Syncing or Migrating System Preferences from Old Mac to new Mac?

[undergroundblue]

Recently bought a M1 Mac Mini to replace my M1 13" MBP.

iCloud data carried over to my new Mac Mini, but I also want a fresh re-install of the OS.

All system preferences and settings (i.e. settings for General, Dock & Menu, Keyboard, etc.) are at factory settings on the Mac Mini even though I'm on the same iCloud account.

It's tedious work to replicate all the settings.

Is there a way to sync/migrate all settings from my old Mac to my new Mac?

 

[bradl]

Recently bought a M1 Mac Mini to replace my M1 13" MBP.

iCloud data carried over to my new Mac Mini, but I also want a fresh re-install of the OS.

All system preferences and settings (i.e. settings for General, Dock & Menu, Keyboard, etc.) are at factory settings on the Mac Mini even though I'm on the same iCloud account.

It's tedious work to replicate all the settings.

Is there a way to sync/migrate all settings from my old Mac to my new Mac?

Question.. Any reason why you only went with iCloud migrating your data instead of making a TM backup, installing the OS fresh, then restoring everything (including preferences and settings) from the TM backup?

That process has always worked for me, from Lion up to Sierra, as well as Snow Leopard up to Monterrey on my wife's Mac, with those all obviously being Intel Macs.

BL.

 

[undergroundblue]

Question.. Any reason why you only went with iCloud migrating your data instead of making a TM backup, installing the OS fresh, then restoring everything (including preferences and settings) from the TM backup?

That process has always worked for me, from Lion up to Sierra, as well as Snow Leopard up to Monterrey on my wife's Mac, with those all obviously being Intel Macs.

BL.

Great question BL.

I avoided going with a time machine backup because I didn't see a need to. This is mostly because I keep most of my documents on the iCloud drive. Should I have gone with time machine?

 

[KeesMacPro]

I avoided going with a time machine backup because I didn't see a need to. This is mostly because I keep most of my documents on the iCloud drive. Should I have gone with time machine?

This is what TM is for:
- restoring all settings , preferences and data to a freshly installed OS (with Migration Assistant).
- reverting all to a previous state stored in TM

 

[Fishrrman]

Sometimes the best way to do it is just to grit your teeth and "do it all over again" by hand...

 

[bradl]

Great question BL.

I avoided going with a time machine backup because I didn't see a need to. This is mostly because I keep most of my documents on the iCloud drive. Should I have gone with time machine?

This is what TM is for:
- restoring all settings , preferences and data to a freshly installed OS (with Migration Assistant).
- reverting all to a previous state stored in TM

This. Time Machine would restore all of your preferences along with data to the last state they were in as they were being backed up. iCloud Drive would only restore your data that you have saved in it, not anything else relative to the Mac. Time Machine would be the way to go if you want all of the data, including settings, to be restored from one Mac to another.

BL.

 

[chabig]

I would have used Migration Assistant to move your data and settings directly from the MBP to the Mini. You would have ended up with an identical computer.

 

[bradl]

I would have used Migration Assistant to move your data and settings directly from the MBP to the Mini. You would have ended up with an identical computer.

That's another good point. Migration Assistant would work the best on this. The only drawback I can see (and this will be a personal problem for me) is when you are moving from an Intel Mac to a Silicon Mac. there are going to be some binary incompatibility issues due to CPU architecture, so there is going to be a lot to be lost there.

BL.

 

[chabig]

when you are moving from an Intel Mac to a Silicon Mac. there are going to be some binary incompatibility issues

Not really. Your data is CPU agnostic. Only apps would matter and if you keep your apps updated they will take care of themselves.

 

[bradl]

Not really. Your data is CPU agnostic. Only apps would matter and if you keep your apps updated they will take care of themselves.

Native apps (read: written/released by Apple), yes, as the new versions should simply overwrite the old ones and that should be good; Anything 3rd party, no.. I don't expect to have MS Office 2011 automagically update to Apple Silicon for me, especially since Office 365 has come out. Same would go for 1Password 6, since AgileBits has dropped support for it. For those, unless I buy the license for the new version of Office, I'd be relying on Rosetta 2 to keep those running.

So I may have to be selective as to what I restore from Time Machine as well...

BL.

 

[undergroundblue]

Thanks for all of your inputs! I did end up wiping my new M1 Mac Mini and re-installing it this time using Time Machine.

I still wanted a fresh re-install of MacOS. So I only checked only the Apps and Settings boxes, leaving all other boxes unchecked.

I still had to make some system setting changes but it was fairly simple.

iCloud downloaded the rest of my files overnight and it's like I'm back up to speed again.

Thanks for all of your help guys!