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I introduced CCC to the world over 15 years ago. With the debut of CCC 5 within reach, I thought it would be neat to see how CCC has changed over the years. I still remember the day that I published a description on VersionTracker and anticipated the response. Would people like it? Would someone else beat me to the solution? I've been thrilled with the response I've gotten from users over the years, and I'm happy to say that I've grown this little seed into a successful company that produces and supports a great product.

Conception: November, 2001

Before CCC, I wrote an AppleScript that performed the very basic tasks of copying files from one volume to another while retaining Unix permissions and ownership. The Mac OS X bootable backup was born! This little script never saw the light of day, though. Instead, I made the extra push to turn it into an application that would be accessible to more people.

CCC 1.0: January 18, 2002

This was the quintessential "1.0" release. All of the basic features were there for a simple clone from the startup disk to a backup disk.

CCC 2.0: November 2002

2.0 allowed you to choose any volume as the source. Look at those fancy buttons! And a scheduler! Documentation!

CCC 3.0: September 2007

The long gap between 2.0 and 3.0 was not a break. I spent those years diving deeper into the startup procedure of Mac OS X and I learned a lot. I wrote other applications too, including one that was used to clone hundreds of Macs all at the same time. I was also having kids :-). I remember bouncing my son in his baby bouncer while writing code at 3AM for CCC 3.0. It's amazing that I can look at sections of code and remember those moments so clearly, like a smell can remind you of a childhood memory.

CCC 3.4: July 2011

There were several dozen releases of CCC between 3.0 and 3.4, but this was the first big one after I left Apple.

CCC 4.0: October 2014

Not long after Lion was introduced I completely stripped CCC down and rebuilt it. The result was spectacular – a refreshing new task-centric interface and scheduling that felt built-in, not added as an afterthought.

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August 22, 2017 Update: We have published a Kbase article that offers more up to date information on this subject here: Everything you need to know about Carbon Copy Cloner and APFS

Apple introduced macOS "High Sierra" this week, and along with many other developers, we've eagerly started dissecting the new operating system to see what's new. Like in past years, those living on the bleeding edge are wondering, "Will CCC work with this new OS?". Or perhaps "when" prepended to that same question. The short answer is that we have already posted a version of CCC that offers preliminary support for High Sierra. If you're running the Developer Preview of the new OS, open CCC and choose "Check for updates" from the Carbon Copy Cloner menu to get the update. We've found a few issues of concern in the new OS. We addressed some of these issues in the current version of CCC; some will be dealt with in future beta updates as we continue testing.

Will I have to pay for an update to CCC that works with macOS High Sierra?

When we have completed CCC 4 qualification on High Sierra, we will issue an update to CCC 4 that is free to all current CCC 4 license holders.

Will CCC work with Apple's new filesystem, APFS?

The current version of CCC 4 already works with APFS insofar as CCC can copy files to and from that filesystem. The current version can also make bootable backups from an APFS startup disk to an HFS+ formatted destination volume – we've already tested that, and in the little bit of testing that we've done so far, that works great. The current feature set of CCC 4 will be qualified against High Sierra – creating bootable HFS+-based backups and working with CoreStorage encrypted backups will be qualified and functional (barring any OS bugs) and we aim to complete that by the time Apple ships High Sierra in the Fall.

Creating a bootable APFS volume, however, is brand-new territory. The semantics of starting a Mac from an APFS volume are completely different from those of an HFS+ volume. We have established a procedure to create an APFS startup volume, though, and we've even created a proof-of-concept bootable APFS clone. What lies ahead is a massive amount of engineering work to build support for these new procedures into CCC. APFS encryption is also handled quite differently from CoreStorage encryption, so we have a lot of work to do in regard to building in support for automatically unlocking and mounting APFS encrypted backup volumes. We're aiming to offer new functionality for creating APFS bootable (and optionally encrypted) backups by the time Apple ships macOS High Sierra in the Fall.

Stay tuned to our blog for updates on our progress and other news from Bombich Software. This will be an exciting Summer!