Acronis True Image for Mac Review

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Essentials: £42.99 per year for local backup of one computer (currently £34.39); Advanced: £62.99 per year for local and cloud backup of 1 computer (currently £44.09).

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While there is no shortage of good backup utilities for Mac, sometimes the product promised exceeds what you actually receive. Case in point, Acronis True Image for Poppywhich functions as a custom backup utility as well as antivirus/security software.

True Image, which requires macOS 11 (El Capitan) or later to install and run, is available as a 30-day free trial with no credit or debit card information required and retails for $49.99/42.99 £ per year for one computer with local backup and ransomware protection as part of the Essentials package, $72.99/£62.99 for one year per one computer with 250 GB of Acronis cloud storage as part of the Premium package (there are also 50 GB and 500 GB options), there is also a Premium package with Acronis cloud storage from 1 to 5 TB, with subscriptions automatically renewing unless you specify otherwise .

Check out our other recommendations for backup your Mac and others cloud-based Mac backup options.

In terms of features, True Image is already prepared. The software is easy to install and configure for seamless full disk access. It focuses on backup, protection, disk cloning and archiving modules. The protection module provides a good degree of anti-virus protection and identifies at least 23 potential threats from the sample. archive right off the bat. (For more antivirus options for Mac, check out our review best antivirus software for Mac).

As expected, the backup module allows you to designate source and destination volumes, as well as select which files to copy where. It’s easy to create exclusion lists that indicate which files can be skipped when backing up, and the scheduling feature worked great.

The backup module also leads to True Image’s Acronis Survival Kit, which lets you create a bootable backup drive from which your Mac can boot and install a new operating system. In addition, the backup modules save the archive in Acronis’ proprietary .itbx format, so you will need a copy of True Image to restore data.

The backup module also uses Acronis cloud feature and you can easily back up specific files, folders and volumes to your cloud space. The disk cloning module works well and quickly creates copies of volumes when needed, perhaps offering the best value for money for this package.

Finally, the Archive module allows you to upload local data to the Acronis cloud framework, which is useful for freeing up local space, but the cloud framework and web-based control panel have their own shortcomings, such as the lack of a clearly defined Delete button to delete files from your cloud space if you want to clear that space as well.

However, there is room for improvement. While True Image offers a good package and everything seems cohesive at first glance, there were bugs that couldn’t be avoided and UI elements that were either awkward or needed a complete overhaul. The lack of a percentage complete readout next to the progress bar was annoying, the estimated time remaining for a long test copy remained at 20 minutes for several hours, which is surprising.

After using the disk cloning feature, the volumes appeared hidden on the Mac, requiring a reboot to mount and re-display everything. Regarding the Acronis cloud architecture, when logging into the control panel, the product seems to be stuck under the name “Cyber ​​Protect Home Office” and “True Image” on the client side, which shows that the full transition to the new product is not yet complete. occur at one end.

While it’s easy to add encryption to an archive, elements such as defining a specific volume to be scanned by the protection module’s antivirus mode don’t seem to be found anywhere. If there is a service to sell, Acronis will gently nudge you towards it, as the software provides easy links to sign up for an identity protection service as well as additional cloud storage capacity, and I feel the focus is on offering what’s available. not what is available. to make True Image elegant and functional.

Is Acronis True Image worth buying?

Acronis True Image has always been something of a silent competitor on the Mac side and has never spent huge sums on marketing to appear in your Facebook or YouTube ad feed, instead chasing the larger enterprise and enterprise markets with its dozens of products and services. .

You can’t blame them for that, but it still robs you of what the True Image app for Mac could have been. What’s here has its good points, like great antivirus protection, good copy speeds, and a boot module creation tool that works as well as you want it to (no small feat these days, considering how complicated Apple has made this challenge for developers on Apple Silicon-based Macs), but clunky interface elements, some bugs when creating cloud archives, and a web dashboard with fewer controls than expected are disappointing.

Yes, it might be worth trying the free 30-day demo, but there are more specialized backup clients for Mac that don’t try to do everything at once, but still have some features, are more reliable, and may be more worth your attention.