Possible to clone existing computer?

[jtagen]

I currently have two M1 laptops, one personal and one for work (long story!).

I'd love to take a copy of my personal laptop when traveling, any idea if it's possible to clone the disk into a file and launch with this utility? Thoughts on format/tools?

Thank you!

[porteusconf]

I'm a newbie to M1, so this may be way off base. So explore better options, but something like this one-time-only procedure may be workable or at least get you started...

• Update the physical M1 to newest minor version. If you have Monterey that is v12.16 for example.
• Make backup of physical M1 with TimeMachine or CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner ). CCC can backup to a disk-image (.dmg) file or a real disk volume.
• Setup VM with the same macOS like 12.6
• Make backup media (or dmg) available to VM then use "Migration Assistant" to restore everything you want from the backup to the VM. (/Applications/Utilities/Migration\ Assistant.app works pretty well most the time, can take a while, so be patient. If it fails, make sure the destination has enough free space, reduce amount you are restoring, google the error, try again, etc.).

To keep the VM in sync with the physical, use same apple-id on both, perhaps keep Desktop/Documents in iCloud. Or use CCC (which, under the hood, is a guy around a tweaked rsync).

BTW, I would not upgrade any physical M1 to Ventura until 2023 at earliest... just play with Ventura in a vm until it is stable enough.

[DanShockley]

I wanted to migrate from a Sequoia VM made-from-Ventura-host to a made-from-Sequoia-host, so that I could get Apple Account (aka Apple ID) working for iCloud. But, I wanted to use Migration Assistant to bring over apps and settings.
I had a hell of a time trying to make a disk image backup of the old VM that the new one would be able to use as a Migration source. I tried making the image externally (got errors), tried making it using VirtualBuddy (embedded within the VM, so no way for new VM to see it).
Finally, I went with this, and it worked a charm:
Set up a network-shared TimeMachine folder on the HOST Mac using these instructions:
https://9to5mac.com/2023/03/16/shared-time-machine-folder-mac-backups/
Then, in the old VM, make a Time Machine backup to that network Time Machine location. Shut down old VM, if you want, so it doesn't try doing more backups.
In the new VM, during setup, use Migration Assistant to pick that TM volume shared by your host Mac on the "local network" and it works. Just finished migrating - my Homebrew installs, apps, fonts, settings, etc. all came over.
And, since this VM was created by a Sequoia host, it logging into my Apple Account for iCloud worked!

[DanShockley]

Update: my Apple Account is mostly working. However, when I tried logging in to the App Store in the VM, I got "An unknown error occurred." I was trying to download the "Image Playground" app so I could sign up for the waitlist.
I think this is a known issue, correct? For VMs created by a Sequoia host, Apple now allows logging in to an iCloud account, but the App Store is still not supported?
[EDIT: Never mind - I missed the fact that VMs are not supported to use Apple Intelligence. But, App Store working would still be useful. ]

[insidegui]

Only iCloud is supported in virtual machines, other aspects of an Apple Account are not supported. Apparently Xcode login is supposed to work as well at some point, but I haven't had any luck with that so far. And as you mentioned, AI features are not supported in virtual machines either.

[psulak]

@DanShockley , thank you for this solution . My Sonoma VM ran out of space at 80 GB. I used your solution to make a TM backup of my existing VM. Next I created a new Sonoma VM in VirtualBuddy with size of 100 GB. Finally, I used Migration Assistant during the setup of my new VM and it seemed to restore things like a charm.