Configuring New Mac Via Time Machine

[ivanjay205]

Hello,

I am relatively new to Mac and without much realization bought what I thought was a brand new 27" it imac to find out it was the 2019 model. I already upgraded it to Big Sur. I just finished my first Time Machine backup to a NAS.

I bought the new 2020 model and am going to return this one. However, I am sure the new machine will come preloaded with Catalina and not Big Sur. I know on the home screen configuration it asks you to restore from Time Machine. Can I do that, or do I need to create my user first and update before I can restore from Time Machine?

I have (3) users on this computer.... So I was hoping I can just automation the transition. As I understand it I cannot use Migration Assistant because I will not have both computers at the same time.... I think I have to use Time Machine to simplify the process....

Or am I better off just moving files to the cloud, doing a fresh install of all apps and not even try to use backup?

 

[Jordan Klein]

Hello,

I am relatively new to Mac and without much realization bought what I thought was a brand new 27" it imac to find out it was the 2019 model. I already upgraded it to Big Sur. I just finished my first Time Machine backup to a NAS.

I bought the new 2020 model and am going to return this one. However, I am sure the new machine will come preloaded with Catalina and not Big Sur. I know on the home screen configuration it asks you to restore from Time Machine. Can I do that, or do I need to create my user first and update before I can restore from Time Machine?

I have (3) users on this computer.... So I was hoping I can just automation the transition. As I understand it I cannot use Migration Assistant because I will not have both computers at the same time.... I think I have to use Time Machine to simplify the process....

Or am I better off just moving files to the cloud, doing a fresh install of all apps and not even try to use backup?

If I remember correctly, Migration Assistant can use a Time Machine backup as the source.

 

[Weaselboy]

However, I am sure the new machine will come preloaded with Catalina and not Big Sur. I know on the home screen configuration it asks you to restore from Time Machine.

Migration assistant is what you want here, but it won't work from importing from Big Sur to Catalina.

The thing is you don't want to make an account and upgrade to Big Sur then run Migration Assistant. Read the pink section of this article to see the problem.

When you make the first account on a Mac it is assigned userid 501. If you try to run Migration assistant and import data from another 501 account it causes the permissions issues described in the article.

So here is the work around... on your current Big Sur Mac go so Users & Groups in System prefs and right click the select Advanced. Make a note of your userid. Let's say it is 501.

Here is the work around on the new Mac. When you set it up, do not use Migration Assistant during setup to import. Just finish setup and make a new account, then upgrade to Big Sur. Verify that new account userid 501. Now from that account make a second new admin account. That should be userid 502 (check to confirm).

Now login to the second 502 account and from there remove and delete the 501 account. Now from the 502 account while logged in run Migration Assistant and follow the steps to import your old 501 account. Once that is done logout of the 502 account and login to the 501 account. If everything looks good, remove and delete the 502 account.

The key is the account you import from needs to be one a different userid that the one you are importing.

 

[ivanjay205]

Eh I am thinking might be simpler cleaner and safer to just do a fresh install and reinstall the apps.

I used cloud based storage so anything will reappear. I use icloud for my desktop so that should reappear. And I use Google Drive for home storage and we use box.com at work. So maybe not worth the risk. Installing a bunch of apps doesnt take that long and it would be a clean install.

 

[ivanjay205]

Migration assistant is what you want here, but it won't work from importing from Big Sur to Catalina.

The thing is you don't want to make an account and upgrade to Big Sur then run Migration Assistant. Read the pink section of this article to see the problem.

When you make the first account on a Mac it is assigned userid 501. If you try to run Migration assistant and import data from another 501 account it causes the permissions issues described in the article.

So here is the work around... on your current Big Sur Mac go so Users & Groups in System prefs and right click the select Advanced. Make a note of your userid. Let's say it is 501.

Here is the work around on the new Mac. When you set it up, do not use Migration Assistant during setup to import. Just finish setup and make a new account, then upgrade to Big Sur. Verify that new account userid 501. Now from that account make a second new admin account. That should be userid 502 (check to confirm).

Now login to the second 502 account and from there remove and delete the 501 account. Now from the 502 account while logged in run Migration Assistant and follow the steps to import your old 501 account. Once that is done logout of the 502 account and login to the 501 account. If everything looks good, remove and delete the 502 account.

The key is the account you import from needs to be one a different userid that the one you are importing.

I did just read this article and realized if I do it at the setup screen no user accounts would exist yet. Why would that create an issue? I think this article references only if I already created a first user account....

 

[Weaselboy]

I did just read this article and realized if I do it at the setup screen no user accounts would exist yet. Why would that create an issue? I think this article references only if I already created a first user account....

You cannot do that because you need to update to Big Sur before you can do the import.

 

[luisfrocha]

Sorry I'm just seeing this today. I think the safest and simplest thing to do would be setting up the new machine, updating to the latest version of Big Sur, then wipe it out using System Recovery (reformat drive, etc), and then when you get the setup process again, you can tell it to use the Time Machine backup to restore your previous data.