Migration Assistant not working transferring to MacBook Neo

[djbuddha]

I received the MacBook Neo yesterday - and was plagued with issues trying to migrate. Tried both an M3 and M4 Max with no success.

M3 Max wouldn’t detect at all at first. M4 Max was detected when I tried that, but then I would get an unexpected error when it was “starting up”.

Rebooted all the machines, M3 Max suddenly detected, wouldn’t actually start (seems like it just hung after about an hour). Now, the M4 Max won’t detect at all.

Rebooted the router, tried with Wi-Fi, tried with ethernet using various dongles, tried an unmanaged switch and manually setting the IPs (with all of the Wi-Fi networks forgotten in settings so it wouldn’t attempt Wi-Fi again) no luck whatsoever.

Both the M3 and M4 are running the latest build of macOS Sequoia. I know it’s not (necessarily) a Tahoe bug, because I did a migration from the M3 Max to the M4 Max on an install that was connected to an external SSD and it worked fine. (did this external hard SSD installation to test Tahoe, so I could decide if I was going to commit the upgrade to the M4 Max)

Anybody else having a similar issue or the same issue?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Boot source computer into Safe Mode - that usually resolves MA issues.

Or, worst case, back up the old Mac using Time Machine and migrate from the backup.

 

[chabig]

I received the MacBook Neo yesterday - and was plagued with issues trying to migrate.

It should work with just a simple USB cable. Try a better quality cable.

 

[djbuddha]

It should work with just a simple USB cable. Try a better quality cable.

That was the first thing I tried. Tried a 10 gigabit cable, a USB cable capable of 5 gigabit, even the 2.0 cable that came with the device and other Apple USB-C low speed cables didn’t work. I have at least 50-60 cables outside of the abundance of thunderbolt cables I keep and nothing worked.

 

[djbuddha]

Boot source computer into Safe Mode - that usually resolves MA issues.

Or, worst case, back up the old Mac using Time Machine and migrate from the backup.

The Time Machine solution is my last resort lol

 

[Rodan52]

I'm assuming the Neo is running Tahoe and both of your M series Macs are running Sequiia right? Don't the Apple instructions for Migration Assistant state that both computers to be used should to be updated to the latest compatible macOS? Is it possible that due to both your M3 and M4 running Sequoia its causing a location problem?
As djbuddha Post #5 said, you can always use Time Machine and restore from that during setup.

Check you are following Apple's instructions to the letter;

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Migration Assistant transfers documents, apps, user accounts, and settings from one Mac to another. It doesn’t delete information from your old Mac or replace the operating system (macOS) on your new Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[djbuddha]

I'm assuming the Neo is running Tahoe and both of your M series Macs are running Sequiia right? Don't the Apple instructions for Migration Assistant state that both computers to be used should to be updated to the latest compatible macOS? Is it possible that due to both your M3 and M4 running Sequoia its causing a location problem?
As djbuddha Post #5 said, you can always use Time Machine and restore from that during setup.

Check you are following Apple's instructions to the letter;

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Migration Assistant transfers documents, apps, user accounts, and settings from one Mac to another. It doesn’t delete information from your old Mac or replace the operating system (macOS) on your new Mac.

support.apple.com

It was FreakinEurekan who suggested that. I’m djbuddha lol

I’ve shut down each perspective computer and it didn’t make any difference. Trying safe mode now.

 

[Vincent Hanna]

You're migrating from a M3 Max to a Neo? This M3 Max has less than 500GB of local content, assuming you got the $699 512GB Neo?

And wouldn't half the software you have on an M3 max be ill-suited for a Neo anyway? Why not just set it up as a new Mac?

 

[Fishrrman]

As someone else suggested -- try migrating from your backup drive.

But I agree most with what Mr. Hanna posted in reply 8 above...

 

[djbuddha]

You're migrating from a M3 Max to a Neo? This M3 Max has less than 500GB of local content, assuming you got the $699 512GB Neo?

And wouldn't half the software you have on an M3 max be ill-suited for a Neo anyway? Why not just set it up as a new Mac?

In full transparency- it’s more for an unbiased YouTube review and then I may wipe it and gift it to my mom after.

There are certain workflows and shortcuts I want to try- while being extremely aware of the limitations I’m going to run up against.

A lot of those workflows and shortcuts (macros with keyboard maestro and other integrations) are going to take forever to manually add in- and I was hoping to be timely with this review (which didn’t happen) 😂

I may have to limit what I can test if I want to get this video done.

 

[djbuddha]

As someone else suggested -- try migrating from your backup drive.

But I agree most with what Mr. Hanna posted in reply 8 above...

So it failed from a Time Machine backup from both the M3 Max and M4 Max.

As I said to @Vincent Hanna - I’m just going to have to test limited things as trying to manually set this up with all the things I wanted to test, is going to take A LONG time 😩😂