Acronis True Image User Manual
USER'S GUIDE
2 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
Table of contents
1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................4
1.1 What is Acronis® True Image™? ................................................................................................ 4
1.2 New in this version .................................................................................................................... 4
1.3 System requirements ................................................................................................................. 5
1.4 Install, update or remove Acronis True Image 2017 ................................................................. 6
1.5 Trial version information ........................................................................................................... 7
1.6 Acronis Customer Experience Program ..................................................................................... 7
1.7 Sending feedback to Acronis ..................................................................................................... 8
1.8 Technical Support ...................................................................................................................... 9
2 Backup .......................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 Basic concepts ..........................................................................................................................10
2.2 What you can and cannot back up ..........................................................................................11
2.3 Backing up to local or network storage ...................................................................................12
2.4 Backing up to Acronis Cloud ....................................................................................................13
2.5 Notarized backup .....................................................................................................................14
2.5.1 Using Blockchain technology ........................................................................................................................ 15
2.5.2 Verifying file authenticity .............................................................................................................................. 16
2.5.3 Manual verification of a file's authenticity .................................................................................................. 17
2.6 Backing up mobile devices .......................................................................................................17
2.6.1 Acronis True Image for mobile devices ....................................................................................................... 18
2.6.2 Local destination of mobile backups ........................................................................................................... 19
2.7 Scheduling ................................................................................................................................19
2.8 Backup encryption ...................................................................................................................20
2.9 Backup retention rules.............................................................................................................21
2.10 Excluding items from backups .................................................................................................21
2.11 Network settings for backup ...................................................................................................23
2.12 What is Acronis Cloud? ............................................................................................................24
2.12.1 Creating an Acronis account ......................................................................................................................... 25
2.12.2 Subscription to Acronis Cloud ...................................................................................................................... 25
2.13 Parallels Desktop support ........................................................................................................26
2.14 Backup list icons .......................................................................................................................27
2.15 Sorting backups in the list ........................................................................................................28
3 Creating bootable rescue media ..................................................................................... 30
4 Recovery ....................................................................................................................... 31
4.1 When do I recover my Mac? ....................................................................................................31
4.2 Recovering your Mac ...............................................................................................................31
4.2.1 FAQ about Boot Camp partition................................................................................................................... 33
4.3 Recovering files from local backups ........................................................................................33
4.4 Recovering files from Acronis Cloud ........................................................................................34
3 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
4.5 Searching backup content .......................................................................................................36
5 Protecting family data .................................................................................................... 37
5.1 What is family data protection? ..............................................................................................37
5.2 Adding a new device ................................................................................................................37
5.3 Backing up any computer ........................................................................................................37
5.4 Recovering data with Online Dashboard .................................................................................38
5.5 Backing up a Facebook account ...............................................................................................38
5.6 Recovering your Facebook account .........................................................................................39
6 Archiving data................................................................................................................ 41
6.1 What is data archiving? ...........................................................................................................41
6.2 What is excluded from archives? .............................................................................................42
6.3 Cloud archiving vs. Online backup ...........................................................................................42
6.4 Archiving your data ..................................................................................................................43
6.4.1 Network settings for archiving ..................................................................................................................... 44
6.4.2 Archive encryption ........................................................................................................................................ 45
6.5 Accessing your archived files ...................................................................................................45
4 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
1 Introduction
In this section
What is Acronis® True Image™? ................................................................ 4
New in this version ..................................................................................... 4
System requirements ................................................................................. 5
Install, update or remove Acronis True Image 2017.................................. 6
Trial version information ............................................................................ 7
Acronis Customer Experience Program ..................................................... 7
Sending feedback to Acronis ...................................................................... 8
Technical Support ...................................................................................... 9
1.1 What is Acronis
®
True Image™?
Acronis True Image 2017 is an application that protects all information on your Mac, including the
operating system, applications, settings, and all of your data. To protect your Mac, you need to
perform two easy operations:
1. Create a complete backup of your Mac.
This saves your operating system files and all your data to a file called backup. You can store this
file in local or network storage or upload it on Acronis Cloud. Refer to Backing up to local or
network storage (p. 12) and Backing up to Acronis Cloud (p. 13) for details.
2. Create Acronis bootable media.
This is a removable drive containing boot files. When your Mac cannot start up, this media allows
you to start an Acronis recovery environment and use your backup to rollback your Mac to a
healthy state. Refer to Creating bootable rescue media (p. 30) for details.
After performing these two steps, you can be sure that you will be able to repair your Mac OS X and
recover your lost documents in a few minutes.
Key features:
Backup of selected disks or entire Mac contents to local or network storage (p. 12) or to Acronis
Cloud (p. 13)
Backup of selected files and folders to local or network storage (p. 12) or to Acronis Cloud (p. 13)
Data archiving (p. 41)
Family data protection (p. 37)
Creating bootable rescue media (p. 30)
Mac OS X recovery in the bootable media environment (p. 31)
Recovery of specific files and folders under Mac OS X (p. 33)
1.2 New in this version
macOS Sierra support—Now you can install Acronis True Image 2017 and back up your Mac
running the newest version of OS X.
Proving file authenticity with Blockchain technology (available with the Premium subscription
only)—Acronis True Image 2017 uses the Blockchain technology to provide top-level security for
5 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
your backed-up files. This technology gives you the guarantee that your files have not been
modified by fraudulent software, and when it is time to recover, you recover data from exactly
the same file that was backed up.
Mobile device backup to local storage—If you have an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, you
can protect your mobile data, such as photos, video files, contacts, and calendars. In addition to
Acronis Cloud, you can now store your mobile backups in local storage on your computer. For
this operation, you need to have Acronis True Image 2017 installed on your computer and the
Acronis True Image mobile app installed on your mobile device.
Auto-detection of NAS devices—If you use NAS in your home network, Acronis True Image 2017
will detect it and suggest backing up or archiving to this device.
Mobile backup encryption—Before you create a mobile backup, you can turn on the backup
encryption option and protect the backup by using a password. This option is available for both
types of mobile backups—local and cloud.
Separate activation of Acronis Cloud—In Acronis True Image 2017, Acronis Cloud is not activated
automatically and it is completely turned off for you until you deliberately start using it, for
example, by backing up to the cloud.
Encryption of a Facebook backup—The backup of your Facebook data can now be encrypted and
protected with a password.
1.3 System requirements
Supported operating systems:
OS X Mavericks 10.9.5
OS X Yosemite 10.10.5
OS X El Capitan 10.11.6+
macOS Sierra 10.12
Supported file systems:
Mac OS Extended format (case-insensitive)
FAT32
exFAT
NTFS (read-only)
You cannot back up data to a disk with an NTFS file system. However, you can recover data from a backup
located on this type of file system.
Requirements for Acronis bootable media:
To create a bootable media, you can use any removable drive with 4 GB (or more) of free space.
CD and DVD media are not supported.
Supported storage media:
Internal drives (HDD, SSD, RAID)
USB drives
FireWire drives
Thunderbolt
Network share, NAS
Acronis Cloud
6 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
General requirements:
You need to have administrator privileges to run Acronis True Image 2017.
1.4 Install, update or remove Acronis True Image 2017
Installation
To install Acronis True Image 2017:
1. Download the Acronis True Image 2017 setup file from the Acronis website:
To purchase the full version, go to:
www.acronis.com/redirector/products/timac2017/getfullversion/.
To try the free trial version, go to:
www.acronis.com/redirector/products/timac2017/getfreetrial/.
2. Read and accept the terms of the license agreement and the Acronis Customer Experience
Program.
3. Double-click the Acronis True Image 2017 setup file (the file has a .dmg extension).
4. Drag the Acronis True Image 2017 icon to the Applications folder.
When you start Acronis True Image 2017 for the first time, you must enter the serial number or start
the trial version of the product.
Update
Acronis True Image 2017 notifies you automatically when an update is available from the Acronis
website. You can download it, and then install it over your version of Acronis True Image 2017. All
your backups and settings will be kept.
Uninstallation
To remove Acronis True Image 2017 from your Mac:
1. Open the Finder, and then click Applications.
2. Find Acronis True Image 2017 in the list, and then drag it to the Trash.
7 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
1.5 Trial version information
If you want first to try and evaluate Acronis True Image 2017, you can install the free, 30-day trial
version of the product. The trial version is fully functional. After the trial period, the program
functionality is blocked and you will need to upgrade to the full version if you wish to continue using
Acronis True Image 2017.
After the trial period expires, your backups are not deleted and can be used for recovery in the full
version of Acronis True Image 2017.
Acronis Cloud
You have 1000 GB of storage space on the cloud during the trial period. You can use this space to
store your online backups. After the trial period is over, Acronis Cloud works in recovery-only mode
for 30 days. After this period, you won't be able to use the Acronis Cloud service and all your data will
be deleted.
Installing the trial version
To start using the trial version, install the product, and then click Start Trial. Refer to Install, update
or remove Acronis True Image 2017 (p. 6) for details.
Upgrading to the full version
To upgrade to the full version of the product:
1. Purchase the full version at the Acronis website:
www.acronis.com/redirector/products/timac2017/getfullversion/.
2. Open Acronis True Image 2017.
3. On the menu bar, click Acronis True Image 2017, and then click Enter Serial Number.
4. Insert the full serial number in the appropriate box, and then click Proceed.
1.6 Acronis Customer Experience Program
Acronis Customer Experience Program (CEP) is a new way to allow Acronis customers to contribute
to the features, design and development of Acronis products. This program enables our customers to
provide us with various information, including information about the hardware configuration of your
host computer and/or virtual machines, the features you use most (and least), and the nature of the
problems you face. Based on this information, we will be able to improve the Acronis products and
the features you use most often.
To make a decision:
1. In the Acronis True Image menu, click About Acronis True Image.
2. To leave the program, clear the Participate in the Acronis Customer Experience Program check
box.
If you choose to participate, the technical information will be automatically collected every week. We
will not collect any personal data, like your name, address, phone number, or keyboard input.
Participation in the CEP is voluntary, however, but the end results intended to provide software
improvements and enhanced functionality to better meet the needs of our customers.
8 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
1.7 Sending feedback to Acronis
We frequently improve our products and services by making them more functional, reliable, and fast.
Via the feedback form, you can point out inconveniences and defects that we should resolve to make
Acronis True Image 2017 even better. Please spend a couple of minutes to tell us what you think
about our product, suggest a new feature, or report a problem. We do read and analyze all feedback.
We do not reply to all feedback messages. If you need assistance with Acronis True Image 2017, contact
Technical Support (p. 9).
To send a feedback to Acronis:
1. In the Acronis True Image 2017 menu, click Send feedback. The feedback form opens.
2. Choose a feedback reason from the list.
3. Type your message.
4. Provide your name and email.
5. [Optional step] By default, Acronis True Image 2017 attaches a screenshot of the console
window. You can delete it if you think it will not help us investigate your issue or understand your
idea.
6. [Optional step] You can also attach a file and Acronis system report.
An Acronis system report contains various technical information, including information about
your hardware configuration, OS X version, system log, event log of Acronis True Image 2017,
and your backup settings.
Note: An Acronis system report does not contain any personal data, like your name, address,
phone number, or keyboard input.
We recommend that you attach the system report when you faced a serious error, for example,
when Acronis True Image 2017 stopped responding.
7. Click Send.
9 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
1.8 Technical Support
Maintenance and Support Program
If you need assistance with your Acronis product, please go to http://www.acronis.com/support/
Product Updates
You can download the latest updates for all your registered Acronis software products from our
website at any time after logging into your Account (http://www.acronis.com/my) and registering
the product. See Registering Acronis Products at the Website (http://kb.acronis.com/content/4834)
and Acronis Website User Guide (http://kb.acronis.com/content/8128).
10 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
2 Backup
In this section
Basic concepts .......................................................................................... 10
What you can and cannot back up ........................................................... 11
Backing up to local or network storage ................................................... 12
Backing up to Acronis Cloud .................................................................... 13
Notarized backup ..................................................................................... 14
Backing up mobile devices ....................................................................... 17
Scheduling ................................................................................................ 19
Backup encryption ................................................................................... 20
Backup retention rules ............................................................................. 21
Excluding items from backups ................................................................. 21
Network settings for backup .................................................................... 23
What is Acronis Cloud? ............................................................................ 24
Parallels Desktop support ........................................................................ 26
Backup list icons ....................................................................................... 27
Sorting backups in the list ........................................................................ 28
2.1 Basic concepts
Backup and recovery
Backup refers to making copies of data so that they can be used to recover the original data after a
data loss event.
Backups are useful primarily for two purposes:
To recover an operating system (p. 31) when it is corrupted or cannot start. This process is called
disaster recovery. For information about protecting your Mac from a disaster, refer to Backing up
to local or network storage (p. 12) and Backing up to Acronis Cloud (p. 13) for details.
To recover specific files and folders (p. 33) after they have been accidentally deleted or
corrupted.
Recovery methods:
Full recovery can be performed to the original location or to a new one.
When the original location is selected, the data in the location is completely overwritten with the
data from the backup. In case of a new location, the data is just copied to the new location from
the backup.
Incremental recovery is performed only to the original location and only from a cloud backup.
Before the recovery starts, the files in the original location are compared with the files in the
backup by file attributes, such as file size and date of last modification. Those files that do not
match are marked for recovery, the remaining files will be skipped during recovery. In that way,
as opposed to the full recovery, Acronis True Image recovers only changed files. This method
significantly reduces the recovery time and saves Internet traffic while recovering from Acronis
Cloud.
Backup versions
A backup version is created during a backup operation. Each version represents a point in time to
which the system or data can be restored. The first backup version contains all the data selected for
11 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
backup. The second and subsequent versions contain only data changes that occurred since the
previous backup version. All the backup versions are stored in a single backup file.
Backup file format
When you back up your Mac to a local storage or a network place, Acronis True Image 2017 saves
backup data in the proprietary .tib format, by using compression. The data from .tib file backups can
be recovered only through Acronis True Image 2017.
When you back up your Mac to Acronis Cloud (p. 24), Acronis True Image 2017 saves your data "as
is". You can open the Acronis Cloud web application (p. 24) on any Mac computer and recover the
data.
Schedule
For your backups to be really helpful, they must be as up-to-date as possible. Schedule your backups
(p. 19) to run on a regular basis.
Backup retention rules
Every time you run a backup operation, manually or on a schedule, Acronis True Image 2017 creates
a new backup version in the backup location. To delete obsolete backup versions automatically, you
can set the backup retention rules. Refer to Backup retention rules (p. 21) for details.
2.2 What you can and cannot back up
The table below shows what and where you can back up.
Backup destinations
Internal
drives (HDD,
SSD, RAID)
Acronis
Cloud
USB
drives
Thund
erbolt
AirPort
Time
Capsule
Network
share,
NAS
CD,
DVD
FTP
server
Internal drives (HDD, SSD)
+ + + + + + -
-
USB drives
+ + + + + + -
-
FireWire drives
+ + + + + + -
-
Thunderbolt
+ + + + + + -
-
Fusion drives
+ + + + + + -
-
Hard drives protected with
FileVault 2
+ + + + + + -
-
Hard drives with Boot
Camp installed
+ + + + + + -
-
Specific files
+ + + + + + -
-
Separate partitions
- - - - - - -
-
RAID, Apple RAID
- - - - - - -
-
CD, DVD
- - - - - - -
-
APM disks
- - - - - - -
-
12 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
2.3 Backing up to local or network storage
To back up your data to local or network storage:
1. Open Acronis True Image 2017.
2. Perform one of the following:
If this is your first backup, skip this step.
If you already have a backup and you want to create a new one, click Add Backup at the
bottom of the backup list.
Note: To delete a backup, right-click it, and then click Delete. The backup will be removed from the list,
and the backup files will be deleted from the backup storage.
3. Click the backup source icon, and then select what you want to back up:
Disks
Files and folders
NAS device (if any)
4. Click the backup destination icon, select where you want to save the backup file to, and then click
OK. If the location is not listed, click Browse, and then select a location.
If you have an NAS device, it will be automatically detected and listed along with other locations.
5. [Optional step] Configure additional settings. You can:
Exclude files and folders manually at Settings —> Exclusions. Refer to Excluding items from
backups (p. 21) for details.
Configure the backup schedule at Settings —> Schedule. Refer to Scheduling (p. 19) for
details.
Set the backup retention rules at Settings —> Cleanup. Refer to Backup retention rules (p.
21) for details.
Protect your backup with a password and encryption at Settings —> Encryption. Refer to
Backup encryption (p. 20) for details.
13 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
6. After you have configured all settings and you are ready to start a backup, click Back Up.
To recover your Mac from a Acronis True Image backup, you must have an Acronis bootable media. If
you do not have one, please create it. Refer to Creating bootable rescue media (p. 30) for details.
2.4 Backing up to Acronis Cloud
To start using Acronis Cloud:
Create an Acronis account (p. 25), if you do not have one.
Subscribe to the Acronis Cloud service (p. 25).
To back up your Mac to Acronis Cloud:
1. Open Acronis True Image 2017.
2. Perform one of the following:
If this is your first backup, skip this step.
If you already have a backup and you want to create a new one, click the plus sign at the
bottom of the backup list.
Note: To delete a backup, right-click it, and then click Delete. The backup will be removed from the list,
and the backup files will be deleted from the backup storage.
3. Click the backup source icon, and then select what you want to back up:
Disks
Files and folders
NAS device (if any)
4. Click the backup destination icon, select Acronis Cloud, and then click OK.
If you are not signed in yet, enter the email address and password of your Acronis account, and
then click Sign In.
If you do not have an Acronis account, click Create Account, type your email address, password,
and then click the Create Account button. Refer to Creating an Acronis account (p. 25) for details.
14 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2017
5. [Optional step] Configure additional settings. You can:
Exclude data protected with third-party services, if you use any. Click Optimize backup and
specify the data to exclude. Refer to Excluding items from backups (p. 21) for details.
Exclude files and folders manually at Settings —> Exclusions. Refer to Excluding items from
backups (p. 21) for details.
Configure the backup schedule at Settings —> Schedule. Refer to Scheduling (p. 19) for
details.
Set the backup retention rules at Settings —> Cleanup. Refer to Backup retention rules (p.
21) for details.
Protect your backup with a password and encryption at Settings —> Encryption. Refer to
Backup encryption (p. 20) for details.
Select a preferred data center and configure the upload speed at Settings —> Network.
Refer to Network settings for backup (p. 23) for details.
6. After you have configured all settings and you are ready to start a backup, click Back Up.
The first online backup may take a considerable amount of time to complete. Future backup processes will
likely be much faster, because only changes to files will be transferred.
To recover your Mac from a Acronis True Image backup, you must have an Acronis bootable media. If
you do not have one, please create it. Refer to Creating bootable rescue media (p. 30) for details.
2.5 Notarized backup
By using Blockchain technology, Acronis True Image 2017 can protect your files from unauthorized
modification. This gives you a guarantee that you can recover your data from the same file that was
backed up. We recommend that you use this type of backup to protect your legal document files or
any other files that require proved authenticity. Refer to Using Blockchain technology (p. 15) for
details.
To create a notarized backup of your files and folders:
1. Open Acronis True Image 2017.
2. Perform one of the following:
If this is your first backup, skip this step.
If you already have a backup and you want to create a new one, click Add Backup at the
bottom of the backup list.
Note: To delete a backup, right-click it, and then click Delete. The backup will be removed from the list,
and the backup files will be deleted from the backup storage.
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