When cloning an APFS object containing macOS, the system may add or omit volumes during the copy operation: If you use the feature to quick-copy an APFS object and this object contains a volume that contains an installation of a macOS operating system, the running operating system may automatically optimize the cloning operation, adding or omitting volumes at its own discretion, even if this contradicts the copy command sent by TinkerTool System 6. (1) macOS may automatically omit the volume with the role VM that is associated with the system installation that is copied. (2) macOS may automatically add volumes with the roles Preboot and Recovery that are associated with the system installation that is copied.
Workaround: This is a known issue of macOS Catalina. The operating system will auto-complete and optimize the data set being copied if it detects a macOS installation in a volume that is part of the APFS object to be cloned. As workaround for item (1), just boot the cloned system. An additional volume with the role VM will automatically be created at the correct location. As workaround for item (2), use Disk Utility to delete the Preboot and Recovery volumes manually, if desired.
TinkerTool System may refuse to create installation media for the October 2019 edition of macOS Sierra: If you downloaded the version of macOS 10.12.6 Sierra that was published via Apple’s official download link on October 23, 2019, and then install the package to create the Sierra Installation App, the feature of TinkerTool System to create install media won’t accept this App. It shows the message No valid installer instead.
Workaround: This is the correct and intended behavior. The Installation App created by Apple’s October 2019 download of macOS Sierra is defective and cannot be used for install media. We have informed Apple about this issue, but they have not provided a working copy of the installer so far.
Automatic inheritance of Access Control Lists may fail if objects are copied within the same APFS volume: If you create one or more Access Control Entries for a folder with options that enable automatic inheritance onto new objects in that folder, and the folder is located on a volume using APFS, and you copy this folder or some of its contents into a folder on the same volume, and you use modern software for the copy operation supporting the APFS clonefile feature, inheritance may fail. The operating system just ignores the inheritance options and the ACEs are not copied.
Workaround: This is a known defect of the APFS file system in macOS. Consider using the file system Mac OS Extended (Journaled) instead of APFS as a workaround. We have informed Apple about this bug in March 2019, but they did not fix it so far.
The privacy feature of macOS that grants TinkerTool System access to the full disk may fail if you have multiple copies of TinkerTool System on your computer: As noted in the chapter Basic Operations: Privacy Policy Settings of your Mac, you have to approve that TinkerTool System has permission for Full Disk Access before you can use all features of the application. When you store multiple copies of TinkerTool System on your Mac however, this approval may fail unexpectedly. TinkerTool System may indicate that it does not have the necessary approval although it was given previously.
Workaround: This is a known design flaw of the Privacy feature of macOS. The protection feature can be confused when working with multiple copies of the same application. Use the following steps to ensure that macOS grants permission to the intended copy of the software:
Note that you can always keep backup copies of TinkerTool System on your Time Machine disks. This may not work when using third-party backup applications, however.
The report shown when repeating system optimization may contain many warnings: When macOS is instructed to repeat its system optimization phase, rebuilding the shared cache of the Dynamic Linker Editor, the messages shown by the operating system will contain many lines beginning with “update_dyld_shared_cache: warning”.
Workaround: This is the correct and normal behavior of macOS and of TinkerTool System. A warning line just indicates the technical reason why a particular optimization could not be performed for some specific software components. It is an expected part of its operation and no cause for concern. Only lines containing words such as “error” would indicate a technical issue.
Privileged operations fail after a downgrade of the application: The security features of TinkerTool System won’t work as expected if you use a copy of the application and later use a copy with a lower version number. In this case, operations that require to be authorized by an administrator may no longer work. You will receive an error message instead, indicating that a “trust failure” has occurred.
Workaround: We strongly advise against any kind of downgrade of the software. However, if using an older version cannot be avoided for some reason, you’ll have to make sure that the version of the privileged tool currently running in macOS is matching the version that came with the version of TinkerTool System you like to use. Perform the following steps:
Specifying a time interval when querying the macOS log database may not work: If you use the feature Info > Logs and specify a time interval at Time range, filtering by date and time may not work correctly with some macOS installations. Instead, the operating system returns entries for the entire recorded time range available. TinkerTool System detects this problem and will give you an error message in this case.
Workaround: This is a known defect of macOS. Only specific system installations are affected. We have informed Apple about this problem and hope they will fix it in future versions of the operating system. In case TinkerTool System detects this issue on your Mac, please see the recommendations given in the error panel for possible workarounds.