Big Sur versus SuperDuper.

[sllewk]

Good morning, Being a big stupid idiot that I am I threw all caution not the wind and upgraded both my iMac and my MacBook Air from Catalina to Big Sur! What a BAD move it has proved to be- super duper does not like Big Sur one little bit! I have spent two days trying to get it working including being on christian name terms with Dave from Super Duper. My idea to overcome this problem is to down grade back to Catalina but IS THAT POSSIBLE I ask? If it is would someone point me gently in the right direction? My iMac is about 4 years old with a fusion drive and my MacBook Air is older with a flash drive. Thanking you in anticipation.
From Keith in Derby England.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

...My idea to overcome this problem is to down grade back to Catalina but IS THAT POSSIBLE I ask?

Yes, it is possible. But it is no walk in the park.

Basically you will need a backup to restore from. Either a Time Machine backup from before you moved to Big Sur, or a clone backup.

You will also need an external device (a clone backup or a boot flash drive) to boot from.

You either download Catalina by using Shift+Option+Command+R on restart
OR
You will erase your internal drive and reformat it using Disk Utility, then install Catalina from the Catalina installer on your boot device.

Then you will either restore an old backup to your internal hard drive from Time Machine
OR
You will use Migration Assistant to move all of your software from your clone backup to your internal hard drive.

There are nuances to the above instructions. So have a look at:

How to downgrade to an earlier version of macOS - ChrisWrites.com

Reverting to an earlier version of macOS isn’t as easy as selecting an option from a menu, or downloading the earlier release and then reinstalling it

www.chriswrites.com

How revert a macOS update: switch back to Ventura from Sonoma

Regret updating to Sonoma or having problems with the current version? Here's how to uninstall Sonoma and revert to an older version.

www.macworld.co.uk

 

[MacInWin]

Or, you can stay with Big Sur and just use Time Machine for backups. SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner have both struggled with making clones of Big Sur.

 

[sllewk]

Hi Randy B Singer and Jake, After looking at your writing on the subject Randy and looking at other ideas I think it is all much too complicated for little OLD me to cope with!
Jake, nice to see you again, I think I will adopt your idea of keeping Big Sur and use Back-up once a week. Dave- at Shirt Pocket (SuperDuper) agreed they were having trouble with Big Sur. Inadvertantly in a mad moment or two I must have clicked "Update Automatically" on both my Apple computers (mad impetuous youth) now I am being punished!! Oh well it is a case of 'like it or lump it'.
Many thanks to both of you and regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[IWT]

Hello, Keith. Nice to see you back with us again. Life would be dull without you.

I wholly endorse Jake's suggestion and your acceptance of the same.

macOS 11 Big Sur (BS) has matured since its introduction and is currently at 11.3.1, with version 11.4 not far off. Make sure you are fully up to date with your version of BS. I think you will learn to enjoy its little foibles and nuances

Time Machine, as you know, is a robust tool and works just fine with BS. You could BU automatically or at your convenience. SuperDuper! (SD!) still functions as a BU of your data and again that can be undertaken as and when you wish. It's the "bootable" bit that is causing problems.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Keith, if you decide to use Time Machine as your backup, and don't want the hourly backup that is the default, you can use Time Machine Editor to schedule them less frequently. You can get it here: TimeMachineEditor

Basically, you set up Time Machine as usual, then untick the box for "Back Up Automatically" and then use Time Machine Editor to set the interval you want. Here is what I have:


As you can see, I have it set to back twice a day at 12:15 AM and 12:15 PM. That's all I need. I leave the backup drive attached unless I am on the move with my MBP, so it backs up as ordered. If the backup drive is not attached, TM will make an snapshot of the system and will use that snapshot to do the backup once the backup drive is attached again. Pretty simple to use.

 

[sllewk]

Hi Ian and Jake, nice to see you both especially Ian; I hope all is well for both you?
I have ditched Superduper into the 'laugh and tear-up file' as it is causing more trouble than it is worth. I now rely onTime Machine for back up until SD arrives on scene fully operational, I have no time at all for half baked ideas! Not too worried about lack of a bootable copy in TM, I think I can live with that pro tem.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.