macOS backup, restore, no Migration Asst, the painful nuclear option.

[Koloa]

Hi,

I recently had a system issue on my MacStudio whereby I had to perform a full system wipe and re-install from Time Machine using the Migration Assistant.

Unfortunately, it turns out this breaks ApplePay on the MacStudio.

Apple Support (opened an AppleCare+ case, so, this is "official") has said I have two options:

1. Wipe system again, and manually copy things back into place (do not use migration assistant)
2. Hope that a future software update fixes this issue

I'm going to try to live without ApplePay on this machine and use it on my iPhone or iPad instead, as this nuclear option of a backup/restore without using the Migration Assistant just sounds more painful than I want to deal with.

Having said that, I am also aware that I've been using macOS with upgrades for a VERY long time (at least 15 years worth of updates/upgrades), and there is without doubt software installed all over my machine which is superfluous and perhaps a fresh start has merit.

Looking for input from the community as to which painful path is least painful, or if I am foolhardy for even pondering it.

From browsing the various posts here, I see there are a few options:

• Arq
• SuperDuper
• CCC
• Time Machine (drag and drop)

And possibly a few others - I have no need for a bootable volume, I just want the least painful way to get preferences for various apps (as well as licenses) onto a clean setup. As well as everything I have in Homebrew. And whatever else I'm forgetting.

This is probably going to be far more trouble than it is worth, but since I'm left with only the nuclear option or the option of waiting an unknown amount of time for a fix that may never come, I want to be as informed as possible.

Thanks!

 

[Bigwaff]

I just want the least painful way to get preferences for various apps (as well as licenses) onto a clean setup. As well as everything I have in Homebrew.

Well, for Homebrew you can use homebrew bundle dump to create a Brewfile of all the packages you have installed. After reinstalling Homebrew on clean system, use homebrew bundle to reinstall all with Brewfile.

As for app settings/preferences, plenty of choices. I currently back up using combo of Time Machine and Arq. Unless you know exactly why Apple Pay is borked because of Migration Assistant, how you know other back up/restore solutions don't create same problem?

 

[Koloa]

Well, for Homebrew you can use homebrew bundle dump to create a Brewfile of all the packages you have installed. After reinstalling Homebrew on clean system, use homebrew bundle to reinstall all with Brewfile.

As for app settings/preferences, plenty of choices. I currently back up using combo of Time Machine and Arq. Unless you know exactly why Apple Pay is borked because of Migration Assistant, how you know other back up/restore solutions don't create same problem?

It was the specific advice that Apple's engineers provided me for the support case. Essentially, using Migration Assistant "broke something" in what Apple Pay checks to validate a system's security settings.

My guess is that it's a file/directory/database permissions issue, perhaps something is owned by the wrong user, wrong mode, wrong ACL, not sure.

The problem manifests when you go to the System Settings and check Apple Pay, it says that ApplePay is disabled because the "security settings" on the Mac were modified. It's not SIP, it's just, apparently an artefact of doing a system wipe and using Migration Assistant to restore, they said.

Anyway, I'll look into Arq. Thanks for the reminder on the Homebrew commands; I do recall doing that when I migrated to Apple Silicon a few years back, now that you mention it.

Apple insists that if I do another wipe, but don't use MA to restore my files/etc, things should be okay. Famous last words. Not sure if I'll do it, but, looking for options.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I have had the same dilemma a few times, and found that the experience is less painful than I expected.

What works for me is after creating the new install I initially just set up my relatively few (about 12) absolutely must have apps, and so had the machine usable in a few hours….. and then added other apps as needed over the next ten days or so. This way a lot of stuff never got put back.

In my case all my data is on iCloud (about 800GB) so there was no manual drag and drop of data from a backup drive. I just signed in and all was downloaded. I didn’t use a backup drive for recovering anything. Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Notes, Reminders, Freeform boards, etc all downloaded from iCloud.

The hardest part in some ways was getting all the app preferences and system settings correct again.

PS I did once have an intractable Apple Pay problem after a migrate from backup. It just could not be set up. I can’t remember any detail about how I solved it but I did, with a lot of help from Google. At the back of mind I feel something within Location Services might have been the key, but this is not reliable info.

 

[Bigwaff]

The problem manifests when you go to the System Settings and check Apple Pay, it says that ApplePay is disabled because the "security settings" on the Mac were modified.

I think security system configs need to be up to date in order to enable ApplePay. In Software Update, enable "Install Security Responses and system files". Or run SilentKnight to see if your security settings and system files are up to date and selectively pick updates manually.

SilentKnight, Skint, SystHist, silnite, LockRattler & Scrub

Skint – a watchful eye on security settings Updated! Checks key security settings and features including SIP, SSV, Gatekeeper, XProtect, XProtect Remediator and macOS security updates. Runs a…

eclecticlight.co

 

[okkibs]

It's not worth spending the time to get to the bottom of it. Wipe that thing and set up a new user account. Copy your apps back with the Migration Assistant - this won't break Apple Pay as it more or less just copies the application folder.

After all this you look up your backup in Finder and copy back the contents of your user folder with drag and drop to somewhere like the desktop. After the copy is finished move the folder contents like Documents and Photos and so on back to your new user folder.

Finally, after all your data is back but the apps are reset you can now restore the content and settings of your apps. By that I mean browser bookmarks and history, app settings, e-mail configuration, and so on. To do this you open your user folder you copied from the backup and press cmd+alt+dot and a Library folder will become visible. Within that you'll find Application Support and this contains all your apps' settings.

You can now selectively copy each apps' folder back to the Application Support directory in your new user account. Tip: Sort these folders by size, the largest ones containing lots of data are probably important and might hold things like your e-mail archive.

If you rather just copy everything back at once you can copy all contents in Application Support over. This is unlikely to break anything but if you want to clean up years of what's been stored in your backup you might want to only copy the folders back for apps you need. For example I got over 100 folders in Application Support refering to over 100 apps I used over many years. In reality I now use maybe 5 apps in addition to everything Adobe so I would just need to copy the 5 folders of these apps and call it a day instead of 100.

There are some apps like Microsoft Office that store their configuration in what's called containers, these can be copied as well but unless there you find some app that you absolutely want to restore the previous configuration for I wouldn't bother going the extra mile.

Once you have done this once and know what to look for in Application Support this is a trivial step that won't even take an hour of your time if you ever need it again. The best part is that you never touched all the other crap that's in your backup that broke Apple Pay. You didn't copy a single macOS system configuration file. This is all just app specific. Deleting a folder in Application Support will merely force the associated app to create a clean new configuration as if it was started for the first time.

 

[BrianBaughn]

This is just another thing to add to the list of problems folks have had through the years using Migration Assistant and Time Machine.

Most folks get lucky, though.