Migration data from M1 MBA to M1 Imac - what’s the best way?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,


Posting this in iMac area of forum, as this is my journey of questions with setting up a new M1 iMac, transferring data from M1 MBA!


Q1) Migration assistant - Can the migration file be placed on same Back up SSD as my time machine backup?
- I notice this is one of the options that will appear on the new imac.


Q2) Have others tried this ‘external ssd’ route - does it work ok?
Is it the best approach by experience?


Q3)
Or is there another better way?
NB: I don’t fancy having the MBA unusable for hours - if transferring mac to mac directly.



Hope you can help and advise 😀

Best wishes
Martin

 

[MandiMac]

A1) Migration Assistant takes the data straight from your MBA and right to your iMac. There's no migration file or whatsoever - you can transfer your files to the SSD and booting from that externally, yes.
A2) I tried this before and it works okay - but why would I *always* boot from an external SSD? That's what the internal SSD is for - always needing the SSD connected for the iMac to work is not really great in my opinion.
A3) If you're using Migration Assistant, the MBA will be unusable for some time. If you're using Time Machine on the MBA and then restoring the Time Machine backup on your iMac, you'll circumvent that.

 

[James_C]

You have a few options.

The easiest is to use the Migration Assistant to set up you new iMac. This will mirror the setup that you have on your MBA and copy everything over. Nothing needs to be copied to a external drive, but you will need to wait for the transfer to complete, should not take too long depending on how much data you have, typically less than an hour.

If you can't live without your MBA for a hour or so then you can use Migration Assistant to do the same, but use the Time Machine backup instead of direct transfer. Personally I would do the direct transfer from your MBA as Time Machine is an additional point that the transfer could be problematic if there was any problem with the Time Machine backup (Rare but it happens).

Some may suggest a clean install on your iMac, but these days I have found Migration Assistant to be very reliable, but a clean install is one way of avoiding transferring any junk.

Congrats on the new iMac

 

[chabig]

I like @James_C answer.

Regarding option 1, there is no "migration file" so this is not really an option. Option 2 (copying to an external and then copying to the new Mac) is a waste of time because it involves making two complete copies. You wouldn't be saving any time and your new Mac would still be unusable during the time you're copying to it.

Option 3 (direct transer) is by far the simplest and the way that Apple recommends. Just follow their instructions:

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Use Migration Assistant to copy your files from another computer.

support.apple.com

 

[Marty_Macfly]

…..Some may suggest a clean install on your iMac, but these days I have found Migration Assistant to be very reliable, but a clean install is one way of avoiding transferring any junk.

Congrats on the new iMac

Hiya James,

Hey how are you doing?!

I recall You were there for me, when I first moved from Windows to my 1st mba, And I had loads of questions about transferring music et cetera.

Many thanks for your help then, as well as now

Good point, about having a clean install to save transferring junk.

Our use for the iMac, will be completely different to the mba. It will be a downstairs, in the sitting room, for photos, videos and internet browsing for the family pretty much.

Food for thought!

 

[James_C]

Our use for the iMac, will be completely different to the mba. It will be a downstairs, in the sitting room, for photos, videos and internet browsing for the family pretty much.

Hi Marty, Glad that it looks like the Switch sticked as you now have your second Mac

If the use case is different then I would be tempted to do a clean install and just set up what you need for the iMac, at least these days it is just downloading the App from the Web, rather than messing around with CD's or Floppy Disks

Any shared files can be put into iCloud Drive ( or Dropbox etc. and synced across both Macs )