I used to be a long-time user of TTP (since version 4). However, with modern Macs it has become increasingly irrelevant and with six paid upgrades in the last three years myself (and many others) have realised we can easily live without it.
Like me, those of you who had v13.0.3 stop working, TT came out with a fix yesterday v13.0.4. They actually emailed me back telling me there would be a fix 4 days ago. Lived up to that. I have not tried to install it as of yet. Just sayin'.
Does anyone know if 14.0.1 will do volume rebuilds on SSDs, or if it works on Big Sur and APFS? This was once a great Swiss Army Knife for Macs, but its best utility (volume rebuild) became useless when it stopped working on SSDs and APFS.
Poor TechTool, poor Micromat. TechTool Pro is officially up to version 14, but here on MacUpdate, it's frozen in time at version 13 (?), while I never upgraded from 12. I used to upgrade regularly, mostly out of habit, but honestly, TT has never actually found a problem with my Macs. It has become superfluous. It might be useful for someone who supports many Mac owners, but that would require ProToGo to work reliably, which for me it never did. And it still doesn't seem to "get" Big Sur or SSV (Signed System Volume). TechTool was great back in the olden days when we all booted from hard drives. Does anyone actually do a surface scan anymore? I love the slick graphics with the Sensors and Fans tests, but that's not enough to justify the price. I use the free CLI 'smartmontools' (via MacPorts) which tells me all I need to know about my drives' 'SMART' characteristics. If you want to test memory, get the free memtest86. (www.memtest.org) TechTool Pro is a relic from a bygone era, really no longer relevant. -SB
I cannot say anything about the current version. However, "back in the day" TechTool produced software for the Apple IIGS and it worked perfectly. From my experience, once TechTool Pro entered the Mac world, it seemed to have a history of failure. I did purchase it a couple of times and I was not pleased with its performance. Frankly, it never ran properly. Alas, I won't buy it again.
Careful out there in the wonderland. This version 13.0.3 broke my TT. I am running High Sierra and it will not run at all, tells you as much AFTER you have updated it.....thanks for telling us pre update Micromat, ugh. Lucky for me I had run from their repair disk and was able to delete it and reinstall from my desktop app. C'mon guys, really......I'm really just about done with you after20yrs.
Nope. 13.0.1 worked great and allowed me to clean up my APS snapshots which was the main reason I bought it. A later update broke this feature but support sent me a beta version that worked. I waited for 13.0.3 to have a supported version but this release doesn't even run.
I've finally had it with Micromat's upgrade BS. I've had TTP for many years, and I am running v13 currently .
Now they want 49.99 to "upgrade" to v14, and the only thing that looks new is support for Apple silicon. Big deal! I have an Intel Mac, and there seems to be nothing else that's new. Plus the last upgrade was "only" 29.99. Let's tack on an extra 20 to the price, and call it a deal! No thanks, I'm done.
Hurry, hurry, it's that ------ day for a quasi-update or subscription fee or blame Apple to nickel and dime long time users! In this case, Apple Silicon! TechTool Pro 14.x removes additional features and blames Apple all without even updating the User Interface. Pity, this creates a small shadow of a once larger application…
After spending days trying to get eDrive to work on my iMac, I've come to the conclusion that TechTool Pro 12 is simply not the program it used to be. I see no reason to move on to TTP13.
Too bad. I started out with the "Business Purchase" for my four computers (gave the extras to my nephews), and was Shocked to see how little the upgrade is from version 12 to 13!!! Plus, the is no compatibility for Big Sur for the ver. 12 users! That is just really bad business. There is a fine line between being entrepreneurial, and just being greedy. I've been loyal to these guys for several versions (waiting for some kind of a "format, or partition" tool), but now that I see this underhanded way to get people to upgrade to ver. 13 (by not supporting ver. 12 with Big Sur), I'm out. I've told my nephews NOT to buy the new version, nor support companies that do this. Companies should be loyal to their base. This is one of only 3 reviews I've done in my life.
I am a longtime user, now fed up. The "updates" are expensive, and don't work. For example, without an edrive the application is nearly useless, and it always hangs when I try to create an edrive (Big Sur OS, Big Sur-"compatible" drive). I am tired of this crap. Buyer beware!
All what concerns hardware on your machine is well analysed with this application. But on pure software side ie. cloning a volume (SSD APFS in my case) it's a disaster : 215 Gb system SSD to read and write on an external SSD require 11 hours to build a sparse image and finally no, the final image couldn't be written completely... With CCC (M. Bombich) it was done in 29 minutes and with ChronoSync (Econ Technologies) in 32 minutes. Successful, verified and all fine. The upgrade price is also too high, even with a Black Friday discount, this application doesn't evolve so much from one version to the next one.
I agree with member eN0ch 11 January 2020. I have been annoyed by the upgrade pricing policy for some time. In fact, I purchased TechTool Pro 11 and it never, ever worked. Not once. It crashed every time I tried to use it on my MacBook Air. I told MicroMat support more than once about the problem and wanted a full refund. HA! That never happened. In fact, No one helped me. I complained but still no refund.
I purchased TechTool Pro 11 with Serial Number: 1175837 and it never, ever worked. Then they wanted me to pay for the new upgrade TTP12 despite the fact I never was able to use TechTool Pro 11. It crashed every time I tried to use it on my MacBook Air. Now they want me to pay again. No free upgrades for MicroMat! I have been using TechTool Pro since I purchased TechTool Pro 7. Times are rough right now and money is tight but Micromat wants long time customers to pay the Techtool Pro 13 Loyalty Upgrade - download only - for users of Techtool Pro 12 at $29.99 ... again.
Can v. 13.0.2 do full Volume Rebuilds on APFS SSDs yet? When they add that functionality in, I will come back to this venerable app, but it's useless until then.
I wandered back to the fold because the upgrade price was decent. I had definitely become a Hater! In TTP 12, no matter what I did, I couldn't get Protogo to boot and Support offered no solution. TTP 13 Protogo boots with no issues. I wanted to switch to a SSD on my MacBook Pro and TTP 13 cloned my old HD flawlessly. I also have a Mac mini that had issues and now that Protogo will boot, I was able to resolve the problem. I haven't examined all the functionalities of TTP 13 but when I needed a reliable Tool, TTP 13 came through for me!
Well, this isn't going well. Just installed v 13 over 12 on my MacBook Air. Erased my edrive to install the v13 and it says I don't have enough disk space. Ugh. 144gigs to spare and it can't find room for it . So I used TM to reinstall v 12, removed 13. Now v12 is giving me the same spiel. Not good. Not good at all. Pro to go won't show up in sys prefs to restart. You guys are BAD man. C'mon.
I have used this app since v. 4.x. It has never successfully helped me pull my chestnuts out of the fire because in every release, at least half the functionality simply doesn’t work. For instance, the eDrive fails to function as a startup disk, but the program won't let me delete it and recreate it. The Preference Pane doesn’t install correctly. Background protection scanning will work for weeks, then will stop working, and will never work again. The program creates snapshots that it can’t later open and read. I vowed that I would stop updating this thing half way through v. 9.x, when they wanted more money for a dot-dot release. I lived without the later v. 9.x releases, all the 10.x releases, all the 11.x releases, and all the 12.x releases. Finally, my old 9.x release wouldn’t even launch on a current OS, and I couldn’t use even the modest amount of functionality the program was supplying, so I upgraded to a 13.x release. I was amazed to find that stuff which had been broken in 9.x was still broken, that support for Apple’s current APFS file system is still only partial, at that functionality which had more-or-less worked (like the Preference Pane) was now broken. I have been a customer for seven major releases, but I think that really what I am is a sucker. Nothing ever gets fixed. No, let me try that again: NOTHING EVER GETS FIXED.
This could easily be a 5-star app if it wasn't for Micromat's egregious update policy. If you spend over $100 for an app, you'd expect it to last more than a calendar gauged for a hefty fee in order to keep your app up to date! With TTP you would be extremely lucky to even get a whole year before you are expected to pay them $40 to keep it current. It is obscene how shameless Micromat is! Their strategy is once they have a customer spend that much money on an app, their hook is sunk. then they just keep reeling you in because they know that you have to spend the $40+ upgrade charge a couple of times a year until you decide to bail on the initial $120+ initial app purchase altogether. What a shame because I actually do like the app...
I think TechTool Pro is a great app and while the updating process can be costly, it's not always necessary.
For instance, if you happen to be using TTP 12 and have a computer with a hard drive you don't necessarily need to update to TTP 13 because it adds a lot of changes aimed at the AFS file system and flash memory drives, which you might not have.
Each upgrade tends to bring changes that are beneficial, but that's not the same thing as necessary for whatever system you happen to be running.
You control the update process, not the other way around (if you don't it, don't purchase it).
Don't know why, but I'm a sucker for utilities -- I'm a utilities junkie -- and I've always liked TechTool, since the days when it was bundled with new Macs. There's no question that it's now the leader in its market space -- Disk Warrior has been in "Sleep" mode for years and Drive Genius I never liked. Thing is, this seems like an odd time for a new release of TTP, on the eve of "Big Sur" going into general distribution. I'm going to wait a good six months for the new OS to "burn in" and give TTP 13 a look then, before plunking down the upgrade dough. Meanwhile TTP 12 should suffice to keep me up and running. -SB
Rubbish over-priced subscription model that disrespects long-time user base. TTP used to charge a reasonable $ for x.0 upgrades with most 0.x revisions v cheap or free. Now it seems that every x.x.1 "upgrade" is USD$50, even if the last x.x.1 "upgrade" was just last week. Greedy greedy greedy and the best way to destroy your user base. I recall when this was a 5-star app - nowadays it barely scrapes a 2.7 from its users - strong message to company - you're on a downward spiral!
as for all the "5 star" reviews here - haha - paid company staff trying to support a over-priced product.
I have been using Tech Tool Pro for a long, long time, and it (along with Onyx, plus other measures I take on my own) has kept all of my Macs running fine. As far as upgrade pricing, it is $29.99 (+ tax for me). Also, even though I just upgraded to V13.0.1 the other day, I am positive that when they release a version that is compatible with Big Sur, an upgrade at that time will be free. So, not sure why others have issues.
So what's new in TechTool Pro 13? From Micromat's product page: - - - *New In Techtool Pro 13* - - - Snapshot Recovery - -> Techtool Pro 13 now includes data recovery options for APFS volumes. Create longer lasting APFS snapshots that can be used to recover accidentally deleted files, even if a backup is unavailable. Create snapshots automatically using the new Snapshot Usage feature in Techtool Protection, and mount and recover from your snapshots using the Snapshot Recovery tool. - - Drive Speed Tool - -> Techtool Pro 13 introduces a new tool to measure disk speed. Drive manufacturers advertise speeds that may not be realistic for real-world use, depending on the connection used, etc. Find out how your drive actually performs using the Drive Speed tool. - - Internal Improvements - -> Techtool Pro 13 continues to improve internally. We continue to update many of the tests and tools to use newer technologies to keep your Mac running smoothly. You may experience some of these improvements in the Battery Check test and in the Techtool Protection preference pane.
I stopped upgrading after I did TechTool Pro 10 *Standard Upgrade - from TTP9. Less than a month later, TTP came out w/ a new upgrade for more money. Never looked back. No Mo $$$ 4 me
With the history of this company one would be very silly to purchase a new version a month or two before a new Mac OS version (Big Sur) is due to be released. It would not be surprising at all for this company to release an update shortly after that will cost more money to get sort of compatibility with Big Sur, and then a bit later to be charged another upgrade fee to then get better compatibility. Good luck.
As others have said, I'm through with MicroMat. I was a user, a couple of versions ago, became frustrated with support and functions that didn't work so, I dropped them. Version 12 arrived and I hoped they had gotten their act together so, I bit again on 06/01/20. Protege never worked but I figured they'd sort it out, with the next MAINTENANCE UPDATE. Now I see Version 13 has been released and MicroMat wants more money from me. Never again!!!!!!!
TechTool Pro 13.x is out…
The slippery slope of subscription apps cloaked as a new version, delivered annually, continues to be a problem…pity, that SoftRAID is not included especially in a world of massive storage.
So here we go again: https://www.micromat.com/store
Version 13 just released at the usual high upgrade price. I have lost count of how many times I have paid for this application. They even lured me into paying for upgrades that didn't work on the newest macOS at the time. And when they updated that months later I had to pay again. And again. Only one star for treatment of all-too-loyal customers.
In response to ignorant reviews of TTP here at MU, I'm posting a 5 star review. What I love about TTP 11 and 12: • It works well with SSDs and APFS volumes. It's the only utility that currently does! • It's the single best hardware checking utility for Mac, no question about it. • It provides two methods for creating bootable systems/volumes for fully testing and repairing any boot volume, HFS+ or APFS, HDD or SSD. My only complaint is how slow it is to create the repair volumes. Take a tea break. • Micromat regularly update TTP to be compatible with the latest macOS and Mac hardware. - - I can no longer use either DiskWarrior or Drive Genius, the two alternatives. I know why and I thank lazy Apple for not providing adequate APFS documentation to developers! However, Micromat nonetheless does work with and repair both SSDs and APFS volumes, and does it well! Micromat point out that their repair solution is not complete, thanks to Apple. But they are the ONLY developers to work out repair solutions anyway. BRAVO! TTP is well worth the cost for all users who want and require the single best testing and repair utility for Mac. Period. Thank you Micromat.
USELESS WITH AN SSD AND WITH APFS.
This used to be a good utility (not great, only good), though DiskWarrior was MUCH better. However, ALL disk utilities are now useless because they cannot do a volume rebuild on an SSD (volume rebuild was the one operation that could really fix a screwed up drive), so THEY ONLY WORK ON HDDs. Also, I’m not aware of any disk utilities that work fully on drives formatted with Apple File System (APFS), and most do not yet work on Catalina. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THIS DOG.
Has everything I could ask for. Total System and disk care. The upgrade price is not cheap...then again it is not a subscription and software development in the age of SSDs and Catalina is not easy.
An A1 app as far as functionality, always has been. I've been trusting and using it for years. If you're happy to pay for it then I for one would recommend it. *However* I'm giving it just 3 stars because the of the upgrade pricing policy. It's always bugged me, but I've lived with it because it's so good, and I'm so invested in it. But the last few full version upgrades have come out like diarrhoea at $A50 each time. I'm blowed if I'm going to keep that up. So I won't be upgrading to v12 impressive though it sounds. And I'll be thinking very hard about switching. So off to do the research.
Where the hell is uprade for DiskWarrior, by far the best drive maintenance and repair too, which leaves al the others in the dust? Seems the next MaOS will be released before the lazy ass developer gets around to finally releasing a Catalina-compatible version of this great utility..assuming they ever will.
This app rocks! I use an SSD and Catalina, though they say the current edition does not "Totally support Catalina" I use it constantly and it is my #1 standby Drive utility. Vastly better than DriveGenius 5 or the new 6. In Mohave 5 and 6 will report falsely of disk damage and neither of those support Catalina and seem to have no immediate plans to do so. TechTool support treats you like a human and never makes you feel like an idiot or that you are bothering them. Yes file optimization works...you simply have to create am bootable partition use it and TechTool is fully operational. The app even tells you so if you try to do anything with the Startup drive. The Bootable portion is created quickly with no effort on your part. You simply designate where you want the Bootable partition created and the rest is automatic.
Unless they have changed their upgrade policy, this makes no sense to purchase now as there will be an upgrade next month to take advantage of MacOS Catalina and it will have a charge for it.
Just a word of caution for potential new purchasers of TechTool Pro.
While TechTool Pro can do volume rebuilds on APFS formatted volumes and disks, as of version 11.0.4, both File Optimization and Volume Optimization still do NOT work on APFS volumes and disks.
While Apple has long claimed that file optimization has become meaningless in light of modern huge hard drives and fast machines, some Mac users still like to optimize anyway. If you are one of such people, and if you do use APFS, then please be aware of this point before making a purchase.
v11.0.3 still has some minor bugs. The most annoying is when your Preferences chosen are RESET to the DEFAULT without your permission.
In my case, I do NOT want Directory Backup OR Volume Usage OR Trash History left on. Upon Restart it is common for all three of these settings to be checked ON again. I’ll have to dig further to understand why this happens. But my best guess is that these settings are (wrongly) stored in User Cache rather than in a PLIST permissions file. If/when I dump my User Cache appears to be when this bug enacts itself.
Also, there have been reports of problems creating eDrives (a temporary bootable partition for repairing native Mac boot partitions). I still have to check if the bugs have been removed in 11.0.3.
Overall, despite the minor bugs, TTP 11 is impressive. It remains (sadly) the ONLY disk repair utility that can (mostly) repair APFS volumes. • DiskWarrrior still cannot, with no sign of progress. • Drive Genius still cannot, with no sign of progress.
WHY the interminable lack of full support for APFS in any Mac utility??? The blame goes to Apple. Inexplicably, Apple is being lazy, not finished APFS documentation to developers. This annoyingly fits with Apple's recent Mac malaise, now extending to over three years since APFS was announced and its first beta provided. Developers are uniformly fed up with this specific lack of support from Apple.
IOW: Don't blame Micromat or the other repair utility providers. Thank Micromat for striving forward with actual APFS repair support, despite Apple.
