Any "gotchas" with Migration Assistant?

[sanPietro98]

I'll be getting my new MBP on Monday and I want to replicate my current Mac's files/docs/apps on the new MBP. So obviously, the Migration Assistant is the tool for this. Since I've never used this tool before, are there any known issues or "gotchas" that I should be aware of?

 

[miles01110]

There can be some major permissions issues, like those described here.

 

[sanPietro98]

There can be some major permissions issues, like those described here.

Thanks for the article. But that seemed to address migration via Time Machine. Are there any known issues with the Migration Assistance Tool?

Thanks.

 

[kmaute]

While I'm not an expert on the migration assistant, I have used it ~3 dozen times on both my personal as well as machines belonging to friends and family. The only issue that I have come across is with conflicting events when using both iCal and Entourage. Good luck.

 

[dbwie]

You may want to consider reinstalling your third party apps from their original install disks, and just move over your documents. This is especially true if you are transitioning from a PPC to an Intel Mac.

 

[numbersyx]

It worked very well for me when I got my Mac Pro and transferred the system over from my MBP.

Only one caveat: if you have Bootcamp and Windows on your current system, make sure you repair the Windows disk before you migrate. When I did so, my Mac Pro' trash can would not empty and had a file which could never be trashed. It was very annoying. Even a hard disk wipe could not get rid of it. Finally I re-installed XP on the MP and the problem was solved....

 

[sanPietro98]

Thanks for all the feedback. Any issues with Keychain migration?

 

[pilotError]

Be careful if you have any 3rd party Kext's on the old system. They will get copied to the new system.

If your going to do a clean install, your best bet is to either drag the individual applications across as well as the documents.