Fresh start

[themaestro]

New MacBook Pro 14 arrived, replacing my mid 2014 15 MacBook Pro

I’m thinking of starting fresh on this computer. Though probably should keep same Apple ID as my iPhone & iPad. I don’t want to have to wade through all old files on old Mac etc.

Any advice? Thanks

 

[chabig]

I agree that you want to set it up with your AppleID.

 

[dallegre]

Definitely keep your Apple ID. Starting fresh is certainly not a bad way to go. Load up the new machine with your critical apps and data. Archive your data from the old machine on external drives and migrate things over as you need it or just access it off the the external drives (just make sure that you have a backup routine).

 

[velocityg4]

Set your old Mac to act as a file server. Then you can get at the old files when you want. When you are connected to your home network.

You can also setup unattended access with something like Zoho assist. So, if you aren’t at home you can drag a file you realize you need to iCloud. There’s also ways to have access to all files by drag and drop remotely or your own cloud server. But you don’t sound like you’re looking for all that.

 

[AustinIllini]

New MacBook Pro 14 arrived, replacing my mid 2014 15 MacBook Pro

I’m thinking of starting fresh on this computer. Though probably should keep same Apple ID as my iPhone & iPad. I don’t want to have to wade through all old files on old Mac etc.

Any advice? Thanks

Migration assistant seems like a hot mess. I would just start from scratch using your Apple ID (obviously)

 

[darngooddesign]

New MacBook Pro 14 arrived, replacing my mid 2014 15 MacBook Pro

I’m thinking of starting fresh on this computer. Though probably should keep same Apple ID as my iPhone & iPad. I don’t want to have to wade through all old files on old Mac etc.

Any advice? Thanks

I always manually move my files over instead of auto-migrating from a backup. It's a good way to eliminate any legacy issues which might occur; it forces me to organize my backup data better; and it eliminates any apps which I haven't used in a while but might have still been on my computer. That being said, I still use iCloud and such but the data is downloaded fresh. Its easy if you have your old computer next to you as you can use it as a guide to set your new one up like it.

My normal process is.
1. Update the OS (although this time its still on the 12.1 it shipped with and since that has been stable for me I'm just waiting for the 12.3 update).
2. Turn on iCloud and let all that data download.
3. Download all the app installers I want.
4. Install apps one at a time; making sure each one is correctly set up with its data and preferences before moving on to the next one.

 

[themaestro]

Thanks everyone for all this great advice.

 

[mreg376]

Migration assistant seems like a hot mess. I would just start from scratch using your Apple ID (obviously)

I used Migration Assistant to basically duplicate my desktop iMac onto my new M1 Max Pro. Worked perfectly.

 

[chengengaun]

I thought it is a good idea to set up afresh, especially since it involves a change from x64 to ARM64. I made a checklist of apps, packages (brew, MacPorts, pip, R, conda etc.), environment variables, profiles, certificates, connections etc., then installed/configured them from scratch. It has gone well, though finding ARM64/universal binaries for some packages is a different matter altogether.