, there is so much data on your external SSD about internal one when you boot from another one, you can access everything just like that!

 

[H2SO4]

Apple locking down macOS is the direct result of users not caring about security and privacy yet expecting to be made whole when their bank accounts and credit cards are compromised. It helps but you can’t fix stupid.

Please provide evidence for that ridiculous assertion.

 

[dlopan]

If it happens to me, instant lawsuit. I use 2 backups anyway, carbon copy cloner and superduper. TM is junk and always has been junk

 

[gaximus]

Having never heard of the app, the article title makes it sound like the bug is "SuperDuper".

Edit: I don't understand the dislikes. This comment had nothing to do with the app. Do you disagree with the article title sounding like it's describing the bug as "SuperDuper"?

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

If it happens to me, instant lawsuit. I use 2 backups anyway, carbon copy cloner and superduper. TM is junk and always has been junk

I think your lawsuit would get thrown out pretty quick lol

 

[Blackstick]

This was a wildly useful app in the fun old days where one could boot Macs from external volumes by holding the option key alone with a firewire drive. There's a lot less need for it today, between Time Machine and Backblaze for offsite cloud, it has been sufficient.

Time moves along. Lots of ignorant users coming in... is why Apple continues to lockdown macOS. Early 2000s was a more fun time for OSX because effectively, nobody used it. Different era today.

 

[Daalseth]

“Apple Silicon Macs require that the internal SSD remains functional for external booting to work, meaning a Mac with a failed internal drive won't boot from a SuperDuper backup, even if the backup itself is perfectly intact.”

WTF? Then what’s the point of a bootable backup? So the internal drive fails I need to get a new MB, or more likely a whole new Mac? That is ridiculous.​

 

[KPOM]

It still hasn’t fixed the Time Machine bug, though.

 

[Adora]

I don't use Super Duper anymore since they said it's my fault, when I reported that bug. Even when I answered after their first answer, that I did nothing while doing the backup that could have interrupted it, it was again just my fault...

By the way...

Can you still attach a cloned boot drive to another Mac and it just works? I tried it on the same Mac twice a few month ago (before that bug appeared) and even that did not work. It was recognized as bootable but it just got stuck at the beginning of the progress bar.

 

[JosephAW]

I’ve noticed that if I erased the internal drive on my Mac mini M2 I can still boot to my external drive but it wouldn’t let me apply any dot 1 updates, so the internal drive has to have an installed OS, I was just using it as a swap drive for Photoshop and da Vinci resolve.
Even if I choose to have find my Mac turned off it still requires this.

 

[JosephAW]

I’m wondering if this superduper program is just doing a raw disc copy or is this allow incremental copies, I’ve already done all this copies of my macOS Monterey to a thumb drive.

 

[john123]

I’m very glad about this.

I’m also puzzled/irritated by all the “you shouldn’t be doing this anyway” comments about SuperDuper and CCC. You use your Mac however you want to, including your backup and boot strategies, and I’ll use mine the way I want to.

The reasons these apps exist are NOT crazy use cases (“bootable backup” is not the only one), and as long as your security isn’t fundamentally borked by supporting SD or CCC, what difference is it to you?

 

[john123]

I’m wondering if this superduper program is just doing a raw disc copy or is this allow incremental copies, I’ve already done all this copies of my macOS Monterey to a thumb drive.

SD does both, although its “Smart Copy” is just for speed. There’s no versioning going on.

 

[Leggy Mambo]

Hi, does anyone know if this MacOS program will also backup a Windows drive in Parallels? I previously used Macrium Reflect within Windows itself, which also backed up the MacOS drive, but Macrium Reflect no longer works for MacBooks with an M processor. Many thanks

 

[noraa]

This also fixed the same issue I was having with Carbon Copy Cloner. Initially in thought I was dealing with a doing external hard drive, but then I kept having the same issue regardless of what drive I used. So I’m really glad this has finally been fixed.

 

[MacGuru88]

As an Apple IT Pro 30+ Years working in the Field and dozens of Macs to take care of, I have Never Needed a Bootable Backup for anything! With any problems although very rare we simply boot in Recovery Mode, and Restore from Time Machine. All this crap like Clean My Mac, MacKeeper and Super Super... which ALL Apple community support Experts say is totally unnecessary and will not support you if you use this crap.Ya'll Geeks wanna mess around and then sue Apple in a Class Action frivolous lawsuit. Some of us Do Work with our High Powered Macs... not Living off the Lamb and playing “tinker toys“ with our time!

 

[AlumaMac]

As an Apple IT Pro 30+ Years working in the Field and dozens of Macs to take care of, I have Never Needed a Bootable Backup for anything! With any problems although very rare we simply boot in Recovery Mode, and Restore from Time Machine. All this crap like Clean My Mac, MacKeeper and Super Super... which ALL Apple community support Experts say is totally unnecessary and will not support you if you use this crap.Ya'll Geeks wanna mess around and then sue Apple in a Class Action frivolous lawsuit. Some of us Do Work with our High Powered Macs... not Living off the Lamb and playing “tinker toys“ with our time!

There's nothing "tinker toy" or outrageous about cloning a boot drive. Up until recently it was a trivial process...heck in OS9 you could simply copy the system folder and boot away. But "As an Apple IT Pro 30+ years" you already knew that.

 

[deevey]

As an Apple IT Pro 30+ Years working in the Field and dozens of Macs to take care of, I have Never Needed a Bootable Backup for anything! With any problems although very rare we simply boot in Recovery Mode, and Restore from Time Machine. All this crap like Clean My Mac, MacKeeper and Super Super... which ALL Apple community support Experts say is totally unnecessary and will not support you if you use this crap.Ya'll Geeks wanna mess around and then sue Apple in a Class Action frivolous lawsuit. Some of us Do Work with our High Powered Macs... not Living off the Lamb and playing “tinker toys“ with our time!

Any hard drive is a ticking time bomb.

Both Ccc and super duper had my machines back up and running in minutes. Far faster than any cloud or Time Machine backup could.

Are you honestly dismissing hardware failure after 30 years in the business? The idea of superduper and ccc was being able to boot to a disk (by plugging into pretty much any mac) when you could not perform a recovery.

 

[eifelbube]

Apple locking down macOS is the direct result of users not caring about security and privacy yet expecting to be made whole when their bank accounts and credit cards are compromised. It helps but you can’t fix stupid.

I do not need Apple to be my OS backup strategy nanny, inconveniencing me because of the mistakes of others. Just give me the OPTION to fully enable booting externally regardless of the state of the internal SSD. Set the default to the restrictive policy, if you wish, nanny. Those “users not caring about security and privacy” will be too ignorant to disable the default.

 

[bousozoku]

It still hasn’t fixed the Time Machine bug, though.

Another one?

Since APFS, it's been difficult for drive recovery software to work, and if Time Machine is having problems, you might not be able to depend on backups, either. Gahhhhh

 

[svish]

Good to know about this. Though I no longer use the app to make a bootable backup, I have used this to make a bootable backup for my Intel iMac

 

[KPOM]

Another one?

Since APFS, it's been difficult for drive recovery software to work, and if Time Machine is having problems, you might not be able to depend on backups, either. Gahhhhh

The issues with Time Machine are that it won’t overwrite old backups and does a full backup each time (rather than incremental). I have a 4TB drive in a NAS and it fills up within a week. I can manually go into the drive and reclaim space by moving old backups to trash but that’s a hassle.