Migration nightmare - Help Mr Wizard!

[KevinC]

Well I hope it's not bricked...

Just fired up my new M4 Pro mini. I have a Time Machine backup of my old M2. Booted up the new box, chose to migrate, needed to update the M4 first. Cool. That finishes, then I get the (expected) warning that the backup was created on 15.2, therefore not compatible, click here to update. Of course because 15.2 isn't released yet, it fails to find an 15.2 update. Fine. I realized this would probably happen and planned to simply abort out of migration assistant, finish bringing up the machine under 18.1, then update to 15.2 beta, THEN run Migration Assistant. But when I aborted out of it, it took me directly to the desktop/boot screen, and wants username/password. I don't HAVE a username/password on this machine yet because we never got that far! I try my old info from the previous M2, no dice. I try my Apple ID and password, no dice. I even tried admin/password, not surprisingly no dice. SOMEHOW this thing already has decided it has a username & password, only I never assigned any, and I'm now locked out. I actually migrated to a previous MBA this way, in the same situation with a backup created under a beta version, and skipping migration until after updating manually worked just fine. This seems to be some kind of bug/oversight on Apple's part because there have to be a ton of people in the same situation trying to set up new machines today who will also run into this.

Does anyone have any idea how to get past this? I could try to get on the blower with Apple Support but I suspect that's a nightmare given this is release day for all these new Macs.

 

[pacmania1982]

18.2? macOS is on version 15.

Turn the machine off, then power it back on holding the power button down. You should see your hard drive and a settings icon. Click Settings - you should have the option to reinstall macOS from there.

If not, wipe the drive in Disk Utility and then reinstall using Internet Recovery.

 

[KevinC]

Yeah I meant 15.2, edited. Got crossed up with iOS being at 18.x now.

I am reinstalling the OS now. I messed with password reset options, but apparently I need to know the username to do that, and that's a mystery too. Hopefully this resolves it and doesn't want me to simply log in again. If so, then I've gotta wipe the the drive. If I get to that point needing to do that, do I just wipe the MacOS partition, which is where the disk utility lands when opening it, or I need to wipe the entire "Macintosh HD" at the top? Thanks.

 

[pacmania1982]

Yeah I meant 15.2, edited. Got crossed up with iOS being at 18.x now.

I am reinstalling the OS now. I messed with password reset options, but apparently I need to know the username to do that, and that's a mystery too. Hopefully this resolves it and doesn't want me to simply log in again. If so, then I've gotta wipe the the drive. If I get to that point needing to do that, do I just wipe the MacOS partition, which is where the disk utility lands when opening it, or I need to wipe the entire "Macintosh HD" at the top? Thanks.

I'd do it from the top.

 

[haralds]

Create a user/password without anything else.
You might have to log into iCloud if your beta requires a Dev ID.
Update and try the Migration Wizard again,
I none of this works, boot into recovery to clean up.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you can get to the point where you can boot the new Mini to the finder -- even if you HAVE NOT "migrated" yet -- you can then use the erase assistant (erase all content and settings) to return it to "moment zero" (the state it was in when you first took it out of the box).

Now it's "clean and ready" for a completely fresh start.

I didn't think that tm would be that finicky between 15.1 and 15.2 -- but that's tm for you (I have NEVER used time machine, not once, not ever).

So... how can you actually GET the data from the old Mac to the new one?

If you were to put your stuff into my hands, THIS is what I'd do:

First, get another USB drive (or use your existing backup)
Take it to the OLD Mac.
Erase it to APFS, GUID partition format (complete erase using disk utility)
Then...
Download either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
Both are free to download. CCC will be fully functional for 30 days -- long enough for this job.

Next:
Use either CCC or SD to do a "cloned backup" of your OLD Mac to the USB drive.
When done, take that backup to the new Mac.

Next:
Run the "erase all content and settings" on it, as mentioned above.
When done, you should see the initial setup screen "choose your langugage".
Now it's "just like it was when you first un-boxed it".

Now:
CONNECT THE CLONED BACKUP.

Then:
Begin setup. When setup assistant asks if you wish to migrate from another drive or backup, "point the way" to the CCC/SD backup.

Does setup assistant "accept" the backup?
If so, fine, just go ahead and give SA time to digest things.
Then... migrate everything. Let SA do its job.
When done, you should see your old login screen.
Log in and "look around".

More considerations:
Although I've never used it, I -think- that CCC has a provision in it somewhere to assist you in migrating from "a more recent OS" to an older one. Not sure about this.

But I'm thinking that the cloned backup will work, where the tm backup does not.

Something else:
Even if setup assistant STILL refuses to migrate, YOU CAN STILL DO A "MANUAL" MIGRATION --- IF you have a cloned backup. But that's a subject that only comes after you've tried what I've posted above.

Good luck.

 

[KevinC]

I got it resolved. Was able to delete the partition, reinstall Mac OS, then it was a virgin start again. When migrating this time, I simply chose an 18.1 backup from 3-4 days ago, and after the machine did its initial update to 18.1, now we were in sync and the migration went perfectly. Thanks for all the suggestions on how to get out of this fiasco!

 

[S.B.G]

Glad that worked out for you in the end.

I just bought my dad a new Mac mini to replace his 2010 27" iMac. The SSD I put into it more than 10 years ago finally died.

I was concerned about his Time Machine backup which was from macOS 10.13 restoring to 15.1. But it worked perfectly, the first time, and with no errors or problems. I was quite impressed.