Acronis True Image for Mac Review

While there’s no shortage of good backup utilities for the Mac, sometimes the promise of a product is greater than what’s actually delivered. Case in point, Acronis True Image for Mac, which functions as both a customizable backup utility as well as an antiviral/anti-malware piece of software.

True Image, which requires macOS 11 (El Capitan) or later to install and run, is available as a 30-day free trial without having to enter your credit or debit card, and retails for $49.99/£42.99 per year for one computer with local backup and anti-ransomware under the Essentials package, $72.99/£62.99 for one year for one computer with 250GB of Acronis cloud storage under the Advanced package (there are also options for 50GB and 500GB), there’s also a Premium package with up to 1TB to 5TB of Acronis cloud storage, the subscriptions renewing automatically unless you specify otherwise.

Take a look at our other recommendations for backing up your Mac and other cloud based Mac backup options.

Where features are concerned, True Image comes prepared. The software installed easily and was configured for full disk access without hassle, is centered around its Backup, Protection, Disk Cloning, and Archive modules–the Protection module offering a good degree of antiviral protection and catching no less than 23 potential threats from a sample archive off the bat. (For more antivirus for Mac options, take a look at our round up of the best Mac Antivirus software).

As expected, the Backup module allows you to designate source and destination volumes as well as choose which files are backed up and to where. It’s easy to create exclusion lists as to which files can by bypassed when it comes to backing up, and the scheduling feature worked like a charm.

The Backup module also leads to True Image’s Acronis Survival Kit, which allows for a bootable backup drive to be created that your Mac can boot and install a new operating system from. In addition to this, the Backup modules saves the archive in Acronis’ proprietary .itbx file format, so you’ll need a copy of True Image to restore your data.

Foundry

The Backup module also makes use of Acronis’ cloud feature, and you can readily back up designated files, folders, and volumes to your cloud space. The Disk Cloning module works well, and makes quick copies of volumes as needed, perhaps offering the best value for the suite.

Finally, the Archive module allows you to offload local data to Acronis’ cloud structure, which is handy for freeing up local space, but the cloud structure and web-based dashboard come with their own caveats, such as a lack of a clearly-defined delete button to clear files from your cloud space should you be looking to clear up that space as well.

Foundry

Still, there’s room for improvement. While True Image offers a good suite and things seem cohesive on the surface, there were bugs that couldn’t be avoided and user interface elements that were either inconvenient or needed a complete overall. The lack of a percentage complete readout alongside the progress bar became annoying, the estimated time remaining for a long test copy remained stuck at 20 minutes for hours, which raises one’s eyebrows.

Following a Disk Clone function, the volumes seemed hidden on the Mac, something which required a reboot to mount and display everything again. Where Acronis’ cloud architecture is concerned, the product seems stuck on the name “Cyber Protect Home Office” when logged into the dashboard and “True Image” on the client end, which shows that a complete migration to the new product new has yet to take place on one end.

While it’s easy to add encryption to an archive, elements like targeting a specific volume to scan in the Protection module’s antivirus mode seem nowhere to be found. If there’s a service to sell, Acronis will gently nudge you towards it, as the software provides easy links to subscribe to its identity protection service as well as additional cloud storage capacity, and I feel as if the focus is on offering what’s available as opposed to making True Image elegant and functional.

Should you buy Acronis True Image?

Acronis True Image has always been something of a silent contender on the Mac end, and never spent vast amounts on marketing to show up in your Facebook or YouTube ad feed, instead chasing after the larger corporate and enterprise markets via its dozens of products and services.

You can’t blame them for this, but it still takes away from what the True Image for Mac application could be. What’s present here has its good moments, such as admirable antivirus protection, good copy speeds, and a boot module creation tool that works as well as you could want it (no mean feat these days considering how Apple has made this more difficult for developers on Apple Silicon-based Macs), but clunky interface elements, some errors while creating archives to the cloud, and a web-based dashboard with fewer controls than expected make things frustrating.

Yes, this might be worth trying out the free 30-day demo, but there are more focused backup clients for the Mac that don’t try to be everything at once, still pull off a range of features, are more reliable, and might deserve your attention more.