Best way to transfer all data from Intel MBP to new MBP M1?

[canhaz]

Hey all, so finally made the plunge and went with Apple Silicon.

My refurb 14" MBP arrived today and was wondering best strategy for moving over from a 2020 13" MBP?

The existing MBP is Montery with APFS and 2TB SSD, and new M1 Pro is Montery APFS with 4TB ssd.

Options:
- Time machine: The apfs/hfs+ confusion around snapshots and TM to external HD has me wondering.
- Migration Assistant over wifi.
- Migration Assistant over Thunderbolt3 cable connected to each machine: Is this still a thing?
- Carbon Copy Cloner to external 4TB ssd: then not sure how to restore that to M1.
- Option-key Boot to something like Clonezilla Live (ver 3 now supports APFS)

Seems like quite a few ways to go, and I'm sure there's more. Basically I just want everything to be the same.. but now much faster

Lot of my apps are universal now anyway, but don't mind post transfer downloading M1 versions as needed too.

 

[Fishrrman]

My suggestions (print out)

DO NOT OPEN THE LID ON THE NEW MacBook Pro YET !
NOT UNTIL YOUR BACKUP IS READY AND CONNECTED !

You don't want the initial setup sequence to begin until the backup is ready.

I would suggest a CarbonCopyCloner backup to an external drive as the best way to go.
In fact, connect your backup and start doing that "last backup" RIGHT NOW.

Once the backup is done, put the NEW MBP on the table.
Connect the backup drive.
NOW open the lid for the first time.

The MBP will boot and you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language).
Start clicking through.

At the appropriate moment, setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate from another drive.
YES, this is what you want to do.

"Aim" setup assistant at the backup and give it time to "digest" everything. This takes a few minutes.

Setup assistant will present you with a list of stuff to migrate (apps, accounts, data, settings). I suggest you just "migrate everything".

Let setup assistant do its job. Again, it will take a while.

When done, you should see you original login screen.

So.. login and "look around"...

 

[kitKAC]

This is the fastest way:

- Migration Assistant over Thunderbolt3 cable connected to each machine

 

[canhaz]

Thanks for the suggestions folks 👍