What we're testing in this beta cycle

We made a policy adjustment for Bootable Backup tasks
Previously, once a task was configured to create a bootable copy of the source, every future run of that task would erase the destination and reclone the entire source. That behavior was intentional, it produces the most reliably-bootable copy of the system. We've been working on a hybrid approach, however, that will allow incremental updates to a bootable backup, as long as the source and destination OS versions match. If the OS versions don't match, the destination (and all backup versions) must be erased and recloned; again, to offer the most reliably-bootable copy. This will make many of the CCC-specific features available for bootable backup tasks, e.g. backup versioning, Quick Update, insight into what changes were made to the source between events. There are still caveats to this approach to backups, and for most people, a "Standard Backup" is still the most appropriate strategy. If you're already creating bootable backups, click on CCC's Destination selector and choose Backup Volume Setup Assistant to see the new settings.

We made some adjustments around the sending of email notifications
Most of this should be transparent; please let us know if you see any problems with sending emails or the content of those emails.

We added support for OAUTH authentication via "Sign in with Microsoft" for sending email notifications
If you have an Outlook or Office 365 account and you use email notifications in CCC, please give the new consent flow a whirl in CCC Settings > Email Settings and let us know if you encounter any problems.

We introduced an option to surface an error that was previously suppressed
If your backup task runs when the screen is locked, files flagged with the "NSFileProtectionComplete" data protection class attribute cannot be opened. CCC now offers an option to raise these as errors (see CCC Settings > Advanced) along with instructions to repeat the backup while the system is unlocked, and an option to ignore the error on a file-by-file basis. Please share your feedback about the new handling of these errors via CCC's Help menu > Ask a question.

Modernized UI in CCC's Settings window
The setting indicated above was the proverbial straw on the camel's back for the old Settings window UI. We did a little bit of reorganizing in this window, but largely everything is where it was before. Let us know if you see any missing functionality or UI glitches in this window.

Changes in CCC 7.1.7

• Fixed

  b7: Addresses an errant prompt that suggests you need to re-provide the password for an SMTP account.

• Improved

  Added a global exclusion for the /.streams folder that contains QNAP-proprietary storage of NTFS filesystem metadata.

• Improved

  We made some adjustments to the collection of snapshots when a volume is selected in CCC's sidebar. The "Collecting snapshots" modal dialog has been laid to rest, and we resolved some queue blockages that could be caused by a single unresponsive volume.

• Improved

  Made a small adjustment to accommodate a SAMBA configuration that hides certain files by default. When that policy is applied, the server ignores changes to the "hidden" file flag, and the absence of that flag was causing some files (e.g. "Icon\r") to reappear in CCC's Task audit every time the task runs (i.e. because CCC was repeatedly trying to reapply the flag).

• New

  The "When files are modified on the source" scheduling setting now allows the destination volume to remain unmounted while monitoring the source. When the FSEvents threshold is met, CCC will mount and validate the destination, if necessary, then proceed with the file copying portion of the task. Likewise, the postflight option to unmount the destination is now available to tasks scheduled with this setting.

• New

  The "When files are modified on the source" scheduling setting is now allowed with network volume destinations. If the NAS volume is not mounted when the task initializes monitoring, CCC will not actively mount it until the FSEvents thresholds are met. This assuages our previous concerns about the NAS volume being "sleepy" when it comes time to actually write files. Now we mount it on-demand at the moment that we need it, and keep it unmounted otherwise.

• Improved

  Added support for OAUTH authentication via "Sign in with Microsoft" for sending email notifications.

• Improved

  Improved the way the ccc command-line utility presents active task progress indication when using the --watch argument.

• Improved

  Removed TouchBar support.