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Need assistance migrating from 2011 iMac to 2020 iMac

N

NorCalZman

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2010
58
18
I have a 2011 iMac that came with both a smaller SDD and a larger HDD (And this was before Fusion Drive was a thing). Back when it was new, a friend who knows way more about macs than i do helped me set it up. He made it so my applications (and I assume OS) were installed on the SSD, but all the data for them automatically went to the Home folder he appears to have moved to the HDD. I have been backing it up to my Apple Time Capsule without issue since then (I assume)

My 2020 iMac is here, and i turned it on and it is now searching the Time Capsule for items to bring over. I noticed going through the screens, after selecting the iMac back up, it specifically made me chose "Macintosh SSD" and did not give me the choice to include the HDD with my Home folder. On the next screen "select information to Transfer" it shows my name, the little icon pic that goes with it when I log in, with a "0KB" size and a message under it that says "this users home is relocated and will not be copied".

To note, on 2011 I have Time Machine set up to not exclude anything when backing up. Looking at the estimated size of full back up, it is 686GB so it seems to have been backing up the whole computer (SSD and HDD). Looking at the set up for the 2020 i do not see the data adding up to that much (42GB for apps, 0KB next to my name with that message about home being relocated, 2.24GB for other files and folders, 28kb for computer & network settings). Now that its done searching as I type this the total is 44.91GB to transfer. Does not seem right at all.

Any advice from the experts here would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
The one reference I could easily find for this was from 2013 but it looks like the way to get it to work is to create another user account with the same name as your old system and to then migrate that way.

Restoring relocated Home Directory using … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com discussions.apple.com

I would try to follow the steps in that thread but I’m also trying to find other resources because I know this was a thing and I know there is a way to get it to restore, other than manually accessing the drive and bringing stuff over.

Question: do you still have access to the old iMac? You could always connect them together or use file sharing to access the old Mac and copy the home folder over across your network.
 
If you have an external drive that is big enough to do it. Get something like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the existing system to it. Confirm that the home directory is there then boot it on the 2020 machine and clone it back if the os is compatible or use it for a source for the migration assistant to do the copying from.
 
filmgirl said:
The one reference I could easily find for this was from 2013 but it looks like the way to get it to work is to create another user account with the same name as your old system and to then migrate that way.

Restoring relocated Home Directory using … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com discussions.apple.com

I would try to follow the steps in that thread but I’m also trying to find other resources because I know this was a thing and I know there is a way to get it to restore, other than manually accessing the drive and bringing stuff over.

Question: do you still have access to the old iMac? You could always connect them together or use file sharing to access the old Mac and copy the home folder over across your network.
Click to expand...

I do have access to the old iMac, yes. Since posting I have spent hours googling myself, then on a whim decided to see what would happen if I put my 2011 in migration assistance as a source and see what happens on my 2020. I tried connecting them via Ethernet but for some reason it forced me to use my Wi-Fi network (maybe thats expected behavior?).

on the 2020 it seems to see the relocated 2011 iMac home folder as the size is at 560GB and rising, with a message under my name reading “relocated home will be copied to local Users folder.” Maybe this means “we know you moved your home folder and we will fix your mess for you”? Haha.

If iMac to iMac migrations are reliable then I will just proceed this way (for some reason I thought I read this was not always the best way to migrate but maybe I am remembering incorrectly)
 
Last edited:
NorCalZman said:
I do have access to the old iMac, yes. Since posting I have spent hours googling myself, then on a whim decided to see what would happen if I put my 2011 in migration assistance as a source and see what happens on my 2020. I tried connecting them via Ethernet but for some reason it forced me to use my Wi-Fi network (maybe thats expected behavior?).

on the 2020 it seems to see the relocated 2011 iMac home folder as the size is at 560GB and rising, with a message under my name reading “relocated home will be copied to local Users folder.” Maybe this means “we know you moved your home folder and we will fix your mess for you”? Haha.

If iMac to iMac migrations are reliable then I will just proceed this way (for some reason I thought I read this was not always the best way to migrate but maybe I am remembering incorrectly)
Click to expand...

That certainly sounds promising! Let us know how it goes!
 
Thank you both Filmgirl and Macuser2525 for your responses/advice.

Ok here are my results, which may help anyone migrating from a super old iMac like me:

- After 2 or 3 hours of the two iMacs being connected, progress seemed to hang for a long time. I ended up cancelling Migration Assistant on both iMacs and restarting the process, telling MA to overwrite the old progress. This time the progress bar included more information like how fast the transfer was happening (ie. 11 mb/s). So I let it be and went to bed.

- This morning I checked and the migration appeared to be a success. For anyone running a super old iMac on High Sierra like me, the Migration Assistant appears to have put all my data in its proper place on Catalina. For anyone who moved their home folder from the start up disk like my friend did for me, Migration Assistant could NOT see the home folder in my Time Machine back up. Im so glad I bought this 2020 iMac while my 2011 is still working so I could get the data directly from the old computer without having to jump through other hoops. The 2020 iMac is now making a new/fresh back up to time machine and then I will figure out how to delete the 2011 back up from TM. Then I will figure out how to erase the all the data on the 2011 so I can get rid of it.

- I have iStats X running on both iMacs and they appear to have identical fan speed and CPU temp and I can barely hear either computer, in case anyone is wondering how the 2011 compares to the 2020.

- I only have 8GB of ram in the new computer and just having a couple programs open and some safari tabs I am using more than a GB of Swap. Ill be ordering more ram soon (from Crucial).

Now on to questions:
1) When I open finder, on the sidebar I see two "Machintosh HD" drives. when I click on either one, it shows the same folders (Applications, library, etc). I don't think this is normal, right? When I open Disk utility I see Machintosh HD and Machintosh HD - Data, which from googling appears to be normal. Does anyone else have duplicate Machintosh HD in the finder sidebar? If so how did you resolve? Side note: Im letting the computer finish its Time Machine back up before I do its first software update and restart.

2) Relocated items folder, with a shortcut to it on my desktop. it is 6.7MB. It contains the folders Configuration and Security. All the files in them have technical type names with a Document file type. I am unable to open them. Can I delete this stuff?
 
NorCalZman said:
I have a 2011 iMac that came with both a smaller SDD and a larger HDD (And this was before Fusion Drive was a thing). Back when it was new, a friend who knows way more about macs than i do helped me set it up. He made it so my applications (and I assume OS) were installed on the SSD, but all the data for them automatically went to the Home folder he appears to have moved to the HDD. I have been backing it up to my Apple Time Capsule without issue since then (I assume)

My 2020 iMac is here, and i turned it on and it is now searching the Time Capsule for items to bring over. I noticed going through the screens, after selecting the iMac back up, it specifically made me chose "Macintosh SSD" and did not give me the choice to include the HDD with my Home folder. On the next screen "select information to Transfer" it shows my name, the little icon pic that goes with it when I log in, with a "0KB" size and a message under it that says "this users home is relocated and will not be copied".

To note, on 2011 I have Time Machine set up to not exclude anything when backing up. Looking at the estimated size of full back up, it is 686GB so it seems to have been backing up the whole computer (SSD and HDD). Looking at the set up for the 2020 i do not see the data adding up to that much (42GB for apps, 0KB next to my name with that message about home being relocated, 2.24GB for other files and folders, 28kb for computer & network settings). Now that its done searching as I type this the total is 44.91GB to transfer. Does not seem right at all.

Any advice from the experts here would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...


Here's what I'd do: I'm going to warn you in advance and say that you might not like the advice I'm about to give, but here it goes:

The Migration Assistant doesn't handle "messy" setups very well. By "messy" I don't mean to suggest that your situation is in disarray. But it's a tool that works better in some scenarios than it does with others. If you're moving the data from Mac A running macOS version Y to Mac B also running macOS version Y (or at least within two macOS releases of version Y), then it works rather well assuming that all of your data and applications are on the same internal drive. You complicate things any further or migrate from a much older OS on one Mac to a much newer on another, things can get messy. Furthermore, if you keep doing this from Mac to Mac to Mac to Mac to Mac, you'll eventually have things left over from Macs that aren't going to even function on the new Mac you're setting things up on. I don't know what OS you're rocking on your 2011 iMac; I can only hope you're rocking High Sierra.

I much more prefer to manually copy everything over. It sounds like a pain until you realize that (a) data in your home folders (i.e. your Documents Folder, Desktop Folder, Pictures Folder, Downloads Folder, etc.) is already pretty organized. If you want to copy the home folder to another Mac, you can do so pretty easily and macOS will be intuitive enough to know what to do.

However, what I find to be even cleaner, is to just copy the contents of the folders on the older computer to the newly created user account on the new computer. Migrating apps over from one Mac to another is definitely doable via the Migration Assistant, but it's not the most optimal way to do it (and some Mac software will outright not function that way). Copying the entire contents of the "Photos" and "Music" folder (assuming your Photos and iTunes/Music libraries are in their default locations) will result in those libraries pretty much moving over perfectly (albeit your Photos library will probably need to upgrade itself to accommodate the newer version of Photos on the newer Mac). In your case, with the OS and apps being on one drive and your home folder being on another, it will be much easier to just move your data from the home folder on the old Mac, file it away in the correct locations, and then re-install things.

Yes, this is much more of a manual approach. And yes, it may take you additional time over merely clicking a couple buttons on an assistant, but you will be left with a MUCH cleaner and uniform environment on your new Mac. And given the changes to the file system and structure in Catalina, I'd say that clean and uniform are a great way to get going on a 2020 27" iMac!
 
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No clue on the Catalina I have never used it, on Mojave at the moment, but for the old machine. Boot to the recovery partition and see if it allows you to start an install. If it does then just wipe the hard drive and allow it to install. At the very end where it starts up and wants you to do the user setup hold the power button until it turns off. Then the next person to start it gets to do the setup on a blank newly installed machine. Good to see you got it done.

Edit: Or if no recovery option, see if it will allow you to re-download the installer from the App Store and start it from there to do it.
 
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