Consolidating two Macs into one?

[danmart]

For a long time, both myself and my wife have had our own Macs. We both regularly use our iPads for most leisure computing now, so over time I migrated to a Mac Mini while my wife kept her MBP. Now, my wife uses her MBP so rarely we want to consolidate both our Macs into one, and I have bought a new M4 Mini for that purpose.

Both the previous machines were 500GB storage and so I bought a 1TB M4 but consolidating is proving tricky due to ‘system data’ on my account pushing up usage in my install and it is difficult to put my wife’s data on the machine too. I’m working on reducing the system data but that is not proving to be an easy task even with tools like DaisyDisk.

Anyway - as I was looking at the data that Migration Assistant (MA) wanted to pull across I started to wonder if what I was doing is the right approach to meet our needs? It looks like, if I use MA then we would have two full Mac images including OS on the machine, rather than two accounts both using the same OS? And so updates would be needed on both etc? Is that right or am I jumping to the wrong conclusion?

What is the best way of consolidating two machines into one, keeping each as a distinct user? Any advice and experience appreciated! The support information on this at Apple is scant to say the least.

I have considered just setting up a new account on the machine, but the really tricky thing is the email archive (using the native Mail app) - if I could manually transfer that from the old machine to the new one I could probably figure out the rest.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Pay for one month of iCloud storage, move your files into iCloud and sync them. That assuming you want two seperate accounts on the Mac.

 

[Bigwaff]

Migration Assistant only migrates user data, not macOS operating system. On set up, migrate user account from Mac mini, applications, etc. Afterwards, use Migration Assistant to migrate user account on MBP, but only user data. If MBP have applications not overlap, you may have to install these applications on new iMac.

 

[TwoBytes]

You can have one machine with two login / user account.

The issue is that you bought 1TB, and I'll mention it now in case you can return it - consider a higher capacity drive due to the system files you mentioned, but also, if one of you is downloading more than the other and your space is reduced - this impacts the system performance too. You can't upgrade space in a mac so it's best you go for something you can grow with (images, videos, etc

as for transferring - time machine them both to separate hard drives and pull them into each respective user account- you and your wife.

 

[danmart]

Thanks everyone, we have iCloud accounts already so I did consider just creating a new account and sync-ing data down. The tricky thing is the email archive since I suspect that file would not get backed up to iCloud by default?

I’ll try what you suggest @Bigwaff. The storage should hopefully be ok @TwoBytes since I have a RAID for media and the like so it takes most of the ‘heavy lifting’ for large media. But it was definitely a shock to not be able to migrate since the two smaller machines share the same storage overall as the new machine (and my wife’s machine was almost half free-space, too).

 

[TwoBytes]

I think the migration process will transfer the email https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102613

 

[danmart]

Do you have a feel for which category would cover the email? I have done full transfers many times but it is the desire to only transfer part of the information which gives me pause.

Thank again for the help!

 

[TwoBytes]

I can't remember what comes across wtih migration assistant as it's a while I think it was everything. Maybe someone else can comment.

Although I recently restored my whole mail from the time machine manually.I had to dig deep on the web to find out how. I believe it ended up being the Mail folder in your user>library and the Internet account folder in application support,
That could be a solution if you're up for more tinkering.

 

[Fishrrman]

My reply assumes you don't yet have the new Mini.

You are going to become "the primary user" on the new Mini, is this correct?

If so, then I suggest when it arrives, that you migrate from YOUR old Mini to the new one FIRST.
(leave the wife's Mac alone, for now)

Do a standard migration that "migrates everything".

You want to be "ready" from the moment you take the new Mini out of the box.
Have your backup drive ready to plug in, and connect it before you turn on the new Mini.

During setup, when setup assistant asks if you wish to migrate, YES you do, so "point the way" to the backup and let SA "digest" everything.

I would accept the defaults (everything gets migrate) and let it go at that.

When done, log in and "look around" to be sure things are as you like,

Now it's time to turn your attention to the wife's MBP.
Again, do a backup to an external drive (if one doesn't already exist).
I recommend SuperDuper for this job, unless you're already using time machine (either will work).
SD is FREE to download and use, and it's VERY easy to understand for a first-time user:
download
(click above link to download current version)

Once that backup is ready, connect it to the new Mini.
Now... open Migration Assistant.
Again, point the way to the backup and give MA time to digest it.
Once again, MA will present you with a list of stuff to migrate.

HOWEVER...
THIS time, you want to be selective.
I would UNCHECK EVERYTHING EXCEPT your wife's user account.
Then... migrate ONLY that item.

Everything in it (including emails, etc.) should now be moved over into a second account on the new Mini.

Be aware that if your wife uses an application on her MBP that you DON'T use, it WILL NOT "come over".
If this is the case, I would suggest that you "manually re-install" applications that are "specific to her" on the new Mini.
I'm thinking that her app settings would get migrated "within" her account during the migration.

Hmmm...
Again, this is what I would do if you were "starting clean".
But ... Do you ALREADY HAVE the new Mini, and gotten "halfway through" and started having problems...? If so...

... my suggestion would be to take the new Mini "back to moment zero" by using the "erase all content and settings" option -- and then start over.

"Moment zero" is like when you first took it out of the box and pressed the power on button for the first time. Factory-installed software, waiting for setup.

Good luck.

 

[danmart]

Thanks @Fishrrman, that is pretty much the path I have been following. Migrated my old mini fully to the new one peer-to-peer using Migration Assistant then started to look at migrating my wife’s machine the same way. MA refused to start as the setting meant it didn’t have enough disk space available.

I have both machines backed up to a RAID using TimeMachine as well.

I’ll try a very light migration next of just her account and maybe her documents. Her photos are in iCloud and she will be using the media stored on a second RAID so I won’t be bothering to pull over what she had locally on her machine (the RAID version is the ‘definitive’ collection).

More suggestions still welcome!

 

[danmart]

Well, I messed that up! 😳

I think I pulled over too many bit of my wife’s computer and it ended up thinking that the machine was my wife’s computer (the machine name changed to match her machine). When I tried to roll-back to pre-migration using Time Machjne the system decided my TM images were corrupt and it refuse to load them.

Luckily I still have my previous Mac Mini and I was able to flatten my M4 Mini back to the OS and re-migrate my previous Mini from a week ago. Since my stuff is in iCloud my changed documents were still available rather than being lost.

I will try again once it has settled down (and follow the advice in this thread more closely).