Here is a complete walkthrough: migration assistant/ transferring system to new iMac

eroxx said:

After 5 weeks of waiting, I finally got my 2012 iMac. I was so excited to use it, I put my time machine backup into the computer and expected everything to work perfectly. And. It. did. not.

Here's what I discovered:
1) Time machine will only restore the HOME hard drive. I was transferring from a 2012 iMac with a 256 SSD drive and a 2 TB drive. It only transferred the home drive of 256 SSD

2) itunes library transfer is a BITCH.

After MUCH consternation and about 10 applecare phone calls, I (think) I figured it out. I hope this is helpful to you!

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1) When you FIRST turn on your new computer, do NOT go to all the way to a desktop. As soon as it asks you if you want to transfer your files, do it. Otherwise, you get VERY bizarre permission errors (look up "fetch permission" and you'll know what I mean) Trust me on this. I had to do a clean install of my new computer. Connect your time machine disc and it will transfer everything over

2) Once that happens, your computer should look exactly as your old one did

3) But, what about the extra data (in my case 2TB) that is on your time machine? At this point, I created a new folder in my new computer's home drive called "Eric's 2nd Hard Drive" and I dragged and dropped everything in there (took about 8 hours)

4) itunes: Here's the "goocher." It's AMAZING that no one at apple care could simply tell me the following fact: Your itunes library will only "sync" if your itunes library is in the EXACT SAME relative location on both computers. IOW, if your itunes library is on an external drive, it needs to stay on an external drive. But, what if you have a brand new 2012 iMac with a 3TB fusion? Here's the solution:

5) Go into your OLD computer and change the itunes media directory to a folder on an external hard drive (if this is already the case, skip this step). Make sure BOTH boxes are checked in "advanced" (keep itunes folder organized and copy music to this folder). Then, still in your old computer, go to file/library/organize and check consolidate files. This took about 10 hours for me.

6) On your OLD computer, go into your user/music/itunes folder and copy EVERYTHING.

7) Disconnect external drive and connect it to new computer. First, replace all of the user/music/itunes folder with the files you just copied. Then launch itunes. It will recognize the library on the external drive, and your itunes should look exactly the same. BUT, you now need to get the files off the external and onto that beautiful fusion

8) So, you go into preferences and change the itunes media library to a folder on your NEW computer's hard drive (I chose users/music/itunes/itunes media). Nothing will be in that folder yet.

9) Now you have to again go to library/organize files/consolidate. Again, this will take about 10 hours.

BUT, your itunes library will be preserved!!!

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eroxx said:

The itunes is probably the part that's the trickiest. And frankly, the most annoying, because EVERY applecare representative I spoke to replied, "Just move your itunes folder and it will work." Even as they said it I knew it wouldn't.

The issue is the communication between the database (the metadata/playlists/stars/playcounts/etc) and the music files themselves.

Let's say your current itunes library sits on Location "Y" when you launch itunes, the itunes library file (.itl, usually in users/music/itunes) and the .xml file looks for your music in exactly that location. If you move your music elsewhere, you'll SEE all the songs in your itunes library, but when you try to play something, you'll get an error that it can't find the song.

So, in order to get the relative locations to match, you need to put the entire library onto an external drive (let's call it location Z). Like I said, you do that by FIRST (on the old computer) setting a new folder for your itunes media files, and then file/library/organize/consolidate. Once it's done, the DATABASE will now look in Location Z.

Then you take the entire users/music/itunes folder and copy that over to the new computer, and connect Location Z (aka external drive) to the new computer. Now, when you launch itunes on new computer, it will look in location Z, and voilà, your itunes works.

Now, on new computer you change media folder to a folder you want on new computer (or you can simply keep it in external). Then again you consolidate. Now itunes will look for the music in location Z1, which is wherever you want it on your brand new spanking clean machine

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eroxx said:

To the poster that talked about dropbox and bringing everything over. That should work, but make sure that your entire itunes directory (NOT the song files, the itunes directory under users/music/itunes) is also transferred over. That way, it will be the EXACT same database.

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Dr FranknFurter said:

But what if you're copying from a PC?

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Apple fanboy said:

Connect it to your iMac using an ethernet cable and use migration assistant.

Se here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1408

I recently did this and it worked well for the first user, but I found not everything came over from my daughters account and the wives. Fortunately it was just some documents and pictures which I had backed up on an external in anticipation of any issues. Just connected it and dragged and dropped on the desk top. Simple.

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