Importing accounts from two MBP's into one new iMac

[MacR5]

Hi,

My wife and I each have our own Macbook Pros that we've had a number of years. I'm considering buying a new iMac to setup as our primary computer so we can just use our laptops as travel.

Is it possible to:
1- Create two user accounts on the new iMac and import our files across from our laptops to each of our user accounts, thus preserving all our files, music, photos, folders, etc the way they were on our MB's? I.e., having a mirror image of our individual laptop on the iMac for each user account.

2- Alternately, bring all the files, photos, docs into the iMac under one roof and username from both laptops if the above is not possible? An easy, automatic import would be preferable to doing it manually, obviously.

Thank you in advance for your help, much appreciated!
Jim

 

[Taz Mangus]

Hi,

My wife and I each have our own Macbook Pros that we've had a number of years. I'm considering buying a new iMac to setup as our primary computer so we can just use our laptops as travel.

Is it possible to:
1- Create two user accounts on the new iMac and import our files across from our laptops to each of our user accounts, thus preserving all our files, music, photos, folders, etc the way they were on our MB's? I.e., having a mirror image of our individual laptop on the iMac for each user account.

2- Alternately, bring all the files, photos, docs into the iMac under one roof and username from both laptops if the above is not possible? An easy, automatic import would be preferable to doing it manually, obviously.

Thank you in advance for your help, much appreciated!
Jim

On the iMac create two new user accounts and name them what you want. You can then simply turn on file sharing on each MacBook Pro, mount the MacBook Pro on the iMac and then drag over the user files to the appropriate user folder on the iMac.

 

[Kasalic]

Hi,

My wife and I each have our own Macbook Pros that we've had a number of years. I'm considering buying a new iMac to setup as our primary computer so we can just use our laptops as travel.

Is it possible to:
1- Create two user accounts on the new iMac and import our files across from our laptops to each of our user accounts, thus preserving all our files, music, photos, folders, etc the way they were on our MB's? I.e., having a mirror image of our individual laptop on the iMac for each user account.

2- Alternately, bring all the files, photos, docs into the iMac under one roof and username from both laptops if the above is not possible? An easy, automatic import would be preferable to doing it manually, obviously.

Thank you in advance for your help, much appreciated!
Jim

The best way to do this is to get an external hard drive and copy the relevant Users home folder from each of the MacBook Pros. Then start up the new mac and create and log onto a generic admin account (I use cadmin as the user name on mine). Then copy both the users home folders to the /Users/ folder on the iMac. Then make two new accounts making sure you use EXACTLY the same names (especially the shortname) as you currently have on the MacBook Pros. If you do this correctly you will get a window pop up telling that a Home folder for User xxxxx already exists. You then simply agree to use this Home folder and everything should work just fine.