Any lessons learned from hybrid clean install migration?

[fcracer]

I’m having some issues with Ventura and would like to rule out any legacy applications or settings causing them. I’d like to wipe my Studio Max and start with a clean install of Ventura (I’ve been updating MacOS since 2006 and there’s lots of junk accumulated).

I’m planning to clone the existing 1TB drive in addition to the TM backup. I’ll use the “erase all contents and settings” to get back to “out of box” experience.

I then plan to use migration assistant to only copy the user account over; I’ll install all the apps with fresh versions. Should I also copy ”system and network settings”? I’m thinking it’s best not to, but would appreciate your thoughts.

Any other lessons learned would be greatly appreciated for those that have been there, done that. Thanks in advance!

 

[Ploki]

sometimes i migrate, sometimes i wipe clean and rebuild from scratch manually.

Clean and from scratch can be really refreshing. Takes some time tho.

 

[fcracer]

sometimes i migrate, sometimes i wipe clean and rebuild from scratch manually.

Clean and from scratch can be really refreshing. Takes some time tho.

When you do clean and from scratch, do you move documents over manually? Due to a T2 security issue, my MacBook Air had to be setup from scratch. It works brilliantly, so now I want to start from scratch on the Mac Studio too. It feels like Ventura is different enough to warrant the time spent… I just hope I don’t end up with the same issues after all the work and/or run into some known issue like user permissions locking my backed up files.

 

[DarkPremiumCho]

Should I also copy ”system and network settings”?

I would not do that. Check out /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and you'll see trails of previous upgrades.

---

Lessons learned during my upgrades:

• before reinstall
  • do backups
  • save a list of apps
  • unauthorize software (those with special licensing methods)
  • log out of iCloud
• during/after reinstall
  • always use the same username
  • copy things to my home folder manually
    • I don't use Migrate Assistant to avoid migrating the messy ~/Library folder

 

[fcracer]

I would not do that. Check out /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and you'll see trails of previous upgrades.

---

Lessons learned during my upgrades:

• before reinstall
  • do backups
  • save a list of apps
  • unauthorize software (those with special licensing methods)
  • log out of iCloud
• during/after reinstall
  • always use the same username
  • copy things to my home folder manually
    • I don't use Migrate Assistant to avoid migrating the messy ~/Library folder

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for. Will be a long night tonight…

 

[Fishrrman]

"I’m planning to clone the existing 1TB drive in addition to the TM backup. I’ll use the “erase all contents and settings” to get back to “out of box” experience.

I then plan to use migration assistant to only copy the user account over; I’ll install all the apps with fresh versions. Should I also copy ”system and network settings”? I’m thinking it’s best not to, but would appreciate your thoughts."

Be careful what you do.

Easiest way to create a clone would be to use SuperDuper. It's free to download and free to use for just creating a "full" (i.e., not "incremental") backup:
download <-- click to download

You want your cloned backup ready-to-go BEFORE you erase. It should be available to be connected immediately after the erase is done.

Do the "erase all content and settings".
Although I have never had need to do this, I believe it will restore the Mac to an "out-of-the-box" shape. That is, when done, it will present you with the initial setup screen "choose your language", and go on from there.

Setup assistant will give you the options of migrating:
- applications
- accounts
- user settings
- data

With applications, it's "all or nothing". You cannot pick-and-choose what gets migrated.
If you plan to re-install them all again, manually, then... don't worry about it.

If you choose NOT to copy settings, be prepared to set everything up again "from scratch". You may want to have usernames and passwords written down physically "on paper" for reference.

But... a final thought:
You haven't told us WHAT issues you are having.

There's another trick you could try before going through all the trouble above.
That is:
In users & groups, create a NEW "temporary" account with administrative privileges. Don't put anything in it (other than username and password).
Then, log out of your "regular" account, and into the temp account.

Do the "issues" you were previously having go away?

 

[fcracer]

Thank you all for your help. I managed to do a clean install and have moved my data back onto the Mac Studio. I was having issues with some software which was known to be buggy in the past and left remnants on the system (benchmarking software and photo editing software).

I was getting general rainbow spinning wheels when the Studio Max should be more than fast enough. In addition, I would get some freezes now and then. I won't know if these have gone away until I use it for a few days, but I wanted to eliminate as many potential sources of the problem as possible.

I briefly played with Capture One 23 (one of the programs that had issues on my Studio Max) and it seems remarkably faster. Same with the network speeds; I very likely had some settings that were no longer ideal with the 10Gbps setup I run now because I had a lot of issues a few years back in getting SMB to work properly with my Synology NAS.

A few more things to add to the list above in case anyone is considering going this route:

- Don't forget to copy your emails from whichever software you use; default locations can be found by searching on google
- Have all your Apple Pay credit cards ready to enter the CVV code
- If you use DaVinci Resolve, export the database; I forgot and this could be the one casualty of my process; even using the Time Machine backup does not seem to restore the database
- Unpair the keyboard and mouse from the old install before starting the new one I was stuck for a good 30 mins at the screen where it says to turn on the keyboard and mouse, trying to get any keyboard to pair with the Studio Max. Even a direct cable attached would not let the keyboard work. I finally found an article at apple.com that said to plug the cable in, wait one minute, then unplug the cable; this apparently re-pairs it when you can't access MacOS

 

[fcracer]

I’m having some issues with Ventura and would like to rule out any legacy applications or settings causing them. I’d like to wipe my Studio Max and start with a clean install of Ventura (I’ve been updating MacOS since 2006 and there’s lots of junk accumulated).

I’m planning to clone the existing 1TB drive in addition to the TM backup. I’ll use the “erase all contents and settings” to get back to “out of box” experience.

I then plan to use migration assistant to only copy the user account over; I’ll install all the apps with fresh versions. Should I also copy ”system and network settings”? I’m thinking it’s best not to, but would appreciate your thoughts.

Any other lessons learned would be greatly appreciated for those that have been there, done that. Thanks in advance!

Doing a quick follow-up since I know that others may be contemplating doing a clean install and wonder if it's worth it. For me, it turned out to be very worthwhile and actually less time consuming than I expected (thanks to server based storage such as iCloud, IMAP and Synology).

The issues I was having with Capture One have disappeared. The random reboots in the middle of the night while the Studio was asleep are gone. No more beachballs anywhere. The only hang I've had was once with DaVinci Resolve refusing to shutdown, but it hasn't happened a second time.

All in all, it was worth the time and effort. I appreciate the folks that provided the helpful list of things to do and not do. Saved me a bunch of time. I'm now thinking about doing a clean install on my MacBook Air M2 as well. However, I'm thinking, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"...