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SuperDuper 4.0.10 includes a security update that addresses a recently reported CVE. ## macOS Privacy Protection (TCC1) Normally, on your startup drive, macOS protects personal information (Contacts, Documents, and the like) behind security prompts that I’m sure you’ve seen. When an Application tries to access the data, the user is prompted to confirm that’s what they want. ## Snapshots When SuperDuper copies an APFS drive, it snapshots the content of the drive to “freeze” it (so you don’t have to worry about using the drive while you’re backing it up). SuperDuper mounts that at a temporary location. ## The problem The problem is that TCC protects the startup drive’s contents at their normal location, not in a snapshot.2 Since SuperDuper mounted the snapshot at an accessible location, a bad actor could watch for those mounts and access TCC-protected content without the user being prompted to allow it. ## The solution SuperDuper 4.0.10 now mounts the snapshot in an inaccessible, root-owned location, so only software already running with administrator (root) privileges can reach it. ## The risk All normal POSIX permissions still applied to the mount, so files that wouldn’t normally be accessible (leaving TCC aside) were (and are) still fully protected. However, malicious software running under your account could watch for the snapshot mount during a backup and read your TCC-protected files without a prompt. > Note that the backup itself is copying the protected files (it wouldn’t be much of a backup if it did not), and TCC does not protect those files on the backup save for restricting access to all external drives on a per-Application basis. > > This fix protects access to the snapshot of the source drive. All external devices, like backup drives, have a single gate. Once permission is granted for an application, the files are only protected from it by POSIX permissions, ACLs, etc…and then, only when Ignore ownership on this volume is not on. ## Download available You can install SuperDuper 4.0.10 through the normal update mechanism, or by downloading and installing directly. As always: thanks for using SuperDuper! --- 1. TCC stands for Transparency, Consent & Control. You can read about protecting your privacy, and the prompts TCC generates, in this Apple article. ↩︎ 2. Which, arguably, is the real bug, and the responsibility of macOS itself, but here we are. ↩︎

Recently, Apple released an update to TN3137 that discusses backing up keychains. Specifically, as of macOS 26.4, the login keychain, and perhaps others, cannot be decrypted on other Macs, or after a restore. The Tech Note indicates that backup programs should be sure to back up a folder that contains special system keys…but also says that the folder is not accessible when System Integrity Protection (SIP)1 is on. This is obviously not a good user solution, because no one is going to boot to Recovery, turn off SIP, back up, boot back to Recovery, and turn SIP back on. Thinking they would do so is kind of crazy.2 ## Breathe: it’s OK Fortunately, SuperDuper handles this situation. When you make a bootable copy, the required keys are copied without requiring any special steps. Even though Smart Update cannot access those files, it preserves them on the backup so they’re available if needed. ## What that means for you It’s always a good idea to make a bootable backup, even if you have no plan to boot from it. Update it with Smart Update, update the OS when SuperDuper indicates you should, and you’ll be in good shape should you need to restore…even if you need to restore your keychains on a different Mac.3 --- 1. System Integrity Protection—basically, a process that prevents any programs, other than Apple-authorized ones, from performing certain activities. You can read more about it here. ↩︎ 2. This all may change in the future. The Tech Note hedges a lot in the Warning and Important sections, which suggests to me that they realize this isn’t a great situation. ↩︎ 3. In fact, I’ve just verified that migrating from a SuperDuper bootable backup to a different Mac restores the encrypted keychains as you’d hope and expect. ↩︎

## mtitv;ilmart1 That’s right, a new version of SuperDuper has arrived. It has some new stuff! ## I get email Every so often, a user will ask for more run logging: some sort of master list of SuperDuper copies, so they can reference it during personal contemplation time. I’ve usually suggested that they write a little shortcut to do what they want: after all, that’s what I added the feature for—to allow for extension, and inclusion of behavior that might be user-specific (and, also, to allow people to share Shortcut tips-and-tricks they might develop for SuperDuper). ## Making an example That’s a good approach, I think, but sometimes people need to start with something a bit more elaborate, and tweak that, rather than generate something from scratch. With that in mind, SuperDuper 4.0.9 includes a new Shortcut—Log SuperDuper Copy to Dashboard. What does it do?, you might ask? Well, pretty much what’s on the tin. After each copy, it adds a row of information to the sheet that includes various bits of information about the copy that just ran. At the top, you’ll find a list of the different Copy Jobs that have run (there are typically multiple runs per Job, of course, but only one entry at the top). You can focus on the runs of one Job by unchecking the Show column for the others, or compare them by checking other Jobs. > If you have so many Copy Jobs that the upper table overlaps the graphs2, you can just drag them to relocate where they are on the sheet. ## Extend away Of course, there may be other things you want to do with the data that’s logged, and once the spreadsheet is there, you can change the various charts, add to them, and do what you’d like. The Shortcut will continue to update the runs. ## I wouldn’t do that I’ve had way too many users write in, thinking that their license was only good for a day. They thought that because the Registration window said “Registered for 1 day” the first day they were registered. It would, of course, say “Registered for 2 days” the next day, etc. Now, I didn’t think this was unclear, but when I get a bunch of emails about something like that, and people think that I’m somehow selling them a 1-day license (folks, I would never do that), it’s time for a change. So, now it says “You’ve been registered for 1 day”, etc. I hope that’s clearer. ## But that’s not all! Well, that’s mostly all. I’ve also improved some additional very obscure network issues, improved progress display in some edge cases, and individual job phases now remember whether you’ve expanded them or not. So, if you like to see the detailed stats for a given job, that’ll be remembered next time you run. To enjoy the new version, use the internal updater, or Download SuperDuper 4.0.9 now! Once again, thanks for using and recommending SuperDuper! --- 1. My time is too valuable; I’ll let my assistant read this. ↩︎ 2. In other words, you’re an insane person like me with a million jobs running all the time. ↩︎

## Purpose & Intent SuperDuper is, obviously, a serious tool that has an important task: making a reliable copy of data from one place to another. Its UI, for the most part, is all business, and tries to make the process as clear as possible. Those, clearly, are the big things. Table stakes, as it were. ## Fun & Frivolity Keeping that in mind, I’ve still tried to put “pleasing” things into the general design, with a focus on making things a bit more convenient, clear, informative, or easier to look at. Things like animations and transitions (which were in SuperDuper Classic, too); updating progress with different options, communication via both bars and pulsing; more playful ways of choosing options; dragging around jobs; the sparkles to draw your attention for the first time1; things like that. But, yeah—while I don’t want it to be boring, SuperDuper isn’t ever going to be a Delicious Generation app.2 Respect to whose who can be that playful with their stuff, though! ## Fit & Finish There are serious “little” things, too, of course. And that’s where I generally focus. For example, SuperDuper preserves the destination drive icon and Spotlight state even across erase operations and replications. It’s a little thing, but I know that many users identify their drives by their icons, and so it’s nearly as important as keeping the name the same. Similarly, even though the Spotlight state is kept on the destination drive, I take pains to ensure that it’s preserved across the various copy permutations. It’s pretty annoying when Spotlight starts indexing a backup you told it to ignore…and can result in finding something on a backup rather than a source. Behavioral things, too, like mounting drives for the user, and unmounting them after (if they started that way)…there are a lot of little touches in there that just try to predict what a user would want, without needing any settings, or thought…it just works. ## Details & Obscurity SuperDuper 4.0.8, released today, deals with some of those cases, and handles some relatively obscure cases better than before. For example, users who have Samba setups on Linux boxes that include the fruit extensions may be preserving macOS permissions, and you can get into situations where a file with no permissions becomes permanently read-only (except server-side). Obscure, but handled. Speaking of obscure, the onboarding sequence is now sensitive to the macOS version you’re running, and name-checks the background activity section based differently depending on what it is. Because it regressed from macOS 14/15’s “Allow in the background” to macOS 26/27’s “Background App Activity” for reasons. There’s a lot more, but you get the idea: continue to polish-polish-polish. And to get the benefit of that Download SuperDuper! 4.0.8 and install (or, better, use the built-in updater). As always, enjoy, and thanks for using SuperDuper. --- 1. Eventually, I’ll get around to my original plan for this—having the “Hi!” hand come alive, swoop down, and point at the link, along with some other fun behaviors…the storyboard I did for this amuses me…but it’s a lot of work for a funny-but-useful bit of goofiness. Maybe if I do it they’ll let me into the Hall of Delicious Generations. ↩︎ 2. The original version of Apple’s Time Machine had its UI designed by Mike Matas, the original—and probably the best—Delicious Generation designer. I was lucky enough to have him design the original SuperDuper Classic icon back when he was a very young man, and it was quite clear he was both incredibly talented and going places. And, indeed, he did (many times over)! Since he left, Time Machine has become less fun, and certainly less H.G. Wells/Victorian. ↩︎

I’ve been asked a lot of times about when Smart Update becomes ⚡️Turbo Smart Update, and where the setting is in SuperDuper. The answer is: there’s no setting. When possible, SuperDuper automatically does a ⚡️Turbo Smart Update. So, why doesn’t it always ⚡️Turbo? ## The rules of the game Here’s the deal: ⚡️Turbo depends on a number of factors, and you can improve the likelihood it will happen by using a separate Copy Job for each source/destination pair. SuperDuper needs to maintain a relationship between the source, destination, copy method, etc., to ensure that ⚡️Turbo is reliable. If you change the copy method or the rules, then the relationship between the last backup and the next one has changed…and ⚡️Turbo is disallowed (until the next run). Turbo also won’t run after a One Time macOS Update, or an Erase, then copy until the second Smart Update. ## System effects SuperDuper also relies on the system’s own mechanism for tracking changes.1 Many (many) years ago, there was a program that I think was called Synk. It installed a kernel extension that tracked all file system changes and wrote a database into user space that the copy program used to make “smarter” copies. I remember thinking that was incredibly dangerous at the time. You could change the volume when Synk wasn’t running, or on another system, and Synk would be none the wiser. So, while clever, it wasn’t a reliable method of doing this. Years later, Apple added fsevents, a system-supported way of doing the same kind of thing. I evaluated it when it was introduced, and it was just too flaky to rely on…it wasn’t worth the risk. Since then, Apple has made changes to fsevents, making it far more reliable as a source of “truth” about volume status. Now, it’s no panacea. fsevents doesn’t tell you a ton, and it consolidates its change sets pretty regularly, so it’s not like you can just say “here’s what happened” and replay a bunch of events on the copy and get a good result. But, as a way of “thinning” the number of files and folders you have to visit, when used intelligently, it works well. Unless/Until it doesn’t. ## Sorry, Charlie Unfortunately, sometimes fsevents can’t keep up with the number of changes being made to a volume, or needs to flush its internal change database. So even though SuperDuper knows what to do, fsevents can veto our attempt annd say that it has, basically, lost the history—and a full scan is needed. This can also happen when a drive disconnects unexpectedly, or is unplugged without fully ejecting it. And, of course, it’s erased when you erase. ## Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! So there you go: ⚡️Turbo Smart Update works on the second and subsequent runs of the same job, when the job itself hasn’t changed in a way that invalidates ⚡️Turbo…as long as the system doesn’t invalidate its change database for the volumes involved. In the event a full scan is necessary, SuperDuper uses regular Smart Update. And since that’s more than twice as fast as before, it’s less painful than it could be. --- 1. Of course, there’s a ton of SuperDuper Special Sauce™️ involved here, too. ↩︎