Acronis True Image 2017
Fusing drive backup with the cloud
£34.99 FROM Acronis, acronis.com NEEDS OS X 10.9.5 or higher, iOS 8.0 or higher
True Image 2017 is a hybrid backup app. It can create disk images of entire drives, or just back up selected files. It also ties into Acronis’ cloud backup service, with yearly subscriptions (£29.99 for 500GB) available alongside the one-off fee.
The cloud options are increasingly pervasive in True Image; it’s the default option when setting up a backup, and it’s needed to back up your iOS devices, or if you want to use the two biggest new features in this version: Facebook profile backup (including photos and videos), and the Online Dashboard, where you can use the app remotely through your web browser. One other welcome (if overdue) new feature enables you to search for and recover individual files from drive images.
Although improved backup times are promised, they still don’t feel all that quick – for example, it took over two hours to back up 178GB from an SSD to a fast USB 3.0 drive. That said, subsequent backups will be much quicker (and smaller) due to incremental and differential backup options.
True Image is flexible and capable, yet unnecessary if you use Time Machine and already have a cloud backups in place.