What's new?
Sync Checker Version History

Release 4.1 (Build 240611)

Added new feature to present Extended Attributes that are stored as macOS property lists in their respective form, as a structured table of nested values in plain text.
Added new feature to present Extended Attributes that are stored as Universal Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) as plain text.
Added more guidance and detailed error messages in situations where the user does not have access permission to see the contents of a detected file mismatch.
Fixed a cosmetic problem where the number of completed check operations presented in the wait panel was incorrect if the check was performed in privileged access mode.

Release 4.0 (Build 240604)

Sync Checker has been revised from the ground up and major parts have been redeveloped. There are too many changes to list them here. Essentially, the following features have been modified:

Application icon and the complete user interface have been redesigned.
Legacy parts and concepts no longer useful from older versions of macOS, OS X and Mac OS X have been removed. Using version 4 requires at least macOS 13 or higher.
Offline scan files from version 3 of Sync Checker can be imported to version 4. All other document files created by older releases are no longer compatible with version 4, because the software generations are too different.
Offline scan files are replaced by Sync Checker snapshot files.
Added new feature to show the contents of a Sync Checker snapshot.
Added new feature to scan the system volume and data volume of macOS separately to collect information for a snapshot.
Added new features for authorization of privileged operations. The application will now allow authentication of administrative users in additional special cases previously not permitted:

authorization within a running login session of a non-administrator
authorization by administrators with empty passwords in operating system versions that don’t block this generally
authorization in cases where multiple users are logged in, but the affected user is not on the frontmost console session

Administrators can return to the previous stricter authorization policies if needed.
A new detail sheet was added to show differences in the Extended Attribute “Last opened” in plain text.
The detail sheet to review permission settings now also contains the special POSIX rights SUID, SGID and Sticky.
The speed was increased considerably once again.
To further increase speed, the processing phase for counting objects is now omitted. The expected remaining processing time is no longer estimated.
The ignore lists for macOS work files and unique operating system installation files are no longer needed and have been removed.
The compare options and the Quick Test feature have been replaced by the more practical concept “degree of match”. The options are now arranged hierarchically in stages.
The method for subsequently filtering mismatch details has proven difficult to understand in practice and is no longer supported.
Hidden data compression by the file system is no longer considered a possible deviation.
It is no longer necessary to configure the privacy setting for Full Disk Access in advance in any case.

Release 3.93 (Build 231107)

Legacy components have been removed and the packaging has been modernized. macOS 11 has now become the minimum operating system version.
The application will now detect offline cloud objects, implemented with the new APFS features for “dataless” files. These objects might not be stored on the local computer or could change during a synchronization check. For this reason, Sync Checker will now ignore them and avoid to trigger a cloud download.

Release 3.92 (Build 230221)

Added new workarounds for the continuing quality problems of macOS 13.

Release 3.91 (Build 221221)

Added protection against operating system defects of macOS 13.1. The application also provides additional user guidance for situations where such defects cause issues.
Added protection against cases where the application is configured for automatic software update checks, but is operated with a network firewall that doesn’t allow the necessary Internet connections. In specific cases, this could result in intermittent program termination instead of an error message.

Release 3.9 (Build 221021)

Adds full support for macOS 13 Ventura.
Fixes a compatibility issue with recent versions of macOS. The feature to remove old versions of the privileged auxiliary tool will now show the correct status information instead of “unknown” on the affected systems.

Release 3.8 (Build 211020)

Adds full support for macOS 12 Monterey.
Support for macOS 10.12 Sierra and macOS 10.13 High Sierra has been removed.
The application will now automatically ignore time deviations due to different time accuracies of different file systems if the option to ignore Time Machine attributes is enabled. It is no longer necessary to disable comparisons with nanosecond resolution manually in this case.

Release 3.71 (Build 210722)

This version fixes a problem where the stop button may not have worked when trying to cancel a privileged operation that had already been running for a considerable amount of time.

Release 3.7 (Build 210621)

This version adds preliminary support for future versions of macOS.

Release 3.6 (Build 201021)

This version adds full support for macOS 11.0 Big Sur.

Release 3.5 (Build 200909)

The built-in ignore list for unique macOS installation files has been updated.
The preferred mismatch limit is now evaluated after processing a possible ignore list set by the user, not before, which could have caused confusion.
Fixed a problem specific to macOS Catalina where checking file system hierarchies that included the /System/Volumes folder could cause duplicate processing.
Fixed a problem where the stop button may not have worked as expected when creating offline scans.
Parts of the user interface for product activation and registration management have been redesigned.

Release 3.4 (Build 200703)

The detail window for indicating mismatches in file flags now supports the firmlink attribute used by macOS 10.15 Catalina.
The application now accepts that its icon can be replaced by the Finder. This will no longer raise a security warning.
The feature for automatic notification of updates no longer relies on Notification Center.

Release 3.32 (Build 200331)

Adds full support for macOS 10.15.4.
Fixes a problem where the Stop button might not have worked as expected during a sync check.

Release 3.31 (Build 191113)

Added a fix necessary for an unexpected change in macOS 10.15.1 which can cause the warning about missing approval for full disk access not to be shown. This only affects users who launch the application for the first time on macOS 10.15.1.

Release 3.3 (Build 191011)

This version adds full support for macOS 10.15 Catalina.

Release 3.2 (Build 190808)

Added new feature to ignore time deviations of less than one second if desired when comparing the attributes of file system objects. This is necessary to get meaningful results when checking data between file systems that store time specifications with different precision.
Added new feature to show time specifications of file system objects in millisecond resolution when necessary. This feature is available in macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later.
The feature to ignore Time Machine attributes during a sync check has been extended to consider Access Control List permissions used by Time Machine as well. It is no longer necessary to disable all ACL checks when working with Time Machine files.
The list of Extended Attributes to ignore during a Time Machine-related check has been updated for the latest macOS versions.

Release 3.1 (Build 190626)

Added preliminary support for future versions of macOS.
The feature to stop running checks has been redesigned completely and works more efficiently now.
Fixed a problem regarding the handling of AppleDouble files on APFS volumes.
Fixed a problem where canceling a quick check could show a positive test result.

Release 3.0 (Build 190322)

Added new feature to create and edit ignore lists that can be used to exclude file system objects from a sync check. Ignore lists can be defined based on relative paths of folders or names of file system objects.
Added several built-in ignore lists to exclude .DS_Store files, or to exclude the standard work files of macOS.
Added new feature to create offline scans. These scans keep a snapshot of the metadata of a folder hierarchy and can be used as archived data source for a sync check. Offline scans make it possible to compare a folder with previously saved states to track the history of changes. You can also use them to compare folders of two computers which are not connected to each other.
The maximum number of mismatches that can be processed has been increased to 100,000.
Added new internal diagnostic features.
The application now detects when it is run from its distribution disk and has not been copied to the computer yet. An optional self-copy operation is supported.
The application has been made robust against certain “cleaners” that may damage the installation of the privileged security component.

Release 2.8 (Build 190131)

Sync Checker takes into account new file flag features available in macOS Mojave and later.
The application will show more targeted error messages if licensing fails due to a misconfigured network firewall.
The distribution package now uses the latest Gatekeeper security features.

Release 2.7 (Build 180917)

This version adds full support for macOS 10.14 Mojave.
Added new feature to remove outdated versions of the security component from computers where previous generations of Sync Checker have been in use.

Release 2.61 (Build 180412)

Added new user interface to the product activation feature in order to be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (EU Regulation 2016/679).

Release 2.6 (Build 171214)

Because Apple does not fix several critical defects and design flaws in the macOS user interface for the authorization of privileged operations, Sync Checker switches to a redesigned security architecture. As in classic versions of Mac OS X, it is now necessary to launch the application in the login session of an administrative user account (which is the default setup for Macs) if you intend to process files for which you don’t have read permission. Fast User Switching can be used to do this while using other user accounts.

macOS 10.12 Sierra is the minimum operating system version required for this release.
The user interface to show details of POSIX and ACL permission mismatches was modified to fully support modern operating systems.
Added new feature to allow administrative users to authorize privileged operations via Touch ID.
Added new technology to avoid a defect of macOS where the application lost keyboard focus when a password needed to be entered for a privileged operation if multi-tier privilege separation was in use.
Added new technology to avoid a defect of macOS where the user interface is no longer localized correctly when a password needs to be entered for a privileged operation if multi-tier privilege separation is used.
Added new technology to avoid a design flaw of macOS where no appropriate application icon can be shown when a password needs to be entered for a privileged operation if multi-tier privilege separation is used.
Added new technology to avoid a defect of macOS where the layout of authentication panels was incorrect, leading to clipped messages in user dialogs to authorize privileged operations.
Added new technology to avoid a defect of macOS where the operating system asks for permission to add a helper application when it actually removes a helper application.
Features to customize the authorization policy for privileged operations via the security database of the operating system had to be removed.

Additional changes (also published separately as Release 2.51 for OS X Yosemite and El Capitan):

Added new feature to indicate the currently selected mismatch filter in the head section of a sync-check text report.
The paragraph to present the selected mismatch search options in the head section of a sync-check text report was corrected and redesigned to avoid possible misunderstandings and inaccuracies.
Fixed a problem where a mismatch in compression settings at file system level was not indicated correctly in the report window.

Release 2.5 (Build 170918)

This versions adds full support for macOS 10.13 High Sierra.
Added an assistance mode for product registration.

Release 2.4 (Build 170712)

The physical size of folders is no longer compared. This avoids misleading results when checking folder hierarchies on different file systems that handle the storage implementation of folders differently.
Several small optimizations in the user interface.

Release 2.3 (Build 161025)

Added new feature to perform a quick test as faster, but less accurate alternative to a complete sync check.
The terminology of the user interface and documentation was updated to adapt to macOS Sierra.

Release 2.2 (Build 160519)

Added new feature to display differences in the “super user no deletion” attribute for file system objects which is used in the latest versions of OS X.
Added preference setting to enable automatic notification for software updates of the application.
Added new registration features for licensing with immediate gratification and volume licensing.
For the German user interface of the permissions sheet, details in the wording have been modified to match the changed translations used by Apple in the latest versions of OS X.
Web communication during software update checks is now fully compliant with Apple’s new App Transport Security guidelines.
Corrected a problem where it could become difficult to press the Info buttons in the sync check report window when the window was made very narrow.

Release 2.11 (Build 150928)

The reference manual was updated regarding new features of OS X El Capitan.
Corrected a problem where detail error messages could contain English parts although the user had selected German as preferred language.

Release 2.1 (Build 150415)

Added support for checks on specific third-party file servers which don’t implement Extended Attributes correctly.
Added workaround for a defect in OS X which could cause permission settings for empty user groups to be displayed by a numeric ID instead of by the correct group name.

Release 2.0 (Build 150309)

Sync Checker has been revised completely and is now optimized for the latest versions of OS X. Operating systems prior to OS X 10.10 and 32-bit processors are no longer supported.
The application now makes full use of multi-core processors which can result in significant speed up.
New file attributes of OS X Yosemite can now be processed and be shown in the check results.
Added new option to ignore mismatches of POSIX permission settings.
The ignore options for file synchronization checks are now saved in report files and are noted in textual reports.
Many small changes and optimizations in the user interface.

Release 1.4 (Build 141218)

Due to changes in European legislation on value added tax, the application had to be re-released with modified pricing information. Support for 32-bit processors was removed. Current customers don’t need to update, customers using the application with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on a 32-bit computer must not use this update.

Release 1.4 (Build 131105)

Added full support for OS X Mavericks.
Enhanced accessibility by adding menu items to select the folders to compare.

Release 1.3 (Build 130717)

The application now shows a warning and offers to automatically resolve this problem, when it detects that a user is about to compare permission settings of volumes for which the option to ignore ownership settings is enabled.
The program has been prepared for future operating systems.
The reference manual has been revised completely and uses a new design.

Release 1.2 (Build 120703)

Added full support for present and future versions of OS X. This includes the features Resume, Versions, saveless working, high-resolution displays, and automatic quit operations.
Added support for one-click registration.

Important: Due to changes imposed by Apple's “Gatekeeper” feature, the security component of the application works slightly different. If you are using two or more of our following system utilities, you should update them all in parallel in order to avoid mutual conflicts: NFS Manager, Sync Checker, TinkerTool System Release 2. For detailed information, please see the chapter Release Notes in the reference manual.

Release 1.1 (Build 110711)

Added compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
Support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has been removed.
All components of the application now support full 64 bit operation.

Release 1.0 (Build 101203)

First official version of Sync Checker.