DropDMG for Mac

What's new in this version:

DropDMG 3.6.9
- Fixed a bug where converting a disk image would in some cases fail with an incorrect error about the destination folder being invalid
- Worked around a bug in macOS 15 where sometimes the system help viewer would not open the right help page. DropDMG will instead open help files in the user’s Web browser.
- Tried to work around a macOS bug that could cause it to incorrectly report the DropDMG application file as damaged
- Made some changes to prevent DropDMG from triggering local network privacy prompts

Improved the following sections of the manual:
- Command-line tool
- Format
- Signing

- When you click an esoteric preferences link to enable or disable debug logging, the change now takes effect immediately, without having to restart DropDMG
- The diagnostic report now includes information about the app’s logs, the crash logs folder, and components that could cause AppleScript errors
- Diagnostic report files are much smaller, as they no longer include excerpts from the verbose system console log, only from DropDMG’s own log files
- Removed various code that is no longer used


DropDMG 3.6.8
- Made various updates for macOS 15 and Xcode 16
- Worked around a macOS issue that could cause disk image creation to fail with a file permissions error
- Worked around a macOS issue that could cause Finder to fail to save the view options or icon positions for a layout
- Improved DropDMG’s error reporting to AppleScripts and to the command-line tool when a disk imaging operation fails
- If macOS incorrectly reports that DropDMG is damaged when installing or updating the app, we now have a Download Fixer tool to help
- Added MaxJobs to the esoteric preferences. This makes it possible to control how many operations DropDMG performs simultaneously. Normally, DropDMG will let you queue as many operations as you want and will execute two simultaneously. This balances the desire to quickly finish the first operation while still allowing other operations to complete. For example, encrypting a small document that you want to e-mail would not have to wait until backing up an entire hard drive had finished. You can also set DropDMG to execute only one operation at a time (e.g. to speed things up if you want to queue many operations that use the same slow hard drive) or three or more (e.g. if you are using fast SSD storage and your Mac has lots of processor cores).
- Added LayoutBackgroundFolderName to the esoteric preferences. This makes it possible to customize the name of the invisible folder where DropDMG stores the background picture file.
- Fixed a bug where DropDMG could incorrectly report a license agreement error when converting a disk image


DropDMG 3.6.7
- DropDMG now double-checks the positions of invisible icons to make sure they don’t appear on top of your layout
- Fixed a bug where some errors when applying a layout were not properly handled

Improved the following sections of the manual:
- Change Image Passphrase…
- Command-line tool
- Creating a DropDMG Quick Action
- Signing
- Verify Signature…
- Why don’t the icons appear in the desired positions in the mounted disk image?

- Updated various user interface elements and documentation to reference updated locations in System Settings
- Added an ellipsis to the Create macOS Install Disk… command and updated it for macOS 14 Sonoma
- Each help page now has a link to a Google translation so you can view it in a different language
- Made various fixes and updates to prevent Cocoa from logging warnings


DropDMG 3.6.6
- When creating a New Blank Disk Image…, there is now a preset size for macOS Install Disk
- Worked around a macOS change that could cause the filename column of the log to be truncated
- Improved the Format section of the manual
- Added HdiutilFilesystem to the esoteric preferences. This makes it possible to use APFS when creating a disk image from a folder, which can make it faster for the end user to copy files from the mounted disk image
- Tried to work around a change in macOS 13 that could cause DropDMG to crash at quit if you had used the font panel
- Fixed bug where setting a disk image to auto-open would sometimes fail when running on an Apple Silicon Mac


DropDMG 3.6.5
- Made various code modernizations
- Updated the Create macOS Install Disk prompt and documentation for macOS 13 Ventura
- Renamed Preferences to Settings for macOS 13
- DropDMG now requires macOS 10.13 or later
- Updated the Signing section of the manual
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when type-selecting in a table view


DropDMG 3.6.4
- Updated the Security & Privacy Access documentation for the forthcoming macOS 13 Ventura
- The Append version number option and Layouts version number placeholders now work with iOS apps on Mac
- Worked around a macOS bug that could cause a crash when burning a disc
- Improved the error message when the source folder and destination folder are the same
- Updated the Segments section of the manual
- Updated the Chinese localization
- Updated the Read Me


DropDMG 3.6.3
- Updated the Create macOS Install Disk prompt and documentation for macOS 12 Monterey
- Updated the Format and Segments sections of the manual for macOS 12 Monterey
- Updated the crash reporter for macOS 12 Monterey
- The command-line tool no longer times out for very long operations
- Improved DropDMG’s error handling when setting a custom volume icon and making the mounted disk image auto-open
- Improved DropDMG’s error handling when reading license agreement information from a disk image
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when updating the Activity Window when multiple operations were in progress at the same time
- DropDMG now declares notch compatibility for the new MacBook Pros


DropDMG 3.6.2
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.15 that prevented the Enter Passphrase… sheet from working from within the Get Image Info…, Mount Image…, and Verify Image… panels.
- DropDMG now maintains its own error log files, so you can still access information for troubleshooting when the macOS system log isn’t working properly.
- The software updater reports a more useful error message if you try to update DropDMG while running it from the disk image. This should prevent confusion where you continue running an old version despite telling it to update.


DropDMG 3.6.1
- DropDMG now runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs
- App Wrapper and SD Notary now integrate with DropDMG
- The Layouts section of the manual now explains what happens with background pictures and Dark Mode
- Updated the Signing section of the manual
- Fixed a bug where DropDMG would sometimes incorrectly prompt for a passphrase when verifying a disk image
- Fixed a bug where the Automator action didn’t update when a configuration was deleted
- Updated the Italian localization


DropDMG 3.6
Updated the user interface for macOS 11 Big Sur:
- Redesigned the application icon
- The main window uses the new inline title bar style, the toolbar defaults to icon-only mode and supports the new large icon style, and the toolbar icons have been updated
- The Preferences window uses the new, centered toolbar style and has updated icons
- Table views in the Preferences window have been updated
- The user interface now reflects the fact that macOS 11 removes support for creating NDIF disk images
- The Layouts section of the manual has updated guidance on background picture dimensions that takes into account the window layout changes in macOS 11
- Updated the Custom volume icon feature for Big Sur
- Worked around a macOS bug that prevented progress bars from being drawn
- Worked around an animation glitch

- Added support for LZMA-compressed disk images on macOS 10.15 and later. This format is even more tightly compressed than bzip2, with slightly slower compression speed and much faster decompression.
- When using the dropdmg command-line tool, you can now specify additional parameters in combination with --config-name to override the values in the configuration. (This also works with the corresponding AppleScript command and parameters.)
- Configurations now show a Gatekeeper badge on the icon when the disk image is code-signed
- Various operations that used to require multiple passphrase prompts when dealing with an encrypted disk image now require only one
- DropDMG no longer lets you try to codesign encryped disk images, as macOS does not support that
- DropDMG now requires macOS 10.9 or later
- When encountering various kinds of file permissions errors, DropDMG will now recommend that you grant it Full Disk Access
- Added more fine-grained control over DropDMG’s layout checks, so that it can still ensure that icon sizes and positions are correct even if you’ve told it to ignore a Finder error that causes the window size to be slightly off.
- DropDMG no longer considers it to be an error if an icon position is off by only a fraction of a point, which can happen with certain combinations of file types and Finder view settings
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.15 that could cause a spurious “Permission denied” error when using the Change Image Passphrase…, Convert Image/Archive…, or Verify Image… command
- Removed support for Growl, as all supported macOS versions now have Notification Center


DropDMG 3.5.10
- If the chosen signing identity is no longer available, DropDMG will now show it in the Signing pop-up menu in red (instead of selecting Unsigned) so that you can see that creating the disk image with those settings will cause an error
- Fixed a bug where the Finder window height was one point off on macOS 10.14 and later
- Updated the Layouts section of the manual
- Updated the Chinese localization


DropDMG 3.5.9
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.15 that could prevent a custom volume icon from being saved
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.15 that prevented the Set Passphrase… sheet from working from within the New Blank Disk Image… panel
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.15 that prevented licenses from being removed when converting a disk image using license None
- Worked around a macOS bug that could prevent DropDMG from launching after you used AirPlay
- Worked around a macOS bug that could cause the Command-line tool to fail with error Killed: 9 after being updated to a new version until the Mac was restarted
- Fixed a bug where the passphrase sheet could be stretched vertically
- Modernized the localizations


DropDMG 3.5.8
- The Create macOS Install Disk command works around some issues with the macOS 10.15 Catalina installer that could cause errors or the creation of incomplete installation disks
- Create macOS Install Disk automatically shows you the volumes list when it’s time to select the destination volume
- Updated the Create macOS Install Disk and Signing sections of the manual
- When calculating the size of the source folder or app, DropDMG now counts the sizes of any extended attributes. This fixes a problem where some apps (e.g. those made using the Qt framework) that include large numbers of small code-signed files wouldn’t fit on the disk image
- Work around a series of bugs in macOS 10.15 that sometimes caused a “Resource temporarily unavailable (-54)” error when creating a disk image with a license agreement
- Worked around an issue with macOS 10.14 where the log detail drawer might be slightly too short to fit all of its contents without scrolling
- Fixed a crash that could occur if there was an error creating a macOS install disk
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when a Software Update error occurred
- Fixed a bug with the crash reporter window and Dark Mode


DropDMG 3.5.7
- If setting a disk image’s layout fails, DropDMG will now report a better error message that explains how to enable Automation access in System Preferences, rather than just mentioning error code -1743
- Worked around a Mac App Store bug that prevented setting disk image layouts when using macOS 10.14 or later
- Expanded the Signing section of the manual with more information about the different kinds of signing, as well as notarization
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.13 and later that can corrupt a custom volume icon
- Worked around permissions error that could occur when converting a disk image to an archive on newer versions of macOS


DropDMG 3.5.6

- Added preliminary support for macOS 10.15 (which is now in beta)
- Worked around change in macOS 10.15 that could cause DropDMG to crash at launch
- The Software Update… installer now works on macOS 10.15. If you’ve already updated to macOS 10.15, you can use it to download the new version but will have to install it manually, as described in the Updating From a Previous Version section of the manual
- Worked around a macOS 10.15 bug where Finder didn’t save the window layout
- Finder in macOS 10.15 currently does not display custom volume icons
- macOS 10.15 removes support for Internet-enabled disk images, so DropDMG now makes that option unavailable when running on macOS 10.15
- The Expand Image Automator action doesn’t work on macOS 10.15 because macOS 10.15 support for Internet-enabled disk images has been removed
- Fixed a bug where DropDMG could crash when applying a layout if there had been a scripting error
- Updated the Command-line tool section of the manual
- Updated to Xcode 10.2


DropDMG 3.5.5

- The Create macOS Install Disk command now pre-downloads any required assets from Apple’s servers so that the install disk contains everything that you need to install macOS
- Added instructions for Creating a DropDMG Quick Action in macOS 10.14’s Finder
- DropDMG now supports the Hardened Runtime on macOS 10.14
- DropDMG is now notarized by Apple
- Improved the Security & Privacy Access instructions
- DropDMG now reports a helpful error message if the dropdmg command-line tool fails because its parent process doesn’t have Automation access to control DropDMG on macOS 10.14
- Added AppendToNameWhenConverting to the esoteric preferences
- The license agreement editor now uses a darker background color in Dark Mode to match the disk image mounter
- Improved the appearance of the log detail drawer in Dark Mode
- The About window now includes a link to the privacy policy and has an updated layout
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.14 where the font and color buttons in the license agreement editor didn’t show their text because the images were too large


DropDMG 3.5.4

- macOS 10.14 has new data protection features that require the user to specifically grant applications such as DropDMG access to do certain things. In general, you will want to grant DropDMG Automation access for Finder and possibly Full Disk Access as well. This is further explained in the Security & Privacy Access section of the manual
- Added support for Dark Mode on macOS 10.14
- Improved the quality of the generated volume icons on macOS 10.14
- If the LayouterCheckViewOptions esoteric preference is set, DropDMG now checks and re-applies the icon positions
- When creating a disk image with a custom icon or layout (or using the AlwaysUseSlowPath esoteric preference), DropDMG now works around a bug in macOS 10.13 that could prevent icon files from being invisible
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.13 that could prevent keyboard input after closing the Help menu
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.13.4 that could cause an internal error when locating DropDMG’s data files
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.14 that prevented recent destination folders from being saved
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.14 that prevented license agreements from being added to a disk image
- Fixed a bug where creating a disk image could fail if DropDMG was given a symlink
- Fixed a bug where converting an encrypted disk image to another encrypted format would fail with an authentication error if you were changing the password at the same time
- Fixed some drawing glitches with the Activity window on macOS 10.14

Improved the following sections of the manual:
- Convert Image/Archive…
- New Blank Disk Image…
- Protecting Your Files With Encryption


DropDMG 3.5.3
- The Compact Image… command is now available as a toolbar button
- Updated the Mount Image… and New Blank Disk Image… sections of the manual
- Fixed a bug that could cause an internal error when using the Destination pop-up menu
- Updated the Italian localization


DropDMG 3.5.2
- Indicators for the supported macOS version in DropDMG’s pop-up menus are once again right-aligned on macOS 10.13, thanks to an OS bug fix
- Fixed a bug where a misleading error message would be presented if a secure connection could not be made to the software update server
- Updated the Making Images With Background Pictures section of the manual
- Updated the Italian localization


DropDMG 3.5.1
- DropDMG is now 64-bit only and requires macOS 10.7 or later
- Updated the Making a Bootable Device Image of a Hard Drive and Restoring Files and Disks sections of the manual for macOS 10.13
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.13 that could corrupt auto-generated volume icon files
- Worked around a macOS error when creating a device image of an APFS volume by instead creating the device image of the entire APFS container
- Worked around a Finder bug that could mess up the status bar state after creating a disk image
- Modernized the task code for macOS 10.13
- Fixed a bug where device image files could be owned by the root user
- Fixed a bug where DropDMG would unnecessarily regenerate supplied volume icon files
- Fixed a bug where there was some extraneous text in the man page
- Updated the Chinese, French, and German localizations


DropDMG 3.5
- The Create macOS Install Disk command can now create a bootable install disk on a hard drive, USB stick, SD card, or disk image. This makes it easy to create test macOS installations from downloaded installers, reinstall the OS, repair your Mac’s drive, or restore from a backup. (Previously, the Create macOS Install Disk command handled burning OS installers to DVD)
- Disk image layouts now support the 96×96 icon size
- DropDMG is now compatibile with beta versions of macOS 10.13 High Sierra. In particular, there were a bunch of changes to APFS that prevented previous versions of DropDMG from working properly
- Made some changes to the New Blank Disk Image… interface and documentation to reflect the current status of APFS
- Worked around some bugs in macOS 10.13 that could cause errors when creating a disk image with a layout. It is possible that the window’s status bar and toolbar will not be correctly hidden, but at least now you can create images
- Added the How can I back up my DropDMG data? section of the manual
- Made various improvements to the diagnostic reporter


DropDMG 3.4.6

- The New Blank Disk Image… command now supports case-insensitive APFS (requires macOS 10.12.4 or later). This can be used for testing Mac apps on a file system that is Unicode normalization-preserving, but not normalization-sensitive
- The Save Diagnostic Report… command in the Help menu now works with all versions of macOS that DropDMG supports
- Made the task code more robust
- Made various internal code modernizations
- Documentation and Help menu links to c-command.com now use https instead of http
- Updated the Japanese localization

Improved the following sections of the manual:
- Create macOS Install Disk
- Layouts
- Making Images With Background Pictures


DropDMG 3.4.5
- Worked around a bug in macOS 10.12.2 that caused a garbage character to be displayed in various pop-up menus
- DropDMG no longer posts to Notification Center for operations that complete less than a minute after being queued. This should help make sure that the banners/alerts that you do see are genuinely useful
- Made some changes to reduce the time it takes to open the Preferences window
- Logging is more robust on macOS 10.12
- Updated the German localization


DropDMG 3.4.4
- Fixed a regression that could cause a crash when creating a disk image with a layout on Mac OS X 10.10 or earlier
- Fixed a regression where the System Fonts pop-up menu didn’t work
- The new Save Diagnostic Report… command in the Help menu provides an easier way of recording error logs and other information to send to technical support (requires macOS 10.12)
- Updated the Burn… and Signing sections of the manual
- DropDMG now removes the Show Tab Bar menu item and associated functionality on macOS 10.12, since they don’t make sense for its user interface
- Worked around a problem with unexpected title bar accessory views
- Fixed a bug where DropDMG could incorrectly log an error about the Mac App Store receipt
- Improved the logging code
- Updated to Xcode 8.1


DropDMG 3.4.3
- Worked around a bug in the macOS 10.12 Finder that could cause an error when creating a disk image with a layout
- Worked around a change in macOS 10.12 that prevented the Always run with root access option from working
- DropDMG’s layout variables now work for .scptd files
- DropDMG now uses the new os_log subsystem on macOS 10.12
- Worked around a change in the macOS 10.12 Finder that could cause icons to be displayed in the wrong locations if you had enabled the hidden AppleShowAllFiles Finder preference
- Worked around a badly worded OS certificate error when checking for a software update
- Improved DropDMG’s logging of Scripting Bridge errors
- Made some changes to prevent Core Data from logging internal errors on macOS 10.12


DropDMG 3.4.2
- Removed support for creating .xip archives because macOS 10.12 can no longer expand .xip files not created by Apple. DropDMG will change configurations using .xip to .zip. Going forward, Apple recommends using signed .dmg files
- Renamed “Mac OS X” to “macOS” throughout the app and documentation
- Updated to Xcode 8
- Added the Sending in Crash Log Files section of the manual
- Updated the Spanish localization


DropDMG 3.4.1
- The Signing menu now groups the identities to make it clearer which type you should choose for .dmg files vs. .xip files. If no valid Developer ID identity is found, it tells you how to get one
- Updated the Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese localizations


DropDMG 3.4
- Added support for creating disk images that are signed for Gatekeeper, as Apple now recommends that Mac applications be distributed on signed disk images (requires Mac OS X 10.11.5 or later). Unsigned disk images are subject to Gatekeeper Path Randomization. This is described in the Signing section of the manual
- Added support for the .xip archive format, which lets you create secure archives that are signed for Gatekeeper (requires Mac OS X 10.8 or later)
- Added the Verify Signature… command for checking disk images and .xip archives to make sure they are correctly signed (requires Mac OS X 10.11.5 or later)
- The New Blank Disk Image… command now lets you choose the File System, which can be any variant of HFS+ as well as Apple File System (APFS), Apple’s experimental next-generation file system for 2017. This feature is particularly useful for developers who want to test that their apps work properly on each file system
- On macOS 10.12, DropDMG no longer shows its Select Next Tab and Select Previous Tab menu items because they duplicate the new system ones
- Made various code modernizations
- If getting authorization fails, DropDMG now reports the command that it was attempting to execute
- The distribution disk image is now signed
- Updated the Sending in an Error Report section of the manual
- Renamed “Mac OS X” to “macOS” throughout the app and documentation
- Updated the Chinese, French, and Portuguese localizations