Thunderbolt 3 Migration MBA 2018 Big Sur to M1 MBA 2020 Monterey

[shfawaz]

I purchased a 2020 M1 MBA and updated it to the latest MACOS Monterey 12.0.1. My 2018 MBA is running the latest version of Big Sur. When I connect an Apple Branded Thunderbolt 3 between the two machines to do a migration, the system never recognizes the Thunderbolt connection in Apple's Migration Assistant and only show a Peer-to-peer and Wifi Connection. I've tried three different brands of Thunderbolt 3 Cables with no luck. Even switch which ports the Thunderbolt 3 is connected, rebooted both machines, restarted the migration several times, yet, I could not get the two machines to migrate via the faster Thunderbolt 3 connection. It never even showed up as an option. Could this be because the 2018 Intel MBA is running Big Sur and the new 2020 M1 MBA is running Monterey? I can't imagine it has anything to do with one being an Intel processor and the other being an Apple M1 processor given that Thunderbolt is a native Intel technology.

 

[jagooch]

I’m having the same issue with 2 Macs running Monterey 12.1, so it seems like Apple removed migrating over Thunderbolt as a feature.

I’m pretty hot under the collar if that’s the case!

 

[shfawaz]

I’m having the same issue with 2 Macs running Monterey 12.1, so it seems like Apple removed migrating over Thunderbolt as a feature.

I’m pretty hot under the collar if that’s the case!

Actually they didn’t. I bought the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 3 cable and it actually worked. Monterey 12.1 to Monterey 12.1.

 

[Rodan52]

Its not necessary to use a cable at all. If both devices are on the same WiFi network you can use Migration Assistant wirelessly.

 

[shfawaz]

That is true. But if you want the fastest migration, nothing beats Thunderbolt. WiFi can be slow and take hours. Thunderbolt transfers are significantly faster and more reliable.

 

[Rodan52]

I'd do it overnight myself, it certainly beats buying a new cable. Apple cables are atrociously expensive.

 

[shfawaz]

Do it the old fashioned way. Buy the cable as an open box item ebay for 30-40% of the retail cost from Apple or Best Buy. Same exact Apple cable that someone else most likely bought for a single migration and returned it. ?‍?

 

[Rodan52]

That could work.

 

[macsound1]

I used a 3rd party Thunderbolt USB C cable to migrate from a 2017 MBP on Catalina to a 14" MPB.
I too thought there wasn't an option to allow Thunderbolt migration because it wanted to connect over wifi, but once I clicked on, it showed it was using the Thunderbolt connection for the migration and moved 350GB in about 10 minutes. Easiest migration ever.

 

[jagooch]

Actually they didn’t. I bought the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 3 cable and it actually worked. Monterey 12.1 to Monterey 12.1.

Do you have a link that explains the procedure in detail? I connected them via TB3 cable and when I clicked on connections, it wasn't an option, only Wifi. I found another article that said you needed to setup a Thunderbolt bridge which I did, but that didn't work either.

Finally I disabled Wifi and connected them to each other with an ethernet cable and I gave both Mac's a static IP on the same network. That worked but took 4 hours (2TB drives on each ) to complete.

I was hoping to use Thunderbolt since it has 40Gb bandwidth vs 1Gb that their ethernet ports have.

While the migration is done, it would be good to have a written procedure for the Thunderbolt method to use next time.

Edit: I have a bunch of thunderbolt cables since I have many thunderbolt devices - tb displays, tb eGPU , tb dock, tb raid enclosure - getting a cable was the least of my problems.

Someone mentioned this article - https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchlp1443/mac - which looks like it might work for data migration. I'll find out when I do my next migration about a month from today.




The migration screen mentions thunderbolt here ^^ Note that the Macs were connected via thunderbolt cable when I took this screenshot. Well done, Apple!

 

[popkinetic]

Do you have a link that explains the procedure in detail? I connected them via TB3 cable and when I clicked on connections, it wasn't an option, only Wifi. I found another article that said you needed to setup a Thunderbolt bridge which I did, but that didn't work either.

Finally I disabled Wifi and connected them to each other with an ethernet cable and I gave both Mac's a static IP on the same network. That worked but took 4 hours (2TB drives on each ) to complete.

I was hoping to use Thunderbolt since it has 40Gb bandwidth vs 1Gb that their ethernet ports have.

While the migration is done, it would be good to have a written procedure for the Thunderbolt method to use next time.

Edit: I have a bunch of thunderbolt cables since I have many thunderbolt devices - tb displays, tb eGPU , tb dock, tb raid enclosure - getting a cable was the least of my problems.

Someone mentioned this article - https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchlp1443/mac - which looks like it might work for data migration. I'll find out when I do my next migration about a month from today.


View attachment 1936950

The migration screen mentions thunderbolt here ^^ Note that the Macs were connected via thunderbolt cable when I took this screenshot. Well done, Apple!

Can you explain the procedure in detail?

 

[Rodan52]

Here is Apple's description; https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350
There are several other detailed descriptions easily found by searching "using migration assistant to set up new mac"