Migration Assistant Stuck

[jw3571]

I'm in the middle of of using migration assistant to move my stuff from my old iMac to my new iMac. I'm using an Ethernet cable as I didn't purchase a thunderbolt cable and I was doing this late at at night. It looked like it was working fine but not it had been stuck on 12 minutes remaining for a few hours. It also says my connection is wifi, which seems weird. It said it was Ethernet when I started. I tried unplugging the Ethernet and putting it
Back in but nothing changed. Any suggestions? Do I need to cancel it and start new?

 

[Fishrrman]

I've found Migration Assistant to "work the best" when I do it this way:

1. Use CarbonCopyCloner (SuperDuper will work, too) to create a cloned backup of the "old" Mac onto an external drive.
2. Connect the backup drive to the NEW Mac.
3. Use Migration Assistant to select the backup drive as "the source" and let the migration proceed that way.

Also, BEFORE launching MA, I do a "get info" on the external drive (connected to the NEW Mac), and down in the sharing and permissions area, I set it to "ignore ownership" on the external drive. Probably not necessary but I do it anyway, as it clears up any possible "permissions problems" between the old Mac and the new one.

 

[jw3571]

Any idea why Ethernet connection went away?

 

[snap01]

I've found Migration Assistant to "work the best" when I do it this way:

1. Use CarbonCopyCloner (SuperDuper will work, too) to create a cloned backup of the "old" Mac onto an external drive.

I second this method as easy and painless. Plus I have the CCC clone anyway.

 

[JVNeumann]

Bumping this thread as I'm having the exact same issue as the OP.

1. Use CarbonCopyCloner (SuperDuper will work, too) to create a cloned backup of the "old" Mac onto an external drive.
2. Connect the backup drive to the NEW Mac.
3. Use Migration Assistant to select the backup drive as "the source" and let the migration proceed that way.

This didn't work for me. More accurately, I already had my system on a newish external drive because my HD died a few months back, thus I can skip step 1, so I simply plugged the drive into my new iMac. It still grinds to a halt on me after about 15 minutes of copying successfully in Migration Assistant.

The external drive is not that big, it's only a few months old and it runs perfectly when I boot from it. So it's definitely not a hardware issue.

 

[mbosse]

Bumping this thread as I'm having the exact same issue as the OP.



This didn't work for me. More accurately, I already had my system on a newish external drive because my HD died a few months back, thus I can skip step 1, so I simply plugged the drive into my new iMac. It still grinds to a halt on me after about 15 minutes of copying successfully in Migration Assistant.

The external drive is not that big, it's only a few months old and it runs perfectly when I boot from it. So it's definitely not a hardware issue.

I would try creating a TimeMachine backup and migrate from there. What I do is when having started with the recovery partition, I let it install the new macOS first and then, when completed and I am being asked, let the assistant migrate from my TM backup.

I never tried the option 'restore from TimeMachine backup' directly.

Best,
Magnus

 

[JVNeumann]

I would try creating a TimeMachine backup and migrate from there. What I do is when having started with the recovery partition, I let it install the new macOS first and then, when completed and I am being asked, let the assistant migrate from my TM backup.

I never tried the option 'restore from TimeMachine backup' directly.

Best,
Magnus

I can't because I don't have a third drive big enough to back it up it to, but in any event the existing external drive it's already on should function in an identical way as a Time Machine drive would once it's connected to Migration Assistant anyway, so I'd be surprised if re-re-migrating to a third drive is going to help.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but given the hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours it adds with no guarantee of fixing anything, I'm not really inclined to try it. Especially as what I'm trying to do is the one thing Migration Assistant is designed to do.

 

[mbosse]

I can't because I don't have a third drive big enough to back it up it to, but in any event the existing external drive it's already on should function in an identical way as a Time Machine drive would once it's connected to Migration Assistant anyway, so I'd be surprised if re-re-migrating to a third drive is going to help.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but given the hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours it adds with no guarantee of fixing anything, I'm not really inclined to try it.

there must be a misunderstanding: I did never suggest you should re-re-migrating to a third drive. I suggested to migrate from a TM backup instead of migrating from a CCC backup. To be very clear: for the migration I would ignore the CCC backup and use the TM backup the way I described.

I personally use both backup systems: the CCC in case my machine fails, as this is bootable and would - in theory - allow me to just plug it into another Mac and start working.

My other backup is the TM which I use to migrate in case I replace a machine or its drive. I found this the most reliable way to migration, in fact I had only one problem 8 years ago and that was due to botchy WLAN in my apartment.

Can't you borrow a large enough drive for a TM backup just to give it a try?

Best,
Magnus

 

[JVNeumann]

there must be a misunderstanding: I did never suggest you should re-re-migrating to a third drive. I suggested to migrate from a TM backup instead of migrating from a CCC backup. To be very clear: for the migration I would ignore the CCC backup and use the TM backup the way I described.

I personally use both backup systems: the CCC in case my machine fails, as this is bootable and would - in theory - allow me to just plug it into another Mac and start working.

My other backup is the TM which I use to migrate in case I replace a machine or its drive. I found this the most reliable way to migration, in fact I had only one problem 8 years ago and that was due to botchy WLAN in my apartment.

Can't you borrow a large enough drive for a TM backup just to give it a try?

Best,
Magnus

The thing is, technically the drive I'm using now is a former time machine backup itself, which I started using as the main drive when the HD in my iMac failed. My understanding is that a time machine backup would be functionally indistinguishable - and seeing as Migration Assistant is meant to be able to work from another external or internal drive just as easily as TM, shifting from one to the other just seems like a sideways step.

I mean, if I had a spare drive big enough just sitting around I'd give it a try, but as I don't and there's no evidence that it'll fix the problem anyway (I know you've had no problems with it, but I'm sure 99% of people who migrate straight from their old computer HD have no problem either) I'm just not sure if it's worth me looking at yet.

In fact, it'd probably be quicker to just to forget about it and manually re-install everything rather than get a new TM.

 

[mbosse]

... In fact, it'd probably be quicker to just to forget about it and manually re-install everything rather than get a new TM.

In terms of absolute time likely, in terms of your time needed to operate this, most likely not...

 

[Fishrrman]

IF Migration Assistant is "stuck", perhaps the alternative is to do a "manual migration".

Takes more time, but should produce acceptable results.

 

[JVNeumann]

So I left it in its frozen state for a little over a day, during which the estimate went up to tens of thousands of hours for a while (for perspective, this was using USB-C connection speeds, so anyone with the same issue using wi-fi would probably have to wait the equivalent of weeks, assuming the speed drop is proportional rather than absolute). It finally went to a screen which basically said the migration was complete, but that a bunch of files couldn't be completed.

It was a mixed bag of items with no obvious through-line, including some basic system preference settings as well as fairly 'safe' and inexplicable items like VLC Player, which I'd only installed a few weeks earlier.

So anyone wired in directly to an external drive can probably wait the problem out, but I don't know if that applies for people using wireless or running as a computer-to-computer migration.

IF Migration Assistant is "stuck", perhaps the alternative is to do a "manual migration".

Takes more time, but should produce acceptable results.

The reason I avoided this is that I have a bunch of large VSL libraries, many running through Kontakt, which are notoriously difficult to get operating properly even when they're legitimate licensed versions as mine are. It's a real house of cards, as I'm sure many on here will agree.