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Migration Assistant - Bad idea to create a new account first?

D

drecc

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 6, 2014
115
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I've just received a new Mac.

I've seen advice in these forums to not create an account on a new Mac prior to using Migration Assistant.

For example, this thread says that there will be file permissions problems if I do so. I assume this is because files transferred over will retain the existing "uid" number, which will then apply to my newly created account instead of the account transferred over.

However, the Apple Migration instructions say to upgrade both computers to the latest macOS before using the Migration Assistant.

As far as I can see, it's impossible to upgrade macOS on a new Mac without first creating a new user account so that I can log in and then perform the upgrade.

Should I:

1. Use some other method to upgrade macOS on the new Mac without creating a new account?

2. Ignore the file permissions advice and create a new local account on the machine, upgrade macOS, and then start Migration Assistant?

3. Assume the newly built MBP must have a recent-enough Sonoma and ignore the advice to upgrade it?

4. Not worry, because the MBP would have upgraded itself to the latest Sonoma as soon as I switched it on and connected it to WIFI, and since I didn't see it attempt to upgrade itself, it must be the latest revision of Sonoma?

Thanks
 
Last edited:

If you create an account, then use MA, it will cause permissions problems like you mentioned. See the pink section in the above article for an explanation.

If both the old and new Macs are on the same OS (like Sonoma) but different versions, MA will work and you can just update after migration.

If the old Mac is on a different OS, you can go ahead and make an account, do the update, then erase and reset as described here. The erase takes a couple minutes and will put the new Mac back to out of the box new status where you can run MA as part of the initial setup.
 
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Update: I've just seen that the new M4 MBP is on Sonoma 15.1, and so I'm using your approach and now upgrading to 15.1.1.
 
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Weaselboy said:
I think you mean Sequoia here.
Click to expand...
Oops, yes, I did :)

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

Do you happen to know if there are any gotchas with Migration Assistant I should worry about?

I'm going to do an rsync dry run after the migration, to check everything seems to have worked correctly.
 
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drecc said:
Do you happen to know if there are any gotchas with Migration Assistant I should worry about?
Click to expand...
I just used it from a 2021 MBP to a M4 2024 MBP and it worked great.

I had to reenter registration info for a couple apps, and that was about it. Microsoft and Adobe apps are known for this. They see you are on new hardware, and make you reenter registration info.
 
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Weaselboy said:
I just used it from a 2021 MBP to a M4 2024 MBP and it worked great.

I had to reenter registration info for a couple apps, and that was about it. Microsoft and Adobe apps are known for this. They see you are on new hardware, and make you reenter registration info.
Click to expand...

Great! I'll be interesting to see if the macFUSE kernel extension makes it over...
 
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I recently received my new MacBook Pro M4 and migrated from my MacBook Pro M1. I used Migration Assistant and a short Thunderbolt cable (that came with my SSD drive).
My MacBook Pro M1 was on MacOS 15.1.1, and the MacBook Pro came with 15.1, but this caused no problems; I was able to use Settings to update to 15.1.1 after the migration completed.
The main thing I had to update was the credit cards in the Wallet. Virtually everything else (including Office 365) migrated and did not require any new credentials.
Migration Assistant gives the option of Wi-Fi, network, and Direct. During the migration, it can show the comparative rates (it tests and uses the fastest). In my case, the direct connect transfer rate was over 100 times higher (approx. 1700 MB/s direct vs. 15 MB/s Wi-Fi). I transferred over 700 GB of data in less than an hour – I can’t say precisely how long because I wasn’t watching the transfer and thought it would take much longer.
Based on my experience, I will definitely use direct connect in the future.
 
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jib2 said:
I recently received my new MacBook Pro M4 and migrated from my MacBook Pro M1. I used Migration Assistant and a short Thunderbolt cable (that came with my SSD drive).
My MacBook Pro M1 was on MacOS 15.1.1, and the MacBook Pro came with 15.1, but this caused no problems; I was able to use Settings to update to 15.1.1 after the migration completed.
The main thing I had to update was the credit cards in the Wallet. Virtually everything else (including Office 365) migrated and did not require any new credentials.
Migration Assistant gives the option of Wi-Fi, network, and Direct. During the migration, it can show the comparative rates (it tests and uses the fastest). In my case, the direct connect transfer rate was over 100 times higher (approx. 1700 MB/s direct vs. 15 MB/s Wi-Fi). I transferred over 700 GB of data in less than an hour – I can’t say precisely how long because I wasn’t watching the transfer and thought it would take much longer.
Based on my experience, I will definitely use direct connect in the future.
Click to expand...
That's great, thanks! I think your M1 had TB3 ports?

I'm also going to try using a thunderbolt cable - was it as simple as just plugging the cable in?
 
drecc said:
That's great, thanks! I think your M1 had TB3 ports?

I'm also going to try using a thunderbolt cable - was it as simple as just plugging the cable in?
Click to expand...
No, it has thunderbolt 4. Pretty simple -- plugged in cable, launched Migration Assistant, replied to a few dialogs and left it alone.
 
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Weaselboy said:

If you create an account, then use MA, it will cause permissions problems like you mentioned. See the pink section in the above article for an explanation.

If both the old and new Macs are on the same OS (like Sonoma) but different versions, MA will work and you can just update after migration.

If the old Mac is on a different OS, you can go ahead and make an account, do the update, then erase and reset as described here. The erase takes a couple minutes and will put the new Mac back to out of the box new status where you can run MA as part of the initial setup.
Click to expand...

That article is ancient
 
OP wrote:
"I'm also going to try using a thunderbolt cable - was it as simple as just plugging the cable in?"

If you have any glitches with the tbolt cable...

Do you keep an external backup drive?
If so, I suggest that you try that.
Chances are, things may go better that way.

Be sure to run your backup "one last time" on the old Mac, before taking it to the new one.

More...
If it was me (I realize you ARE NOT "me"), I'd...
unbox the new Mac
set it up on the table
connect the backup drive
and then...
press the power on button for the first time.

Then, I'd SKIP any part about "upgrading the OS", and do the migration FIRST.

AFTERWARDS, I'd do any OS updates.

But that's just me.
 
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Thanks everyone for your help.

Migration Assistant went very smoothly, and my thunderbolt cable let me transfer the data at up to 3GB/s.

I then did an rsync --dry-run to check if it really had copied everything perfectly, and it had.

The only thing that didn't work was that my Chrome windows had disappeared, Chrome extensions were gone, and there was a Chrome error saying that my settings were corrupted.

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience.
 
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