Building Better Backups with CCC 7
CCC 7 focuses on helping you build a better backup strategy. Up to now we’ve given you the tools for creating backups, and of course CCC offered some coaching suggestions in the past, but largely has left the user to deal with some logistics that could be difficult for some people. CCC 7 introduces functionality that will not only tell you how to set up your backup correctly, but will do the more complicated parts for you.
We are also excited to announce a new iOS application that backs up media and files from your mobile device to locally-attached storage, to a NAS, or to CCC-managed storage on your Mac. Especially for anyone that generates a lot of content on their mobile device, this is a fast and convenient way to bring backups of photos and files on your mobile device into your CCC backup ecosystem.
Continue reading to learn more about all of the new features and functionality packed into CCC 7.
Backup Volume Setup Assistant
Most new disks come pre-formatted for Windows, and the default filesystem is not a great choice for making backups on macOS. CCC's documentation has coached you through reformatting the backup volume in the past, but CCC 7's new Backup Volume Setup Assistant takes all of these steps out of the initial setup procedure. When you select a destination volume, the setup assistant will present choices for how the destination volume should be configured. With just a couple clicks, you can get your new backup disk reformatted using the best filesystem for backups, enable snapshot support, and even enable encryption.
The Backup Volume Setup Assistant also aims to solve task conflicts by verifying that the destination is dedicated to the backup task. If another task is using the same destination (e.g. to back up some other source volume), the setup assistant will identify the other task, and offer an option to add a volume to the destination device instead.
When you agree to use the destination volume exclusively for the backup task, you add numerous benefits to your backup strategy:
- Avoid task conflicts
- Simplify future restore activity
- CCC's SafetyNet feature and the "Protect root-level items on the destination" setting are disabled, which avoids logistical constraints in the future and eliminates unnecessary redundancy
- If applicable to the source, CCC's Quick update feature is enabled by default, which greatly improves performance of regularly-scheduled backup tasks
The Backup Volume Setup Assistant is presented any time you select a volume as the destination to a backup task. You can also click on the Destination selector to access the setup assistant manually if you would like to revisit your current backup strategy.
Related Documentation
- How to set up your first backup
- Use Quick Update when it's possible to collect a list of modified folders from macOS
More options for limiting and extending snapshot retention
"Permanent" snapshots
Many people have asked for a way to flag specific snapshots as "special", and have a way to retain these snapshots permanently (e.g. "This is my pre-upgrading to Sonoma backup"). CCC 7 offers support for protecting snapshots from automated deletion. Right-click any snapshot and choose "Protect Snapshot" to bestow that protection upon it. Protected snapshots can include comments that describe the snapshot's meaning to you.
Limit snapshot disk usage and max age
We also received frequent requests for limiting snapshot retention based on total snapshot disk usage, e.g. so that multiple volumes on a given disk can share space more democratically. You'll find that new option when you apply a custom Snapshot Retention Policy to any given volume. Likewise, we've seen some cases where people have snapshots that are several years old. If you don't think you'll be digging that deeply into your files' pasts, you can have CCC set a finite limit on snapshot age.
Click on CCC's Destination selector and choose Manage snapshots on {volume name} to find these new settings.
Related Documentation
- Snapshot thinning and pruning
- Protecting and renaming snapshots
Product Tour: Learn how to customize the retention of backup history on your backup
Snapshot Searching
By popular demand, we added functionality to search snapshots by file name in CCC's Snapshot Browser. Select a volume in CCC's sidebar, select a snapshot(s), then right-click and choose "View in Snapshot Browser". The Snapshot Browser will compare the content of each snapshot against the current state of the backup. Enter a search term in the sidebar to find specific files in any of the snapshots, then see how the file differs in each snapshot.
Related Documentation
- Finding and comparing versions of files in the Snapshot Browser
Support for network-based task run time conditions
People that take their Macs on trips are sometimes annoyed that their backup tasks report errors when they're away from home (and away from their backup devices), or that their NAS-backup tasks run when their Mac isn't connected via ethernet. We added three new network-identity-based conditions that will limit scheduled tasks from running depending on the current network configuration:
- Only run if ethernet is available
- Only run when the Mac is connected to a specific WiFi network
- Only run when the Mac's location is set to a specific choice
Related Documentation
- Applying runtime conditions to scheduled backup tasks
The CCC Diplomat: Back up files and media from your iOS devices to your Mac
The CCC Dashboard includes a new tab named CCC Diplomat where you can designate a volume for your mobile device backups. The Diplomat advertises a service on your local network to iOS devices that are running the CCC Mobile companion application. Making wireless backups to the diplomat is easy and fast – typically a lot faster than backing up to storage that you attach directly to your mobile device. These backups also get folded into your CCC backup ecosystem. When CCC snapshot support is enabled on your Diplomat backup volume, CCC will create snapshots on that volume whenever your mobile devices make backups. CCC also records events and even task audits for your diplomat backups.
Related Documentation
- Backing up to Mac-attached storage hosted by a CCC Diplomat
- CCC Dashboard: Configuring the CCC Diplomat for iOS backups
CCC's file copier handles renamed folders more efficiently
In the past when a folder was renamed on the source, the folder would be removed from the destination and recopied. CCC's next-generation file copier retains folder inode information, so now we can detect renamed folders and simply rename those folders on the destination. This functionality is currently limited to APFS source volumes.
Task Notes
Some people manage a lot of backup tasks, and the purpose of each task may not be entirely obvious from the task name alone. Likewise, even within a backup task, you might have different reasons for running individual events, e.g. "This is the backup made prior to installing XYZ.app on the source." CCC 7 adds Task Notes, which allow you to annotate individual tasks and events. Click Notes at the bottom of the CCC window to add notes to a task. To see notes associated with specific events, open the Task History window, select an event, then click the Notes button in the middle-of-the-window separator bar.
Vacation Snapshots
Previously, CCC would abort the task if the destination was unavailable. Some people that travel without their backup disk have been asking for a way to retain versioning on the source even when they're away from the office. Now, if snapshot support is enabled on the source volume, CCC will create a snapshot on the source at the scheduled run time even if the destination is absent.
Related Documentation
Enable/Disable APFS Encryption
When you select an APFS volume in CCC's sidebar, you'll find a new FileVault switch. Enabling encryption on a given APFS volume is now that simple – just flip a switch. CCC will also show progress indication of the conversion process.
Related Documentation
Other new features and improvements
Our to-do list never ends, and we're constantly receiving great feedback from users on how we can improve CCC. Here are just a handful of the other improvements that we're excited to introduce in CCC 7:
- Product tours: These bubble-tip guided tours walk you through various scenarios and show where to find settings. We've peppered these throughout the documentation to provide better direction for getting to various settings and functionality.
- We added support for creating, deleting, listing and mounting snapshots in the CCC command-line utility. Run the
cccutility without arguments to see the new options. - You now have more granular control over the events that are shared with Notification Center, and the interruption level associated with each (e.g. should a notification be presented, should a sound be played?).
- We added a simulator for the Snapshot Retention Policy thinning settings. The thinning settings are designed to reduce overall snapshot disk usage while still providing a good breadth of backup history. The simulator allows you to adjust the settings and see exactly what kind of breadth and granularity you can expect in your backup history. Click the "i" bubble button next to the "Snapshot Thinning" header when customizing a Snapshot Retention Policy to find the Snapshot Thinning Simulator.
- We added more granular control over postflight power management settings. Now when you add a restart or shut down action to your task, you can choose to have it be an immediate request, a request with the typical 60-second countdown dialog, or a forced event.
Upgrading from CCC 6
The upgrade path from CCC 6 to CCC 7 couldn't be simpler. Simply open CCC 7, and it will automatically update your CCC 6 tasks. If you kick the tires for 30 days and decide to stick with CCC 6, simply re-open CCC 6 and choose the option to downgrade. CCC 6 will then reload your original CCC 6 tasks and everything will be as it was prior to your trial of CCC 7.
Notable interface changes going from CCC 6 to 7
CCC 7 includes no notable interface changes, beyond the additions noted above. We recognize that many people are averse to UI changes, so we worked really hard to keep them to a minimum in this release!