Econ Technologies' (www.econtechnologies.com) ChronoSync 4.6 is a substantial update of the Mac backup, bootable backup, and folder synchronizing app.

It works with any device you can connect to a Mac such as external drives, thumb drives, network volumes, remote Macs, or even a PC. ChronoSync 4.6 adds SmartScan, an advanced algorithm for analyzing a volume for changes. File system analysis can often be the most time consuming part of a synchronization or backup.

While SmartScan won’t copy your files any faster, detecting which ones need to be copied can see speed improvements. Depending on your usage patterns, you may realize improvements ranging from 1x to 50x faster. SmartScan works across ChronoAgent connections too, so remote syncs and backups can see speed gains.

ChronoSync 4.6 includes over a dozen major new features and more than 50 minor enhancements and fixes. New features include a Yosemite user interface, popovers to quickly gain information, and rules to include/exclude files based on Finder Tags.

New automated scheduling options can prompt the user before execution, skip syncs or backups if volumes aren't available, and abort a schedule sync or backup at a specific time. ChronoSync 4.6 also increases the speed of synchronizations and backups.

New in ChronoSync are Push Notifications, allowing you to receive notifications about backups and syncs on an iPhone via the ChronoMonitor 1.1 app. ChronoMonitor is an iPhone app that monitors Macs running ChronoSync and is available in the Apple App Store for $2.99.

A demo of ChronoSync is available for download. Registration is US$49.99. Existing users update for free.