Lose applications restoring to a new mac?

[G.T.]

So I have a new mac on order and I use time machine with my current laptop. I'm not sure if time machine will restore as an exact replica of my old mac or make the new mac the same as my old one, while unchanging newer files.

For example, I don't have Keynote, Pages or iMovie on my current laptop but I know these come preloaded on newer models. I want to keep these new applications. When I set up the new mac, if I let it store from a time machine backup, will it keep these files?

 

[G.T.]

There's been a lot of views but no reply. Do I need to rephrase my question to make it clear?

 

[keysofanxiety]

There's been a lot of views but no reply. Do I need to rephrase my question to make it clear?

Hi G.T.,

Time Machine backs up everything. All applications, all files, and the operating system itself. When you restore a Time Machine backup to a new hard-drive, it'll restore the lot - it'll be just as you left off.

Please be aware that it may have problems restoring to a new Mac if the TM backup is not on the latest OS.

To restore to a new Mac, plug in the TM backup and hold 'Alt' on startup. Then select the TM HDD and restore to Macintosh HD. This will wipe everything on the existing Macintosh HD partition however.

Keynote, Pages and iMovie are downloaded from the App Store and are redeemable applications, rather than being preinstalled on a new Mac and unretrievable if deleted. So once it's restored your TM backup, login to the App Store, and redeem the applications. If for any reason these are not free apps, you can call Apple Support and explain what you've done. From there you can advise of your serial number and they'll be able to redeem the apps to your account.

In all honesty though you shouldn't have a problem.

If your TM backup is quite old or had gone through multiple OS iterations, it may be best to setup the new Mac without restoring from TM, just to avoid any potential software hiccups. After all, you'll still have all your information on your old backup, and you can drag-and-drop from that as you would an external hard-drive.

Please let me know if I may clarify any points.

 

[G.T.]

Hi G.T.,

Time Machine backs up everything. All applications, all files, and the operating system itself. When you restore a Time Machine backup to a new hard-drive, it'll restore the lot - it'll be just as you left off.

Please be aware that it may have problems restoring to a new Mac if the TM backup is not on the latest OS.

To restore to a new Mac, plug in the TM backup and hold 'Alt' on startup. Then select the TM HDD and restore to Macintosh HD. This will wipe everything on the existing Macintosh HD partition however.

Keynote, Pages and iMovie are downloaded from the App Store and are redeemable applications, rather than being preinstalled on a new Mac and unretrievable if deleted. So once it's restored your TM backup, login to the App Store, and redeem the applications. If for any reason these are not free apps, you can call Apple Support and explain what you've done. From there you can advise of your serial number and they'll be able to redeem the apps to your account.

In all honesty though you shouldn't have a problem.

If your TM backup is quite old or had gone through multiple OS iterations, it may be best to setup the new Mac without restoring from TM, just to avoid any potential software hiccups. After all, you'll still have all your information on your old backup, and you can drag-and-drop from that as you would an external hard-drive.

Please let me know if I may clarify any points.

Thanks that pretty much confirmed my suspicions. I am running the latest version of Yosemite so there should be restore issues. I have gone through multiple OS iterations though.

Thanks