Apple's moves point to a future with no bootable backups, says developer

The ability to boot from an external drive on an Apple Silicon Mac may not be an option for much longer, with the creation and use of the drives apparently being phased out by Apple, according to developers of backup tools.

For some users, the ability to create a bootable drive for their Mac gives them a safety net, in case the main drive on the Mac breaks or encounters a problem. It is a backup technique that can get users back up and running very quickly, but the option may not be available for much longer with Apple's transition to Apple Silicon.

Mike Bombich, the founder of Bombich Software behind Carbon Copy Cloner, wrote in a May 19 blog post that the company will continue to make bootable backups for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, and will "continue to support that functionality as long as macOS supports it."

However, with changes in the way a Mac functions with the introduction of Apple Silicon, the ability to use external booting could be limited, in part due to Apple's design decisions.

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