Help! Migrating from Big Sur on unsupported Mac Mini to new Mac Mini M1

[maurihamm]

Hello guys,

Well my situation is as follows. I have a Mac mini late 2012, was running Catalina but I updated it to Big Sur using BenSova PatchedSur patcher, and it has been running pretty decently, without any issues at all (Wi-Fi, everything works).
But because my birthday is close, I have ordered a new Mac mini M1 and it will be arriving to me soon! I was planning to do a Time Machine on the old Mac mini and transfer everything to the new in that way. But, because Big Sur was installed with a patcher and not normally, I'm afraid the backup will be corrupt and I will have problems on the new computer, but also I don't want the hassle of installing everything back again!
So, I'd like to know what's your opinion regarding to this matter? Should I do the Time Machine backup, or just set up the new machine "as new" and reinstall everything and so on (so time consuming...)

Thanks a lot!

 

[MacUser2525]

You could always look at the script inside the patcher and reverse the changes done. But really the simplest method to get done what you want is to use the migration assistant with your backup as the source. Only chooing to transfer your user and its settings plus your applications. Leaving anything of the system installed out. That way you should only get your information onto the new machine there is no need of the system files that have been modified, the orginals are on the new machine.

 

[s66]

What I would do:
- start anew clean, you'll take along too much doubts if you copy more than just the pure user data from the old messed up machine.

How:
- configure the new machine without any migration at all
- Boot the old mac in Target Disk mode
- hook it up with a TB cable to the new mac
- Copy the home directory off of the old machine to a subdirectory on the new machine: that way you have all your data - and little to none of the mess.
- reinstall the apps you need (good time to get them updated, and given it's a M1 machine: good time to search for native versions as well)
- copy data you need out of the home directory copy, leave configs alone as much as you can

It might be a (little) bit more work, but it is the very best way to build confidence that you have a clean machine that's not affected by any software/configuration issues from the past. And that reassurance is worth 100 times the (little) extra work this type of transition creates.
Also it allows you to have a look at all installed software and check if it's till properly supported and/or if the community moved to something else instead.

 

[mwidjaya]

I have a Mac mini late 2012, was running Catalina but I updated it to Big Sur using BenSova PatchedSur patcher, and it has been running pretty decently

I would have done a clean install of Big Sur at this point.

There are many changes in Big Sur, big and small that I would prefer to leave all that cruft behind. From my experience, Big Sur runs smoothly from clean installs. People that reported problems are mostly from in-place upgrades.

Getting your data across manually like photos, music, mail are not that hard.

Also good time to prune the apps that are truly needed day to day.

Well, not too late to start afresh with the M1 mini. After all you got the fallback intel mini and can redo anytime.