There is no single solution to the problem, currently. As one developer told us, “it’s a bit hit and miss”. The net result is that, depending on which version of macOS you’re running and whether you have an Intel or Apple silicon Mac, bootable clones don’t always work. That means that the old way of creating bootable clones no longer works and developers have had to find ways to work with and around Apple’s new way of doing things.

Copies of the Signed System Volume are not bootable without a cryptographic seal applied by Apple. One example of this is the introduction of the Signed System Volume in Big Sur. One of the consequences of those changes is that is harder for third-party applications that need deep access to the system to work. However, over the last few versions of macOS Apple has been making changes to make it more secure. Some apps are focused on creating clones of your hard drive and offer incremental backup as an extra feature. Apple’s own Time Machine, which is included with macOS, is an example of this kind of solution.

Many options are focused solely on making backing up your Mac regularly as easy as as possible.

Mozbackup mac