Fresh install from Sonoma to Sequoia, use Migration Assistant, and restore files from Time Machine?

[umbilical]

I always upgrade MacOs by creating a bootable USB installer and erasing my hard drive with Disk Utility. I never upgrade via the standard Software Update method, as I find it leads to bugs and issues. A clean erase and install is much more reliable.

I’m upgrading from Sonoma to Sequoia and have backed up my data with Time Machine on an external drive. To restore my user folders, I usually copy and paste them manually from the latest Time Machine backup.

However, this time, I’m considering using the ‘Restore from Time Machine’ option during the macOS setup. I only want to restore my user folders—Documents, Pictures, Music, etc.—without restoring settings or other data.

Questions:

1. Can I trust Time Machine to reliably restore my files, or is it better to manually copy and paste them? I like the idea of using Time Machine since it’s just one step and might include a checksum to verify file integrity (I assume).

2. After restoring and entering Sequoia, can I continue using the same external drive for backups, which already contains my Sonoma Time Machine backups? Is there any issue with mixing old Sonoma backups with new Sequoia backups on the same drive? In the past, I usually erased the external drive after manually transferring my files. Then, I started fresh with Time Machine on the new OS.

I see the Migration Assistant, show 4 things:

• Applications (I don't want move that, I prefer start clean with no apps and installed myself on the new OS).
• My Username (that's where I can select with folders I want to move, good!)
• Other Files & Folders (which other files and folders of what???)
• System & Network (that means all my Systems settings changes are replicated in the new OS? also Network settings? I don't know if trust in that, maybe make a mess on the settings).

It might sound a bit OCD for such a simple task, but I want everything to be as clean as possible when moving to a new OS.

Thanks!

 

[tonmischa]

A few unsorted thoughts:

I have used TimeMachine/Migration Assistant numerous times. (I'm an Admin for about 80 Macs in my department.)
The only issues I ever had were with 3rd party kernel extensions that had to be "re-enabled" manually.
I never had issues with lost or corrupt files.

TimeMachine/Migration Assistant has no additional checksum. It's just a copy.

"Other Files and Folders" refers to everything outside the Application and User Folder. For example the "Shared" user folder.
"System and Network" refers to all the system-wide Preferences. (Thats basically all the settings you need to enter your Admin Password for.)

I have no experience with just selecting the User folder in Migration Assistent. It was always "all or nothing" for me.

If you want to start "as clean as possible", I would highly recommend that you go the manual route.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

1. Should be fine. The ONE thing I suggest is to use TM (or CCC or SD) to make ONE more complete backup ON ANOTHER DRIVE. Else you are going to be in a higher risk situation when you wipe the Mac (and thus have only a single store of your data) until it is imported into the fresh install space. One more backup reduces the risk scenario of the TM drive failing right in the middle of that. Odds in that are not great but one more drive mitigates the panic if Murphy actually applies his law.

2. No problem with this either. It's not like Sequoia is an entirely different system. Much of it is "the same", so just carry on and when your TM backup runs out of space, it will start deleting the oldest backups and replacing them with the newest until Sonoma backups basically roll off the drive. In some scenario where you have to go back in time and fetch a backup of- say- an old Pages file saved while the system was running Sonoma, it will open in Sequoia Pages and if there are any special Sequoia updates to Pages, the next save of the file will save the Sequoia version.

The last line in post #2 is true though. If you want maximum "clean install", pure manual will accomplish that because you'll be using H.I. (human intelligence) to make decisions about what will migrate and what will be left behind. That can be quite an onerous task to get it all back to how it was while pruning the gunk and what you no longer want on the new system but it's the purest "clean install" option.

 

[umbilical]

1. Should be fine. The ONE thing I suggest is to use TM (or CCC or SD) to make ONE more complete backup ON ANOTHER DRIVE. Else you are going to be in a higher risk situation when you wipe the Mac (and thus have only a single store of your data) until it is imported into the fresh install space. One more backup reduces the risk scenario of the TM drive failing right in the middle of that. Odds in that are not great but one more drive mitigates the panic if Murphy actually applies his law.

2. No problem with this either. It's not like Sequoia is an entirely different system. Much of it is "the same", so just carry on and when your TM backup runs out of space, it will start deleting the oldest backups and replacing them with the newest until Sonoma backups basically roll off the drive. In some scenario where you have to go back in time and fetch a backup of- say- an old Pages file saved while the system was running Sonoma, it will open in Sequoia Pages and if there are any special Sequoia updates to Pages, the next save of the file will save the Sequoia version.

The last line in post #2 is true though. If you want maximum "clean install", pure manual will accomplish that because you'll be using H.I. (human intelligence) to make decisions about what will migrate and what will be left behind. That can be quite an onerous task to get it all back to how it was while pruning the gunk and what you no longer want on the new system but it's the purest "clean install" option.

1. Yes, actually, I have two external drives for that—one with Time Machine and another with CCC. Maybe I should use both with Time Machine, but in some way, I feel it’s good to have another app like CCC handling backups too, just in case Time Machine fails on both drives for some weird, out-of-this-world reason lol.

About If you want to start "as clean as possible", I would highly recommend that you go the manual route.’

I would say that’s true… and, you know, I’ve been doing it manually for years. Basically, I just need to copy two folders: ‘Documents’ and ‘Sites.’ All the other folders Music, Movies etc are empty since I keep that on a NAS.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Nothing wrong with mixed backups. What’s important is at least 2 backups, however they are made… with one fresh one stored OFFSITE to manage very real fire-flood-theft scenarios.

 

[chabig]

I always upgrade MacOs by creating a bootable USB installer and erasing my hard drive with Disk Utility. I never upgrade via the standard Software Update method, as I find it leads to bugs and issues. A clean erase and install is much more reliable.

It's time to rethink this, as modern Macs are different. Booting from a separate installer isn't part of a 'clean' install any more. The way you install will be driven by what you're hoping to 'clean'–the whole machine or just the user data. It's fully described here:

How to ‘clean’ install modern macOS

If you normally ‘clean’ install a new version of macOS, how can or should you do that with Sonoma or another recent version on a modern Mac?

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