EDITED BY HOWARD OAKLEY

Sequoia for the notarised

Developers were asked to notarise their apps six years ago, so they’d be more secure when distributed outside the App Store. Until macOS Sequoia there was no pressure for them to do so, as you can always launch a new app that isn’t notarised using the Finder’s Open command.

Sequoia changes that: any app downloaded from outside the App Store that isn’t notarised now requires a trip to System > Privacy & Security to authorise it individually. This only applies to apps you’ve downloaded ready-built; any you build yourself can still be signed locally, although moving them via AirDrop puts them into quarantine the same as if they’d been downloaded. What might seem another added nuisance brings better protection against malware, as macOS checks notarised apps more robustly before they’re run.

Restore archives to anew drive

Q The old USB hard drive with my archives on it is failing. How can I recover the contents of its last backup to a new disk when the Time Machine app is playing up?

by GEOFF MOORE

A Some prefer the Time Machine app’s whizzy interface, but when you need to restore large backups to a different location it’s too inflexible and can disappoint. You’re better off using the Finder, if necessary copying from your backup in stages.

Format the new drive ready to store your archives. Browse the backups on their storage in the Finder, and locate the most recent, from which to restore the files. In older backups on HFS+ volumes, and their new-style replacements on APFS, backup names include the date stamp of creation.

Inside that you’ll find a complete image of your original archive volume, ready to drag and drop its contents straight into their place on your new drive. Try this first with each of its top-level folders. If any of those stutter or fail, drop down a level to smaller folders within those. Although this takes time and a bit more effort, it should result in a complete restore without error. The only worrying sign is if your Mac has a kernel panic while restoring, as that’s a likely indication of a hardware problem with one of the drives.

Restoring from a Time Machine backup is most flexible in the Finder, as you can copy to a different volume.

Quick-fire questions