How do you backup Final Cut Pro (or any other app purchased on the Mac App Store )?
There are many great reasons to keep older versions of
Whatever your reason might be, how do you go about making reliable backups of
But first...
Let’s answer the most obvious question:
Why can't you just keep different versions of
Doing so will only appear to work on the surface. You might be inadvertently running into problems that you are attributing to other causes, when in fact they originate from interference between multiple versions of the same app, all accessible to macOS.
...and the second most obvious question:
What’s wrong with the instructions posted here?
The method illustrated by Apple has a few downsides we are hoping to avoid. Keeping old versions of
The method discussed in this document does not require any decompression steps, does not require any extra space, and prevents unwanted modifications to the app, be it by the App Store or other software.
With that in mind, the following golden rules apply:
- Do not keep multiple copies of
Final Cut Pro installed and accessible on the same system. Beware of copies that may be sitting on external disks used by Time Machine or other backup software. Those too remain accessible and may interfere with the version sitting in the Applications folder. The risk of interference is higher since the backup copies maintained by Time Machine may be of an earlier version.Final Cut Pro relies on a technology to locate and load third-party plugins and Workflow Extensions that is rather unpredictable. It might opt to load components from a drive you last touched six years ago, rather than make the obvious choice of loading the newest stuff you just installed on your startup disk. And there is no way to check that any of this is happening without learning some developer tools. Yeah. - When you launch different versions of
Final Cut Pro from your backups, do not expect to see the same third-party visual effects and audio plug-ins. This is true even if you follow the best practices for making backups outlined in this document. Each new version ofFinal Cut Pro may have very different support for third-party content. Older versions allow you to use Intel-only Audio Units under Rosetta emulation, while newer versions only support Audio Units running natively on the current processor architecture. Older versions may support FxPlug 3 plug-ins on Intel, while new versions only support the newest FxPlug 4 specification, be it on Intel or Apple processors. - You cannot rely on the App Store to solve this problem. Users are not currently offered the option to install prior versions of apps they have purchased. This doesn't just explain why this guide is necessary, it also implies that you can reliably make a backup copy of an app only when it has just been released. The next update won't just overwrite the current version on disk, it will also make the prior version no longer downloadable via the App Store – unless your hardware and software configuration happens to be too old to support any further updates.
Creating the Backup
The following instructions allow you to make a backup of the current version of
To be extra sure that you are creating the backup from the unmodified, original copy of an app, start by deleting the existing copy in the Applications folder. You can reinstall a new copy through the Mac App Store. When the process is complete, continue following the steps below.
- You should only have one copy of the
Final Cut Pro app on your system, located in the Applications folder. - Open the Applications folder and move
Final Cut Pro to its own folder, temporarily. For example, if you are backing up version 11.2, create a folder calledFinal Cut Pro 11.2 and move theFinal Cut Pro .app inside that folder. - Launch the Disk Utility app, included with macOS and located in the Utilities folder.
- Select the New Image > Image from Folder... command under the File menu:
- Select the folder you just created, i.e. "Final Cut Pro 11.2" and create a disk image from it. On macOS 26, make sure to use the new Apple Sparse Image (ASIF) format:On previous versions of macOS, select the compressed option instead.
The new Apple Sparse Image (ASIF) format is one of the many excellent reasons to update to macOS 26, as it provides the best performance and low disk space usage for keeping these backups.
- The process will take a couple minutes, after which you should have a read-only disk image with a copy of the
Final Cut Pro 11.2 app on it.The read-only property of the disk image ensures that even when the disk image is mounted on your Desktop, there is zero chance the Mac App Store might attempt to update the app automatically.
- Move the
Final Cut Pro app back to the root of the Applications folder. Delete the temporary folder you had just created ("Final Cut Pro 11.2") which by now should be empty.
Accessing your Backups
When you follow the above instructions for each new release of
Any time you wish to access an older version of
Double-click the copy of
Unmount the disk image when you are done working with that specific version of
If macOS complains about not being able to launch the app on the disc image due to security concerns, it might be necessary to follow a different technique. Instead of double-clicking the icon, try right-clicking on the app and selecting the Open command instead. While seemingly equivalent, this method allows you to get past GateKeeper through a separate confirmation dialog.
That’s it! You now possess the knowledge to create reliable backups of
Does any of this affect my FxFactory purchases?
In short, no. You should never have to take any special action when launching any recent version of
FxFactory will automatically load the appropriate products compatible with the version of
That said... the same quirky technologies that can negatively affect