Tuesday, April 4th, 2017 Author: Update 08/08/18: The anticipation of buying a new Mac is sometimes tempered by the realization that at some point, you’re going to have to move the data from your old Mac or PC to its new home on your new Mac. Luckily for us Mac users, the Mac includes the Migration Assistant, an easy-to-use app that, with a bit of help from you, can move all the important data from your old Mac or Windows PC to that sparkling new Mac you just bought. It can perform this task using one of a number of ways to make the connection between old and new:. Via.
An external backup drive if you're going to completely back up the Mac you're putting up for sale.; A network connection, or the ability to mount the external drive containing the backup you made on your new Mac. Either method will work for migrating your data to the new Mac. An internet connection, primarily for downloading and installing a clean copy of the Mac OS, but also for deactivating.
A or cable between the two computers. From a Time Machine backup ( Related: Time Machine – What It Is, How It Works, How to Use It). From a startup drive that can be mounted on your new Mac That should be enough choices to enable you to make a connection to transfer the information. To help you choose between the options, here’s a bit more detail. (The Migration Assistant will close all open apps. Be sure to save any data before proceeding.) Network Connection: Your new Mac, as well as the Mac or PC that contains the data you wish to transfer, must be on the same local network. The Migration Assistant only scans the local network, and won’t look beyond it for hosts to use as the source of the transfer.
The network connection method is probably the easiest to use, especially when you consider that your new Mac can automatically discover the network and make the appropriate connections needed. The only tip here is if your network requires a, as most Wi-Fi networks do, be sure to have it handy when you first turn your new Mac on. Thunderbolt and FireWire: The Mac has long supported a special means of connecting two Macs together, known as. When a Mac is booted up in Target Disk Mode (hold down the T key when you start your Mac), the OS isn’t loaded; instead, the Mac makes its startup drive available to the connected computer just as if it were an external drive. Originally, Target Disk Mode made use of the FireWire ports that were common on older Macs. While FireWire is still supported, Thunderbolt, which offers a much faster connection, is a better choice for newer Macs.
In order for Target Disk Mode to operate, both computers need a set of FireWire ports or a set of Thunderbolt ports. It’s possible to use an adapter to connect a Mac with Thunderbolt ports to a Mac with FireWire ports, although for the cost of the adapter and the drop in connection speed, you’re probably better off just using the network method.
Time Machine: You can use your as the source for copying data with the Migration Assistant. All that’s needed is the ability to connect the Time Machine drive to the new Mac. If your Time Machine drive is located in an external drive, this should be a simple process. You can also use a Time Capsule connected via the network.
External Drive: We already mentioned that the Migration Assistant can use a Time Machine backup drive when it’s connected to the new Mac, but it can also use any startup drive that’s connected to the new Mac. This is especially handy for anyone who bought a new Mac because their old one had failed in some way; perhaps unable to boot. As long as the startup drive is in good shape, you could move the drive to an external enclosure and migrate the data from there. If you need an empty external enclosure, you’ll find a wide selection of. Preparing Your Old Mac There are a few preliminary tasks to perform that will make using Migration Assistant easier and quicker.
Start by making sure the Mac OS installed on the old Mac is up to date. You don’ t need to jump to an entirely new version of the Mac OS, but if you’re using OS X Mavericks, for example, make sure you’ve updated to the last version of Mavericks. You can update using the Mac App Store or download updates directly from the Apple support site. If your old Mac is running a version of Mac OS that predates OS X Snow Leopard, you’ll need to first upgrade to Snow Leopard.
If you use any third-party apps, check the developer’s web site and make sure the app is current, and that it’s compatible with the version of the Mac OS installed on your new Mac. You may want to consider slimming down the data on the old Mac.
Migration Assistant will move the bulk of the data over to your new Mac, but if you have an old app or three you no longer use, or that won’t be supported on your new Mac, you may want to consider removing them so as to speed up the data transfer. Get Ready, Get Set, Go The Migration Assistant can take a while, so if a MacBook is involved in the data transfer, make sure it’s powered from a wall outlet and not the battery. No need to drain your Mac’s battery and force it into sleep during the data transfer. The Migration Assistant is automatically available as an option when you first start up your new Mac. But don’t worry if you’ve already whizzed past the migration option. That’s the tack I usually take, because I want to make sure the new Mac is set up and working before I move my old data over.
It also gives me the chance to create a pristine backup of the new Mac, so I can always return to the fresh-out-of-the-box state, should I need to. The rest of this guide is going to assume you’re manually starting up the Migration Assistant, but if you’re picking this up from the Setup Assistant’s offer to run the Migration Assistant, you really won’t notice much difference. (The Migration Assistant can transfer data from a number of sources including your old Mac, a Time Machine backup, an external drive, and even a Windows PC.) Start by launching the Migration Assistant on your new Mac, located at /Applications/Utilities/. The Migration Assistant will warn you that it needs to be the sole app running, and that it will quit all other apps on your Mac.
Save any open documents, and then click the Continue button when ready. Supply your administrator password at the prompt, and then click OK. The Migration Assistant will ask how you wish to transfer your information. Your choices are:. From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk. From a Windows PC.
To another Mac In this guide, we’re going to assume you’re transferring from your old Mac, so choose the first option. If you’re using Target Disk Mode, make sure you’ve booted the old Mac while holding down the T key. If you’re using Time Machine or an external drive, make sure they’re powered on and connected to your Mac. When ready, click Continue. The Migration Assistant will start searching for other devices that it can transfer data from. While it’s busy searching, let’s jump over to your old Mac.
Migration Assistant On an Old Mac Launch the Migration Assistant on your old Mac. You’ll find it at /Applications/Utilities/. Run through the same steps as above, until you get to the transfer choices. Select To Another Mac, and then click Continue. Return to your new Mac. (Your Mac will display all the available sources that it’s capable of transferring information from.) Migration Assistant On a New Mac After a minute or so, your old Mac should appear as a choice for the source of migrating data.
Select the old Mac from the list (more than likely, your old Mac will be the only item listed), and then click Continue. The Migration Assistant will display a verification code. Go to the older Mac and make sure the same verification code is displayed. If so, click the Continue button on the old Mac.
If it’s not displayed, go back and make sure you selected the correct Mac to transfer information from. At this point, the two Macs will start the preliminary transfer operation. The old Mac will send a list of users and the type of data they have stored on the old Mac. On the new Mac, you should see the Migration Assistant displaying a number of items that can be transferred. They should include:.
Applications. Each user account. Other files and folders. Computer and Network settings You can place a checkmark next to the items you wish to have transferred. Some items have a disclosure triangle that allows you to select from subcategories of items to transfer. For instance, if you look in the user folder items, you’ll find that you can transfer the trash from your old Mac, something I choose not to do. (You can use the disclosure triangles to refine your selection of information to transfer.) About Conflicts You may notice a yellow warning flag saying that some conflicts were detected.
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This usually occurs when one or more user accounts on the old Mac have the same name as a user account on the new Mac. In older versions of Migration Assistant, you need to halt the process and correct the problem by renaming or deleting user accounts on the Macs. Thankfully, the newer version of Migration Assistant can fix this issue for you.
Go ahead and make your selections about which data will be copied over, then click the Continue button. If there are any conflicts, a sheet will drop down, displaying ways to eliminate the conflicts. The solutions are either to delete the existing user account on the new Mac and replace it with the old one, or to keep both and give the old user account a new name. Make your choice and click Continue. (Transfer times are usually quite long, though it depends on both the amount of data and the speed of the connection. This might be a good time for a lunch break.) Finish Up the Transfer The transfer will start.
Be aware the Migration Assistant can take a long time, depending on the connection method and the size of the data that’s being transferred. When the Migration Assistant has completed the transfer, your Mac will log off all users and present the normal login screen. For more tricks and guides for macOS Mojave, High Sierra or earlier, check out our.
Just bought a new MacBook air. Apple store said migration is easy with Migration Assistant, but said they would charge $100 and it would take 72 hours for them to migrate data from my old MacBook air to the new.
I should have take that as a sign. Migration Assistant (with the $28 thunderbolt cable Apple told me to buy) repeatedly froze, requiring shutdown and restart, which itself then required that a new user be set up on the new mac. After working all night, nothing had transferred. Migration Assistant is not good, and Apple seems to be a state of decline unfortunately in terms of customer service and quality. What used to be fresh and user friendly has now turned into a pain in the @ss. Save your money on the useless thunderbolt cable and Migration Assistant and manually transfer your info.
It is much easier and faster. My problem when I did this last year is that the User files from the OLD Mac were copied into a new User folder. I guess this is a safeguard, but I wanted all (or almost all) of those files in the new primary User account on the NEW Mac. But I found that when I copied those files to the new User account, I did not have the privileges that I needed. So I had to change the privileges by entering my new user password to authorize the changes. That is VERY time consuming. I have a lot of files.
Maybe there is a faster way, but I couldn’t find it. Again I STRONGLY encourage anyone with more than just a few applications to NOT transfer their applications with migration assistant you can wreak havoc with your new operating system by transfering some applications without a proper clean install and yeah it’s MUCH faster to transfer your data by putting the OLD mac in Disk Target Mode and transfering that way OR attaching a time machine backup directly to your new mac but if you DO insist on transfering yor aplications, yes they will generaly transfer but you may have to enter your serial number or authorize them again on the new machine. “you may have to enter your serial number or authorize them again on the new machine” Seethis is what’s nonsensical, frustrating and a major PITA with the migration. Let’s take one app, say Photoshop. Now when the program was legally purchased ( years ago ) the correct serial number was entered and registered with Adobe and obviously on the existing machine too. That data and serial number are stored somewhere on the old machine, right? In the application support or somewhere else.
And that applies to all apps that were purchased and registered long ago. Why isn’t that data copied over from the old to the new machine? It’s there somewhere otherwise you’d be unable to use photoshop without it constantly calling home to mama Adobe. How many of us recorded those purchases, kept a hard copy of the receipts, perhaps changed the emails of the original purchase to a new one and forgetting which old one you purchased it underand on and on? If it’s a legal bonafide app on the old machinewhy do they force you to go through the huge hassle of reregistering them again? Assuming that the clone is an exact copy in every way of the older machine? If you decided to boot from that backup and bypass the internal drive for one reason or another, it never asks you to reenter the serial numbers of every app again.
This is what I just don’t understand about a migration or transfer. Clone or Target mode or Time Machine.Thanks for reading my rant which I believe everyone might ask too. It’s all such a tedious and frustrating waste of time to try and contact every vendor again. This article is about a month late for me.
I recently purchased a refurbished iMac from OWC and used Migration Assistant to move everything from my Mac Mini. The only issue I had with Migration Assistant, was that I had to update the macOS on the iMac. Migration Assistant finally worked after the update.
I had to reauthorize/login most programs, but I figured on that. The only one that gave me any issues was Norton Security.
The problem was that it identified the computer as being my Mac Mini, not my iMac (I had different names for each computer). I had to uninstall, then reinstall later in the day. Other than that, most programs played nice.
I had never used Migration Assistant before, but it was nice to be able to move everything from one Mac to another. Actually when you’re doing a migration, you’re putting the old mac in target disk mode so you are really only reading the hard drive of the old computer. So the options, etc are really only on your new computer HOWEVER, if you take my advice and re-install your applications on the new system, you’re right.
It is almost mandatory that you have your old mac up and running and visible. Because you’ll need to enter serial numbers and configure things the way you had them before most of your serial numbers, etc can be found in the ABOUT window when the program is open on your old mac or you can use one of the serial number tracking apps to get them all in one place (I use Mac Product Key Finder). Migration assistant is awesome BUT you can run into all kinds of issues that may cause you problems down the line if you migrate applications for the cleanest and most likely problem free system on your new computer, consider actually doing the work of re-installing your applications take it from someone who spent days later down the line trying to correct this problem after having a system that froze, wouldn’t shut down correctly and acted just plain weird spend the time when you first migrate!. Recent Posts. Macs last a long time.
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Upgrading the original drive in your Mac is a great way to improve performance and/or increase the storage capacity of your machine. When transferring your data from one drive to another, we highly recommend you install a fresh copy of the OS, and then use Apple's Migration Assistant to migrate your data to the new drive. While drive cloning is also an option, performing a fresh OS install and migrating your data can provide a much better starting point to ensure that everything will work correctly, and should you have any issues with your new drive, it can eliminate additional variables to troubleshoot. Performing a fresh install will also ensure your new drive is setup with the Recovery Partition that Apple creates during the OS install process. To transfer your data, you'll need to have both your original drive and your new drive connected at the same time.
For single-drive computers (e.g. Most laptops), you'll need a device to connect the old drive to your computer after your new hard drive is installed. If you plan to use your old drive for external storage when the migration process is complete, you can install that drive into an enclosure. We offer many DIY kits with the external enclosure included. Depending on the size and connector type on your drive, you can use one of the following solutions to connect the drive: an, the, or the.
In some instances, though (most notably with MacBook Airs and Retina MacBook Pros), you'll need a special enclosure for Apple's SSD. For those extremely rare cases where you can't connect your old drive externally, the following steps will be slightly different.
See the Special Note at the end of the article for more details. If the Mac can hold both the new drive and the original drive (for example, a 2006-2012 Mac Pro, or a laptop or Mac mini with a Data Doubler) no enclosure should be necessary. Please contact our if you are still unsure of which solution is best.
For Mac operating systems 10.6 or earlier, you will need the installer disc for the OS. For 10.7 and later, you can use the recovery partition on the original drive.
To make sure you have a functional recovery partition, restart your computer and immediately hold down the 'Command'; and 'R' keys until the Apple logo appears. If your computer boots into a four-option menu then you have a functional recovery partition that can install the OS.
If your computer boots normally to your desktop then you do not have a recovery partition. For 10.7 users that do not have a functional recovery partition and have a computer (or which is newer than the computers on said list), then you can use the Internet Recovery feature built into your Mac. To make sure you have access to Internet Recovery, restart your computer and immediately hold down the 'Command', 'Option', and 'R' keys until you see a spinning globe or Apple logo. If your computer does not have an internet connection it will prompt you to connect to a wifi network. If your computer boots into a four-option menu then you have the ability to use Internet Recovery. If all else fails then you can. Use Disk Utility to format the new drive.
This will be Option 4 in the menu option that is presented when you boot up into recovery. Once Disk Utility is open, select the View button on the upper left of the window and select Show all Devices. If your drive does not show in the sidebar, quit Disk Utility and then reselect it from the menu. Once you have the disk selected, click on the 'Erase' tab on the right. Set the Volume Format to 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'; for SSDs being installed as internal boot drives, select 'APFS' (Apple File System). NOTE: Rotational drives and Fusion drives can only be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The name can be anything you want, but should be a different name from the startup drive being replaced.
Once those options are set, click the 'Erase' button. Once you've formatted the drive, you can close Disk Utility. If you're in 10.7 or later, you'll need to select the 'Reinstall Mac OS X' option from the Utilities screen. In earlier OS versions, quitting Disk Utility will take you back to the installer. Follow the steps as they are presented, making sure to select the new drive (the one you just formatted in the previous step) as the install location.
The OS installers are simple to use; all you need to do is follow the on-screen prompts. Once you have filled in the required information, the installation will begin.
This can take quite a while, depending on your internet connection speed. Fortunately, the process at this point is automated, so you can do something else while waiting for the install to complete. Once the OS has been installed, your computer will restart to the new drive and walk you through the final setup steps. Continue through the on-screen prompts until you’re asked if you'd like to import user data from another system. This part of the setup process uses Apple's built-in Migration Assistant utility. If for some reason you skip the initial setup, you can find Migration Assistant by navigating to Applications Utilities.
The Migration Assistant will scan for available drives, showing you a list. Select your drive once it appears, then click 'Continue'. The next screen will list the data types you can transfer. Select any users you want to bring over to your new drive, as well as any applications and network settings. You can either select them all, or you can select/deselect items individually by expanding the folders via the disclosure triangles. There is an option for 'Files and Folders' which you will likely want to copy over as well, since some applications install some settings in non-standard places.
Once you have selected the items you would like to copy to your new system drive, click the 'Transfer' button. Depending on how much data is being is being copied, this may take a while. After Migration Assistant finishes you can continue the rest of the process. Once the setup is complete your computer will bring you to the login screen or your desktop.