As the title, I want to clone my 2019 iMac to my MacBook Air M1. Using Carbon Copy Cloner usually is very easy and fast but with these damn beautiful ARM chips is not possible to boot the Mac like it‘s an external disk, so I have no idea on how to clone my imac to the MacBook. I suspect it’s impossibl, I don’t want to use migration assistant but I think is the only way... any other ideas?
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Is it possible to clone an intel Mac to a M1 (with Carbon Copy Cloner)?
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Also 32-bit apps don’t work on M1.
The free EtreCheck app is useful on the Intel computer to get rid of them before using the migration assistant.
The free EtreCheck app is useful on the Intel computer to get rid of them before using the migration assistant.
They don't work on Catalina on Intel either, so OP, if your iMac is on Catalina, you probably don't have to worry about this.
I don’t think Catalina is ARM compiled also
Obviously I want to clone the last Big Sur to last Big Sur...
I also tried to make a clone from SMB, because if you start your M1 Mac in “share drive mode” it mounts it as a network (smb) drive, but I dont know how to clone a networ drive, I don’t think is possible.
It‘s weird because on intel Big Sur installation there’re all the ARM “files”/instructions.
When I got my M1 MBP, I set up the new M1 using same username as my old MBP, then installed CCC and copied the files in from my old MBP's external clone.
Kinda wanted a "clean" install anyway so I reinstalled all apps I wanted to keep rather than trying to carry them over via Migration Assistant.
Kinda wanted a "clean" install anyway so I reinstalled all apps I wanted to keep rather than trying to carry them over via Migration Assistant.
True. Unfortunately the latest version of EtreCheckPro will ignore 32-bit apps on the M1.
So they would only waste SSD space.
It’s best to remove 32-bit apps before using the migration assistant.
My 2 cents. I have been there, done it, and got the T-shirt.
That’s a great way to proceed. I should have done that. Thanks.
I don’t think Catalina is ARM compiled also
Obviously I want to clone the last Big Sur to last Big Sur...
I also tried to make a clone from SMB, because if you start your M1 Mac in “share drive mode” it mounts it as a network (smb) drive, but I dont know how to clone a networ drive, I don’t think is possible.
It‘s weird because on intel Big Sur installation there’re all the ARM “files”/instructions.
While Big Sur installer is written for both Intel and ARM architectures, it will only install the version for your processor. So the version of Big Sur on your older Mac will be the Intel version. Furthermore, Rosetta will not be available on that build, so there would be no way to translate x86 code into ARM code, so even if you could get it to install, very little (if anything) would even run on the new Mac.
Turns out this is not the case. From what I've heard and seen, Big Sur is universal binaries all the way through. For example you can find both the x86 and the arm64 kernel on both M1 and Intel machines, also most kexts I stumbled upon are universal.
Looks like there's some very esoteric stuff going on regarding the boot process, but there don't seem to be pieces of the OS missing on either architecture.
This. Probabibly is something related to Carbon Copy Cloner that needs to install some boot "things", I hope in the future will be possible to clone intel to arm.
Presumably when you install Big Sur, the installer looks at the target architecture and only copies the version appropriate for the platform.I don’t think Catalina is ARM compiled also
Obviously I want to clone the last Big Sur to last Big Sur...
I also tried to make a clone from SMB, because if you start your M1 Mac in “share drive mode” it mounts it as a network (smb) drive, but I dont know how to clone a networ drive, I don’t think is possible.
It‘s weird because on intel Big Sur installation there’re all the ARM “files”/instructions.
I think the old PPC/Intel releases actually had both binaries in the installed OS, so you could use the same external disk image (e.g. made with CCC or the equivalent at the time) to boot on both Intel and PPC Macs - at least for a couple of years until PPC was deprecated.
Because last time (15 years ago) I used Migration Assistan. it doesn't migrate the root folder and preferences files but only the ~/ (your user directory), so it was a paint to rewrite everything like Serial Numbers of the apps, preferences file etc...
But this time, Migration Assistant is improved! I've done the "clone" with it and it has worked very well, I still have to test some PGP keys and Homebrew apps but the apps like i.e. Adobe suite has been migrated frictionless. Very happy with it!
Plus I have some auto-login apps that are not ARM ready, and MA has copied all of them but they aren't auto-opened at the login, you have to confirm that you want to install and run Rosetta (to recompile them).
Very smart behavior! Kudos to Apple this time.
I still need to make a bootable Carbon Copy Cloner disk but I'll investigate in it in the next days, the trouble now, is that I cant' make a common/doyble with my iMac and MacBook M1 with the option to clone "update only the modified files" because one installation will not work on the other architecture, plus, if I open an Intel app with Rosetta it should delete the x86 files, so, make a clone it very dangerous because if I'll need to boot my intel iMac from this clone, I'm pretty sure will be impossible or some apps will be damaged!
But I can wait for the arm iMac ?
But this time, Migration Assistant is improved! I've done the "clone" with it and it has worked very well, I still have to test some PGP keys and Homebrew apps but the apps like i.e. Adobe suite has been migrated frictionless. Very happy with it!
Plus I have some auto-login apps that are not ARM ready, and MA has copied all of them but they aren't auto-opened at the login, you have to confirm that you want to install and run Rosetta (to recompile them).
Very smart behavior! Kudos to Apple this time.
I still need to make a bootable Carbon Copy Cloner disk but I'll investigate in it in the next days, the trouble now, is that I cant' make a common/doyble with my iMac and MacBook M1 with the option to clone "update only the modified files" because one installation will not work on the other architecture, plus, if I open an Intel app with Rosetta it should delete the x86 files, so, make a clone it very dangerous because if I'll need to boot my intel iMac from this clone, I'm pretty sure will be impossible or some apps will be damaged!
But I can wait for the arm iMac ?
That's what I was getting at, Migration Assistant is much better these days. I prefer to do the migration from a carbon copy cloner version - and then if I like I can keep that disk as a 'frozen' version just in case.
So you want to use one drive to 'sync' between two different macs?
I'm not going to claim super-expertise, maybe there's a way to do this, but I think that would have potential to be really problematic unless they're truly identical clones including of hardware.
Better to figure out a way to share/sync the important information and settings and not try to make them identical.
I didn’t, it just transefered all settings files and applications over to Bug Sur.
Carbon Copy Cloner uses the Apple Software Restore (ASR) utility to clone the System Partition on Intel to work around new Big Sur restrictions. ASR does not work on M1.
For a new system, I really like using the Migration Assistant anyway. Although not as fast as CCC, it does a nice job of creating a clean install without losing apps and their settings.
For a new system, I really like using the Migration Assistant anyway. Although not as fast as CCC, it does a nice job of creating a clean install without losing apps and their settings.
Does the migration assistant preserve all settings etc.?
What I like about CCC is that it feels like I've switched a computer but there is no setting up at all. Even last opened safari tabs etc. is preserved. Actually, even logged in items are preserved. Does that Migration Assistant work like that also?
I'm going to do it tomorrow and currently doing a CCC copy but I wonder if things changed.
Unfortunately, I will be shifting from 2017 MBP to 2021 MBP so wonder if its even possible. (Mojave to Monterey)
What I like about CCC is that it feels like I've switched a computer but there is no setting up at all. Even last opened safari tabs etc. is preserved. Actually, even logged in items are preserved. Does that Migration Assistant work like that also?
I'm going to do it tomorrow and currently doing a CCC copy but I wonder if things changed.
Unfortunately, I will be shifting from 2017 MBP to 2021 MBP so wonder if its even possible. (Mojave to Monterey)
should work fine. i migrated from a 2011 MBP running high sierra to my M1 using the migration assistant. flawless
Where your sessions etc. all still logged in when you turned on M1 after the migration?
Did you have to set anything up or all was as if you never changed anything and its just somehow new computer
Did you have to set anything up or all was as if you never changed anything and its just somehow new computer