My congratulations to Econ Technologies for releasing ChronoSync 10. ChronoSync has been the best syncing software on the Mac for a long time and it is great to see it evolve with macOS.

This major update contains full support for macOS 12 Monterey, and runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel-based Mac computers. ChronoSync 10 contains many features and fixes most notably simple bootable backups for Big Sur and Monterey, iCloud support, and custom Archive location.

ChronoSync 10 features the return of the simple Bootable Backups for Big Sur and Monterey. Since Catalina, Apple split the main drive into two volumes: System and Data. Starting with Big Sur you could no longer copy the System volume. ChronoSync’s approach to creating bootable backups on Big Sur was a bit cumbersome. It ignored the System volume and could only sync the Data volume which was a less than ideal scenario. ChronoSync 10 takes advantage of Apple’s APFS replication utility (called ASR) to create a cloned image on the destination volume. Once the full system clone is made, ChronoSync will only handle the Data volume in subsequent syncs. This approach creates bootable backups that are straightforward and easy to maintain.

ChronoSync 10 offers custom Archive locations. Previously ChronoSync maintained an archive of deleted and older files on the same volume as the destination. Now ChronoSync can maintain an Archive in a different location than the destination. The main benefit is that an Archive can be placed on a different volume to maximize storage capacity. Maintain a backup on one device and the archive on another. In addition to custom Archive locations ChronoSync 10 features the Archive Mover which can be used to relocate an archive to another volume and the Archive Maintainer which easily manages the Archive so it doesn’t consume too much space.

ChronoSync 10 contains direct iCloud support which is two features in one. First, the ability to synchronize directly to iCloud storage. Files synchronized to  iCloud will propagate to all other devices that you have associated with that same Apple ID for easy access. Second the ability to backup files from iCloud. People sometimes ask me how to backup their iCloud data. With this feature ChronoSync has you covered. Learn more at the ChronoSync website.

With the proliferation of cloud-based storage, it’d be easy to think you don’t need local backup anymore. I disagree. I make regular backups of my data to big, slow, inexpensive spinning hard drives that I store away from the computer (with one going offsite).

I’ve tried all the tools for this and ChronoSync is my favorite. ChronoSync is the automatic sync and backup app for your Mac, and they have just released a major beta, ChronoSync 4.10. ChronoSync can back up your data, create a bootable disk, clone your hard drive, synchronize files between two computers and store redundant backups in the cloud. This new release brings:

1. Monterey support and optimized for M1 Macs.
2. Simple bootable backups, like the old days, for all the new versions of macOS.
3. iCloud support.

My congratulations to the ChronoSync team on this release.

Chronosync, my favorite application for syncing selected files between networks/computers/drives released its 4.5 update today with some pretty nice upgrades.

Everything is faster with speed improvements to scanning (by about 30%) and copying (by about 10-15%). I ran the new version on some of my bigger syncs and the difference is noticeable. The application is also now 64 bit and has retina artwork throughout (Hooray!). They’ve also added better scheduling and some intelligence to know when you are trying to move forbidden files. In that sense, Chronosync protects you from yourself.

They continue to honor their “free upgrades for life” policy and my upgrade came down no problem. To learn more, go here.