Time Machine or Migration Assistant?

[curiousjo]

This is my first time moving data from a current laptop to a new one and I have a few newbie questions. And yes I did read the other like threads before posting:

1. I have ~1 TB of data that I need to move from current laptop (macOS 10.15.7) to my new one (Tahoe). Is it better to use Migration Assistant or Time Machine to do so, and, is there an advantage to one over the other? Should it matter, I hardly have anything on iCloud.

My original plan was to move things manually so that I can start fresh on the new laptop with a clean structure and cleaned up files. I’ve decided this is a crazy notion with that volume of data I’d be spending my life cleaning up. I’m looking for the least amount of headache and reliability. (From a systems perspective, while I’d love to get rid of whatever gunk my laptop has accumulated over the years that may be gumming up the works, I wouldn’t even know where to start to do that.) I had thought of having the Apple Store do the migration but would rather not for privacy reasons.


2. The only item that I may not want to transfer over is Apple Mail, as I might want to start Apple Mail net-new for a variety of reasons. If I transfer everything over except for Apple Mail and then decide I do want to move it to the new laptop, would I use Time Machine or Migration Assistant to do that? And what issues, if any, might I encounter if I migrate Apple Mail over on its own?

While my Time Machine back up should be good, in the off chance it’s not, I wouldn’t want to have to start migrating everything all over again. I’m not sure if Migration Assistant allows you to select one item to migrate without having to go through all of the users/admin settings?

Hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Fishrrman]

BACK UP the old Mac.
You can use either an external hard drive or SSD, SSD is always faster.
If you already have a time machine backup, I guess you can use that...
HOWEVER...
If you haven't created the backup yet, DON'T USE TIME MACHINE.

Instead, download CarbonCopyCloner from here:

Download CCC - Bombich Software

bombich.com

CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Doing things "my way" will cost you NOTHING.

Use CCC to create a cloned backup of your old Mac.
When it's done, set it aside for the moment.

When the new laptop arrives, take it out of the box and set it on the table.
DO NOT open the lid yet.
CONNECT your backup drive.
NOW open the lid for the first time -- it should boot right up.

Begin setup.
Now you have an important decision to make.
No one here can make it for you...
...YOU have to decide.
Do you want to bring stuff over from the backup?
Or... start pretty much "fresh", leaving a lot of the old stuff "behind"?

IF you created a CLONED backup, it's EASY to find and access old files later on.
With time machine... I'll reckon "not so much".

Re the "mail issue".
Don't make things too hard here.
If you're going to bring your existing account over, I'm thinking it's going to bring your mail over, too.

I don't recall if setup assistant/migration assistant allows an account to be migrated WITHOUT bringing the mail account and settings over, as well. Can someone else help on this point?

I'm thinking that if you DON'T want mail brought over, you may have to create a new account. Not "a new mail account" -- a new USER account. I could be wrong.

Hmmm....
I'm wondering if you could use setup assistant to migrate other stuff and leave the "accounts" option UNchecked?

So you can see...
If you want to get "too particular" about what will be migrated, setup assistant/migration assistant may not be for you.

Be aware that doing a "manual migration" is more involved, can be tricky in some instances, and you have to prepare for it (on the old Mac).

This is why I STRONGLY SUGGEST that you create a CLONED backup of your old drive.
A cloned backup will mount right on the desktop (of the new Mac) like any other drive.
If you remember "where things were" on the old Mac, you'll know where they are on the cloned backup -- because they're "the same".
You can easily deal with permissions problems by using the "get info" box (for the cloned backup), and putting a check into "ignore ownership on this volume".
Now, anything you copy will "fall under the ownership" of your NEW account on the NEW Mac. If you DON'T do this... you could end up with permissions problems.

OK... rambled on long enough.
The EASY WAY is to just connect the backup and let setup assistant "migrate it all", and sort things out afterwards.

Again, it's "up to you"....

 

[!!!]

I'd recommend using MA, thunderbolt will be far faster than reading from your backup disk. There's no real reason to use your TM backup when your old Mac is still functioning fine and can be used as a source for MA.

 

[whitby]

There are three things to consider before proceeding:

1. Settings. Do you want to copy all your settings over or are you happy to set these up from scratch. This includes most but not necessarily all passwords, display options etc. if you install from scratch you will need to do this.
2. Do you have all the keys etc. to install your applications from scratch. Without them you have a real problem that no one can solve.
3. Is it just the data you want copied over.

You comment that you do not use iCloud, but do you have iCloud set up to keep passwords, Safari favorites etc but just do not use it for data. This is crucial as if you do keep passwords etc. in iCloud this makes things much much easier. Even the minimum free account stores this info. unless you explicitly stopped it. From what you say, you do not use Photos to store photographs in the cloud for example. I would advise you to make sure that even if you do not use iCloud for data (I don’t) you make sure it is set up to keep passwords and Safari info, and possibly your desktop.

As for mail (assuming we are talking about Apple Mail), if you sign in with the same accounts, your mail information is still there ( it is kept on the Mail server, not on your machine). If you want to abandon your old mail, you will need to create a new mail account and tell everyone about your new email address. If the email account is the same as your Apple ID, this gets complicated quickly as you will need a new Apple ID, in which case any info you had in the cloud (like passwords) would disappear as well if you link your new machine to the new id. It is possible to have more than one Apple ID, so you could use one for email and one for the machine iCloud, but not sure of the point of doing that.

My approach with a new machine is to set it up from scratch using my current Apple ID (to clean out the old crud in my old machine e.g. orphaned plist entries etc.) . This then, unless I explicitly prevented iCloud from storing my passwords and Safari favorites etc., brings over all my passwords and Safari favorites. Mail will automatically bring across the accounts and, if they are not your Apple ID, then just the names of the accounts and you will have to sign in again. If one of the accounts is your Apple ID, it will automatically be transfered and signed in with the credentials you provided at set up time for the new machine. You will then need to install all your none Apple default apps.

Now you can copy over the data. As suggested Carbon Copy Cloner is the fastest way to do it. Do not use Time Macine as it is painfully slow. You can do this by using an intermediate disk or over a WiFi and network connection.

Migration Assistant will clone your entire old machine onto to your new one, including name, passwords etc. It then expects you to reset the old one otherwise you are going to have to spend time changing names of the machines etc. so you can keep them separated. BTW WiFi is often faster than a direct connection for some reason. A direct cable seems to be inordinately slow which is counter intuitive.

Hope this helps.

Note that after using Migration Assistant you may still have to provide the passwords to sign in to some sites or apps for security reasons but Passwords should have the relevant credentials unless it is one of those apps that Passwords cannot handle (and there are some).

Apple generally expect you to have everything stored in iCloud e.g docs., photos, desktop etc. so migration is simply a matter of either using Migration Assistant (and resetting your old machine back to new) or settings up a new machine, signing in with your Apple ID and everything you had in iCloud will be there, requiring you only to install your none Apple apps and any other data not in iCloud.

Hope this helps. I have done this many many times, so your questions are very relevant.

 

[ChrisA]

Migration Assistant will move everything, including all those preference settings. It is the best method. But do make sure you have multiple backups of the data.

Don't try and do it manually because there are likely files you don't know about in places like ~/Library and such.

Do a final backup and then unplug the drive until you are 100% sure the transfer worked.

 

[curiousjo]

There are three things to consider before proceeding:

1. Settings. Do you want to copy all your settings over or are you happy to set these up from scratch. This includes most but not necessarily all passwords, display options etc. if you install from scratch you will need to do this.
2. Do you have all the keys etc. to install your applications from scratch. Without them you have a real problem that no one can solve.
3. Is it just the data you want copied over.

You comment that you do not use iCloud, but do you have iCloud set up to keep passwords, Safari favorites etc but just do not use it for data. This is crucial as if you do keep passwords etc. in iCloud this makes things much much easier. Even the minimum free account stores this info. unless you explicitly stopped it. From what you say, you do not use Photos to store photographs in the cloud for example. I would advise you to make sure that even if you do not use iCloud for data (I don’t) you make sure it is set up to keep passwords and Safari info, and possibly your desktop.

As for mail (assuming we are talking about Apple Mail), if you sign in with the same accounts, your mail information is still there ( it is kept on the Mail server, not on your machine). If you want to abandon your old mail, you will need to create a new mail account and tell everyone about your new email address. If the email account is the same as your Apple ID, this gets complicated quickly as you will need a new Apple ID, in which case any info you had in the cloud (like passwords) would disappear as well if you link your new machine to the new id. It is possible to have more than one Apple ID, so you could use one for email and one for the machine iCloud, but not sure of the point of doing that.

My approach with a new machine is to set it up from scratch using my current Apple ID (to clean out the old crud in my old machine e.g. orphaned plist entries etc.) . This then, unless I explicitly prevented iCloud from storing my passwords and Safari favorites etc., brings over all my passwords and Safari favorites. Mail will automatically bring across the accounts and, if they are not your Apple ID, then just the names of the accounts and you will have to sign in again. If one of the accounts is your Apple ID, it will automatically be transfered and signed in with the credentials you provided at set up time for the new machine. You will then need to install all your none Apple default apps.

Now you can copy over the data. As suggested Carbon Copy Cloner is the fastest way to do it. Do not use Time Macine as it is painfully slow. You can do this by using an intermediate disk or over a WiFi and network connection.

Migration Assistant will clone your entire old machine onto to your new one, including name, passwords etc. It then expects you to reset the old one otherwise you are going to have to spend time changing names of the machines etc. so you can keep them separated. BTW WiFi is often faster than a direct connection for some reason. A direct cable seems to be inordinately slow which is counter intuitive.

Hope this helps.

Note that after using Migration Assistant you may still have to provide the passwords to sign in to some sites or apps for security reasons but Passwords should have the relevant credentials unless it is one of those apps that Passwords cannot handle (and there are some).

Apple generally expect you to have everything stored in iCloud e.g docs., photos, desktop etc. so migration is simply a matter of either using Migration Assistant (and resetting your old machine back to new) or settings up a new machine, signing in with your Apple ID and everything you had in iCloud will be there, requiring you only to install your none Apple apps and any other data not in iCloud.

Hope this helps. I have done this many many times, so your questions are very relevant.

Thanks very much for sharing this information. Feeling a bit overwhelmed so I may have some more questions for you after this email exchange if that’s okay. Thanks for your patience with all of my questions and my complete inexperience doing this. To clarify a few things:

1. Goal: Move all data, settings, applications, browser favorites over so that the transition to using the new laptop is as quick and friction-free as possible.

2. Passwords: Apple Passwords is not an option with Catalina. For years I have used very old encrypted program to store passwords. So after transferring data from old to new laptop, I will need migrate to a password manager like Passwords, 1Password or Proton Pass. Given the age of the encrypted program, this will most likely be a manual process rather than a csv file transfer, but I digress.

3. Browsers: I almost exclusively use Firefox,and I have tons of bookmarks. I used to use Safari exclusively and do have favorites that I would want to transfer to the new laptop.

3. Applications: Great question about keys. Guess I will cross that bridge when I get to the transfer. They too are old versions so it remains to be seen if I will be able to use them with Tahoe without upgrading (Word, Excel, Omni Outliner, Text Edit, Mobiile Mouse, etc.). To answer your question, I do want to copy over the applications IN ADDITION to the data.

3. iCloud: With the except of just a few shared photos, I store 99% of my photos locally and back up to an external hard drive once a week. Your recommend "make sure it is set up to keep passwords and Safari info, and possibly your desktop”. How and where would I do that?

4. Mail: Yes I use Apple Mail. I’m moving from a home-hosted email server to a third-party email provider who allows use of personal domain email addresses. My current email sources, all of which I intend to keep, include: iCloud, self-hosted @ personal domain, and third party providers. I have thousands of emails on my current laptop that I’d love to have available on the new but it just might be too complicated to transfer it all. So Apple Mail migration may be a bit messy, which is why I thought I might start out NOT transferring Apple Mail and configuring things net-new on the new laptop. A friend will be helping me with the email set up () but he’s away until mid-July, so I can’t ask his preference about transferring or not, and I want to get cracking on configuring the new laptop. Do you know what would be the best migration option for moving Apple Mail over on its own and/pr if this is not advisable given this background information?

5. Transfer Method:
Thanks for letting me know that TM would be painfully slow. As suggested by another respondent, sounds like Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) is the way to go. Not sure how one transfers the cloned copy to the new machine, but I assume that the directions are somewhere online? What are the benefits to use Carbon Copy Cloner versus Migration Assistant?

I do want to keep my current laptop intact and don’t want any changes to it, including not changing the machine name. You said that Migration Assistant "expects you to reset the old one otherwise you are going to have to spend time changing names of the machines etc. so you can keep them separated.” So are you saying if I use Migration Assistant, I would need to call the new laptop something else or does it force you to rename the old laptop?

As a complete newbie, I was going to use TM or MA but sounds like I should rethink that plan. I am not someone who likes to store stuff in the cloud. So my "user profile" may not fit the ease that Migration Assistant affords to an iCloud user.

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[curiousjo]

Migration Assistant will move everything, including all those preference settings. It is the best method. But do make sure you have multiple backups of the data.

Don't try and do it manually because there are likely files you don't know about in places like ~/Library and such.

Do a final backup and then unplug the drive until you are 100% sure the transfer worked.

 

[whitby]

Migration Assistant will move everything, including all those preference settings. It is the best method. But do make sure you have multiple backups of the data.

Don't try and do it manually because there are likely files you don't know about in places like ~/Library and such.

Do a final backup and then unplug the drive until you are 100% sure the transfer worked.

Agreed but it also brings over the clutter you may not need. However if this is not a concern then I completely agree.

I had sensed that the OP was concerned about the clutter and hence my suggestions. But for the simplest solution MA is easy and works well. Just make sure that you rename the new machine as it will have the same as the old one. It can take several hours.

For me I always want a clean fresh OS install and new installs of the apps. Library stuff you mention is really only used for app config and status data and rarely has user data. I have never hit issues with a clean install and a user data copy process.

Again, if you do not need or are not concerned about orphan info etc. then MA is an excellent solution.

 

[benwiggy]

Is it better to use Migration Assistant or Time Machine to do so

When the run Migration Assistant, it asks you if you want to migrate from another Mac, or a TM backup. There's not really any difference. (At least, that's my memory of it.)

As a complete newbie, I was going to use TM or MA but sounds like I should rethink that plan.

Definitely don't rethink it. Just let the Mac migrate your stuff, and then get on with using it.

Doing manual work or using third-party tools is unnecessary for most cases.

 

[curiousjo]

Thanks for your recommendation. I do have 1 Time Machine back up on an external drive, and am working on creating another on another external drive, which will take some time. Given others comments, I should do a copy of the drive using cloning software. Sorry, are you saying to do a final back up of the old or the new laptop?

 

[curiousjo]

BACK UP the old Mac.
You can use either an external hard drive or SSD, SSD is always faster.
If you already have a time machine backup, I guess you can use that...
HOWEVER...
If you haven't created the backup yet, DON'T USE TIME MACHINE.

Instead, download CarbonCopyCloner from here:

Download CCC - Bombich Software

bombich.com

CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Doing things "my way" will cost you NOTHING.

Use CCC to create a cloned backup of your old Mac.
When it's done, set it aside for the moment.

When the new laptop arrives, take it out of the box and set it on the table.
DO NOT open the lid yet.
CONNECT your backup drive.
NOW open the lid for the first time -- it should boot right up.

Begin setup.
Now you have an important decision to make.
No one here can make it for you...
...YOU have to decide.
Do you want to bring stuff over from the backup?
Or... start pretty much "fresh", leaving a lot of the old stuff "behind"?

IF you created a CLONED backup, it's EASY to find and access old files later on.
With time machine... I'll reckon "not so much".

Re the "mail issue".
Don't make things too hard here.
If you're going to bring your existing account over, I'm thinking it's going to bring your mail over, too.

I don't recall if setup assistant/migration assistant allows an account to be migrated WITHOUT bringing the mail account and settings over, as well. Can someone else help on this point?

I'm thinking that if you DON'T want mail brought over, you may have to create a new account. Not "a new mail account" -- a new USER account. I could be wrong.

Hmmm....
I'm wondering if you could use setup assistant to migrate other stuff and leave the "accounts" option UNchecked?

So you can see...
If you want to get "too particular" about what will be migrated, setup assistant/migration assistant may not be for you.

Be aware that doing a "manual migration" is more involved, can be tricky in some instances, and you have to prepare for it (on the old Mac).

This is why I STRONGLY SUGGEST that you create a CLONED backup of your old drive.
A cloned backup will mount right on the desktop (of the new Mac) like any other drive.
If you remember "where things were" on the old Mac, you'll know where they are on the cloned backup -- because they're "the same".
You can easily deal with permissions problems by using the "get info" box (for the cloned backup), and putting a check into "ignore ownership on this volume".
Now, anything you copy will "fall under the ownership" of your NEW account on the NEW Mac. If you DON'T do this... you could end up with permissions problems.

OK... rambled on long enough.
The EASY WAY is to just connect the backup and let setup assistant "migrate it all", and sort things out afterwards.

Again, it's "up to you"....

Thanks Fishrrman for your help. I am digesting it and may have some additional questions for you.

 

[Luftkopf]

I have never used a cloning app on Mac. I've found it entirely unnecessary. Most of the time, I just restore a Time Machine backup and call it a day. I went from Catalina on a 2012 MacBook Air to Sonoma on a 2023 MacBook Pro. I opted to start fresh on the Pro because coming from Catalina with your older apps, it’s all Intel, and while it will still work on Tahoe, it will come with a pile of warnings that they won't work with the next version of macOS.

If you keep your old machine, I would recommend that you take the more difficult option now and start with a clean install and manually copy your data. It takes longer, but will give better results for jumping from Catalina to Tahoe.

How are your passwords currently stored? Are they in Keychain? If they are, make sure iCloud sync is turned on for it. Those passwords will be available on your new machine when you log onto your iCloud account. I barely ever touch Firefox, so I don't know how to migrate those passwords.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Not sure how one transfers the cloned copy to the new machine, but I assume that the directions are somewhere online? What are the benefits to use Carbon Copy Cloner versus Migration Assistant?"

You can use CCC -with- migration assistant.
You'll be "migrating" from the CCC backup (instead of from the tm backup).

CCC is one of the best pieces of Mac software ever put together.
I recommend that you download it (use the version that works with Catalina on the old Mac).
And then... just run it. It's easy. You'll see once you use it.
You won't understand until you do it. Then, you'll "see".
And remember... it's free to use for 30 days (so it won't cost you)... and the backup doesn't "expire"... it's good for as long as the drive works.

Don't over-think migration to a new Mac.
Just... do it.

Hmmm...
If you're moving from an OS as old as Catalina, I'm going to GUESS that some of your 3rd party apps are going to need updating.

I have a friend who migrated from an older Mac (2012 Mini) to newer (m1 Studio).
I suggested he do this:
When setup assistant presents you with a list of stuff to migrate:
- apps
- accounts
- settings
- data

UNcheck apps (but DO migrate everything else).
REASON WHY:
Because he had a cloned backup, he could test the apps "right from the backup" before copying them over.
That's because when you migrate your account, your previous app settings are migrated over, too.
Now you can run the app from the cloned backup to see if it works ... or not. And if it doesn't work -- install a fresh updated version.

He said this worked out well.
BUT -- you ABSOLUTELY NEED a "cloned backup" from which to do this.
You CAN'T do it from a tm backup.

 

[whitby]

Thanks very much for sharing this information. Feeling a bit overwhelmed so I may have some more questions for you after this email exchange if that’s okay. Thanks for your patience with all of my questions and my complete inexperience doing this. To clarify a few things:

1. Goal: Move all data, settings, applications, browser favorites over so that the transition to using the new laptop is as quick and friction-free as possible.

2. Passwords: Apple Passwords is not an option with Catalina. For years I have used very old encrypted program to store passwords. So after transferring data from old to new laptop, I will need migrate to a password manager like Passwords, 1Password or Proton Pass. Given the age of the encrypted program, this will most likely be a manual process rather than a csv file transfer, but I digress.

Passwords: Your machine has something called a Keychain which stores all your password etc. Make sure that Keychain is synced to iCloud (you will need to go into the iCloud options on your old machine). iCloud will sync paswords via the Keychain. Keychain management is now managed through an Apple app called Passwords, so you can simply ensure that you go to the iCloud options in Settings and ensure that Keychain is checked to be stored in the cloud, so that when you bring up the new machine, the keychain will be copied to the new machine and can then managed through Apples separate keychain manager, Passwords. You will not need 1 Password unless you have other non Apple machines across you wish to sync password.

3. Browsers: I almost exclusively use Firefox,and I have tons of bookmarks. I used to use Safari exclusively and do have favorites that I would want to transfer to the new laptop.

Firefox has the ability to sync bookmarks and password across all instances of Firefox. Make sure you have an account with Firefox and then sync the current instance of Firefox. Then when you install a new instance on your new machine, Firefox will sync up bookmarks and passwords,

3. Applications: Great question about keys. Guess I will cross that bridge when I get to the transfer. They too are old versions so it remains to be seen if I will be able to use them with Tahoe without upgrading (Word, Excel, Omni Outliner, Text Edit, Mobiile Mouse, etc.). To answer your question, I do want to copy over the applications IN ADDITION to the data.

If you to want to copy over the applications you will have to use Migration Assistant, but be aware that often the new copy will need your account info for those apps that were purchased and have keys. MA will not necessarily copy all the information for apps that have a sign in credential requirement. You are much better off reinstalling and signing in again e.g. for MS 365.

3. iCloud: With the except of just a few shared photos, I store 99% of my photos locally and back up to an external hard drive once a week. Your recommend "make sure it is set up to keep passwords and Safari info, and possibly your desktop”. How and where would I do that?

For your photos, what application do you use to manage them? If it is Photos then they are stored in a proprietary database format (Photo Library) which will need to be copied over complete. When you start Photos, hold down the option key and point it to the location for the library, If they are not managed by an application, then you can copy them over and point the app to them, but Lightroom for example has a catalog that knows where the photos are and you will loose all the information related to editing. You will need to look up how to migrate a Lightroom library. It is not easy.

4. Mail: Yes I use Apple Mail. I’m moving from a home-hosted email server to a third-party email provider who allows use of personal domain email addresses. My current email sources, all of which I intend to keep, include: iCloud, self-hosted @ personal domain, and third party providers. I have thousands of emails on my current laptop that I’d love to have available on the new but it just might be too complicated to transfer it all. So Apple Mail migration may be a bit messy, which is why I thought I might start out NOT transferring Apple Mail and configuring things net-new on the new laptop. A friend will be helping me with the email set up () but he’s away until mid-July, so I can’t ask his preference about transferring or not, and I want to get cracking on configuring the new laptop. Do you know what would be the best migration option for moving Apple Mail over on its own and/pr if this is not advisable given this background information?

As far as I know, Apple Mail requires that all mail be stored in the cloud, so if you have Apple Mail managing emails from your own self hosted options, you will probably find it has moved all of them to the cloud, but that would take up space and I am not sure I understand whether you have paid to get more iCloud storage or not. I would need more info to help how this might work on your new machine. The mail client dictates the requirements, and few if any these days work with mails stored locally only (they may have the ability to store a copy locally, but always work on the cloud stored emails.

5. Transfer Method:
Thanks for letting me know that TM would be painfully slow. As suggested by another respondent, sounds like Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) is the way to go. Not sure how one transfers the cloned copy to the new machine, but I assume that the directions are somewhere online? What are the benefits to use Carbon Copy Cloner versus Migration Assistant?

Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) and Migrations Assistant (MA) are rather different in what they do and the facilities you are provided. CCC will clone a disk at a very low level so it can be copied to a new disk but I do not think that it is appropriate. However it will also copy specific files and folders to a new location either as a backup or straight copy. From what you have said CCC may not be appropriate here unless you have identifiable folders on your old machine which you want copying to your new machine. MA will clone the system from your old machine to your new machine, but it knows what needs to be copied and what does not, so it will only copy the system files it needs and settings along with user data. It is the safest option unless you want to customize what data you want copied or want it placed in different place on the new machine. Note that if you are using Photos, the library will be copied. If you are simply storing the photos as date, it will copy the photos as user data. Note my comments about Photo managers like Lightroom since the have a relationship between the location of the photos and the information regarding any changes you have made (assuming the editor in the photo manager does none destructive editing: they keep a copy of the original and then have a list of the changes you made which is applied when you open the photo.).

I do want to keep my current laptop intact and don’t want any changes to it, including not changing the machine name. You said that Migration Assistant "expects you to reset the old one otherwise you are going to have to spend time changing names of the machines etc. so you can keep them separated.” So are you saying if I use Migration Assistant, I would need to call the new laptop something else or does it force you to rename the old laptop?

If you use MA, the new machine will have the same name as the old machine. You can change the name of either machine. If you want to keep the old machine intact, then simply change the name of the new machine in the Settings> General>About option.

As a complete newbie, I was going to use TM or MA but sounds like I should rethink that plan. I am not someone who likes to store stuff in the cloud. So my "user profile" may not fit the ease that Migration Assistant affords to an iCloud user.

Thanks so much for your help.

I think you are best using MA based on your requirements and concerns and then sort out passwords and app credentials after everything has been migratated. However it will bring everything over that it can, although your old machine has a much older OS and so may have some things it cannot copy. Once the migration is done, you can an app called Clean My Mac (available on the App Store) to remove any orphaned install components or config files and remnants that are not required.

I hope this makes sense and feel free to ask more questions.

 

[benwiggy]

Mail: Yes I use Apple Mail. I’m moving from a home-hosted email server to a third-party email provider who allows use of personal domain email addresses. My current email sources, all of which I intend to keep, include: iCloud, self-hosted @ personal domain, and third party providers. I have thousands of emails on my current laptop that I’d love to have available on the new but it just might be too complicated to transfer it all.

The vast majority of email servers use a protocol called IMAP, where a copy is kept on the mail server, and your email client just syncs with the server. This allows more than one device to have the same mail.

The much older protocol is POP, where you download the email and it gets deleted from the server.

So, if you're using IMAP, you'll just configure the account with the server details, and the emails should come rolling in.
If you're using POP, you'll need to copy your saved emails to the new machine, and the best way to do that is with Migration Assistant.

 

[dsmedic10]

CCC does not clone the disk in the manner people think. You cannot boot from a CCC clone. You used to be able to. You cannot now due to how Apple Silicon works for booting volumes. You can clone the drive but it would be difficult to move it in place of an existing install. CCC recommends using their backup to make a copy of your drive and then use MA and select the CCC copy to migrate from. I believe this is better than using MA with TM but I have not tried it personally.

I have personally used TM and MA during install to get my new machine up with my old data. Minus a few apps that required me to reinstall, it was all quite painless.

To anyone else who wants to know I have personally just migrated using MA from one mac laptop to another via a TB4 cable connected to the TB ports. For me this was faster than using my TM backup which was on a hard drive.

CCC is useful for a lot of things including making backups.

 

[curiousjo]

Passwords: Your machine has something called a Keychain which stores all your password etc. Make sure that Keychain is synced to iCloud (you will need to go into the iCloud options on your old machine). iCloud will sync paswords via the Keychain. Keychain management is now managed through an Apple app called Passwords, so you can simply ensure that you go to the iCloud options in Settings and ensure that Keychain is checked to be stored in the cloud, so that when you bring up the new machine, the keychain will be copied to the new machine and can then managed through Apples separate keychain manager, Passwords. You will not need 1 Password unless you have other non Apple machines across you wish to sync password.

Firefox has the ability to sync bookmarks and password across all instances of Firefox. Make sure you have an account with Firefox and then sync the current instance of Firefox. Then when you install a new instance on your new machine, Firefox will sync up bookmarks and passwords,

If you to want to copy over the applications you will have to use Migration Assistant, but be aware that often the new copy will need your account info for those apps that were purchased and have keys. MA will not necessarily copy all the information for apps that have a sign in credential requirement. You are much better off reinstalling and signing in again e.g. for MS 365.

For your photos, what application do you use to manage them? If it is Photos then they are stored in a proprietary database format (Photo Library) which will need to be copied over complete. When you start Photos, hold down the option key and point it to the location for the library, If they are not managed by an application, then you can copy them over and point the app to them, but Lightroom for example has a catalog that knows where the photos are and you will loose all the information related to editing. You will need to look up how to migrate a Lightroom library. It is not easy.

As far as I know, Apple Mail requires that all mail be stored in the cloud, so if you have Apple Mail managing emails from your own self hosted options, you will probably find it has moved all of them to the cloud, but that would take up space and I am not sure I understand whether you have paid to get more iCloud storage or not. I would need more info to help how this might work on your new machine. The mail client dictates the requirements, and few if any these days work with mails stored locally only (they may have the ability to store a copy locally, but always work on the cloud stored emails.


Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) and Migrations Assistant (MA) are rather different in what they do and the facilities you are provided. CCC will clone a disk at a very low level so it can be copied to a new disk but I do not think that it is appropriate. However it will also copy specific files and folders to a new location either as a backup or straight copy. From what you have said CCC may not be appropriate here unless you have identifiable folders on your old machine which you want copying to your new machine. MA will clone the system from your old machine to your new machine, but it knows what needs to be copied and what does not, so it will only copy the system files it needs and settings along with user data. It is the safest option unless you want to customize what data you want copied or want it placed in different place on the new machine. Note that if you are using Photos, the library will be copied. If you are simply storing the photos as date, it will copy the photos as user data. Note my comments about Photo managers like Lightroom since the have a relationship between the location of the photos and the information regarding any changes you have made (assuming the editor in the photo manager does none destructive editing: they keep a copy of the original and then have a list of the changes you made which is applied when you open the photo.).

If you use MA, the new machine will have the same name as the old machine. You can change the name of either machine. If you want to keep the old machine intact, then simply change the name of the new machine in the Settings> General>About option.

I think you are best using MA based on your requirements and concerns and then sort out passwords and app credentials after everything has been migratated. However it will bring everything over that it can, although your old machine has a much older OS and so may have some things it cannot copy. Once the migration is done, you can an app called Clean My Mac (available on the App Store) to remove any orphaned install components or config files and remnants that are not required.

I hope this makes sense and feel free to ask more questions.

Thanks for your careful and thoughtful reply. Am running off to give a try at making a Carbon Copy Cloner backup (using compatible version 6 for Catalina) so that I at least have 1 TM back up and the CCC backup. The 2nd additional hard drive to which I was doing my TM is now giving an error message (more on that later perhaps). So at least this way I will have two possible data sources if something goes belly up. So hope to answer your questions later. Thanks again.

 

[curiousjo]

CCC does not clone the disk in the manner people think. You cannot boot from a CCC clone. You used to be able to. You cannot now due to how Apple Silicon works for booting volumes. You can clone the drive but it would be difficult to move it in place of an existing install. CCC recommends using their backup to make a copy of your drive and then use MA and select the CCC copy to migrate from. I believe this is better than using MA with TM but I have not tried it personally.

I have personally used TM and MA during install to get my new machine up with my old data. Minus a few apps that required me to reinstall, it was all quite painless.

To anyone else who wants to know I have personally just migrated using MA from one mac laptop to another via a TB4 cable connected to the TB ports. For me this was faster than using my TM backup which was on a hard drive.

CCC is useful for a lot of things including making backups.

Thanks for your cautionary note about booting and CCC. My plan at the moment is to do a CCC backup and then either do manual or MA, leaning towards MA for ease. I found a Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable in our stash but don't know what the transfer rate will be. So we shall see.

 

[dsmedic10]

Thanks for your cautionary note about booting and CCC. My plan at the moment is to do a CCC backup and then either do manual or MA, leaning towards MA for ease. I found a Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable in our stash but don't know what the transfer rate will be. So we shall see.

when you start the MA it shows you the transfer rate (MA picks the best but you can over ride that choice).

 

[StrollerEd]

I opted to backup my M1 MBP (running Ventura OS 13.7.8; with 1TB storage) using TM and CCC, then opted to use MA to do the transfer to my newly acquired M5 MBP. All now works as expected on M5 (running OS 26.5.2; with 1TB storage) including some Intel-based software.

NB: I invested in a Calbit Thunderbolt 5 Pro Cable and that sped up everything 🙂

May I sneak in a query of my own pl ... as I'm told that upgrade to OS 27 I might lose use of that Intel-based software - and so have cunning plan 😉

I will be cascading the M1 to daughter in return for my use of the previously cascaded mid-2015 MBP (with 1TB storage). I have yet to learn what OS that is running.

My plan is to have her backup the mid-2015 MBP and reset that in order that I then can bring over that Intel-based software. I was thinking of using MA again but should I seek out earlier TM backups I might call upon?

 

[curiousjo]

I’m outlining what happened in detail so that you have sufficient information to be able to help on the next part of this saga. Apologies for the length but the devil is generally in the details when troubleshooting:

WHAT HAPPENED BACKING UP LAPTOP USING CCC:
So I used Disk Utility to format a new, never used Western Digital My Passport for Mac HDD. It is connected to the laptop via the cable and USB-A to USB-C adaptor that came with it. I used Disk Utility to APFS-format the disk per CCC directions. I did not create any volumes. Then, I installed and ran Carbon Copy Cloner version 6. It got 3/4 of the way through and then I got the error message: “The task was aborted because the destination disappeared.” I followed the CCC directions for how to resolve this. Nothing was working (including detaching and reattaching the cable multiple times with restarting the laptop but the HDD just would not appear in the Finder., went to Disk Utility to run First Aid but the HDD was not showing at all like it didn’t exist.) And then, magically, the drive reappeared in the Finder window, almost like there was a severe latency issue in it mounting. So I ran CCC again and CCC said that the backup had successfully finished.

I did a spot check of the backup, both after the first aborted attempt and the second successful completion, to confirm that the data was there and operable. Both times in the middle of spot checking, I got 2 identical messages saying “Disk improperly ejected”. Both times I received these 2 messages, the disk was sitting connected undisturbed to the laptop. This was concerning. So then I looked both at Disk Utility and CCC and saw that HDD had 2 volumes. I NEVER created 2 volumes. The volume created first showed 11.3 GB and the one created second had 732 GB. The combined total roughly matches the “About This Mac/My Mac storage".

I left the HDD connected and set CCC to back up 1 x hour. Then I checked at each of 3-hour intervals and was shocked to see how much data it said had been copied —something like 35GB which seemed way off. I had taken some screen shots during the troubleshooting but nothing that big.

I know that there is a high failure rate and quality control problem across the board with external HDDs. (I have 3 other WD My Passport, 2 4TB and 1 2TB that haven’t had any issues with to date, famous last words; and a recently- bought 2TB Sandisk Portable SSD that I was keeping to use for TM backups of the new laptop.)

QUESTIONS:

1. How did 2 volumes get created and should I be concerned about this? (Would the HDD “disappearance” during the CCC copy process, and then the subsequent resuming of the copying after trouble shooting, have caused 2 volumes to be created?)
2. Is the above all a sign that this new HDD (just over the return date) is faulty and not a reliable copy? Should I just try making a second CCC copy on the new SSD to be safe? Wipe the WD HDD and start all over? Both?
3. Any chance it’s something between CCC and my laptop and I should do a SuperDuper backup on the remaining SSD?
4. Anything to explain how the additional 35GB worth of data would come about after CCC hourly backup with very little use in between backups? My major concern here is did everything really copy over from the initial backup or is CCC finding things missed during the initial backup? If I have close to 1TB of data on the laptop, is this perhaps due to CCC snapshots being large?
5. Given the erratic behavior is it the HDD or the cable perhaps? (I looked to see if I had a cable without an adaptor that would attach the HDD to the laptop. The output on the drive doesn’t match anything I have found among our at-home cables nor online. I think is USB generation 3.0)

Thanks to anyone who can give me perspective on next best steps before I migrate everything from the old laptop to the new using MA.

 

[Ben J.]

I know one thing; Apple recommends using macOS Extended (HFS+) on spinning disk HDD drives. APFS is meant for SSDs. I don't know if this has anything to do with your issues, though.

 

[Tyler.Schmaltz]

As someone who manages hundreds of Macs and does MA and TM on a daily basis I am not sure why people are over complicating things with 3rd party software. If you have an up to date TM backup from the old laptop you're golden. Now connect a thunderbolt cable from old one to new one might need adapter depending on age of computers and then run MA it doesn't delete anything from the old laptop. Done

 

[unkl bob]

I did this literately 12 days ago. MBA M4 to MBA M5, both 16/512. Used MA. And yes, it was kinda slow (about 225 Gb; 49 min). Yes, it copied EVERYthing. (Passwords, keys, addy books and archived mail etc.) No wires, no SSDs, no third party stuff. I then compared the content totals and was off by about 1 Gb. DARN! (not really what I said...) After 90 min of searching I found there were NEW emails, some containing files, that appeared DURING the transfer that didn't show up on the new MBA. Other than that small thing, clean and clear. Still using both for about another week. Then trimming down the MAC stable. YMMV

 

[curiousjo]

I know one thing; Apple recommends using macOS Extended (HFS+) on spinning disk HDD drives. APFS is meant for SSDs. I don't know if this has anything to do with your issues, though.

Interesting you should say that. I did use macOS Extended when formatting and storing some stuff to the other 2 Western Digital HDDs and the 1 TM backup HDD. And they, so far, have had no problem in mounting and remaining accessible in the Finder. I only used APFS on the new HDD to do the CCC backup because CCC had that in their directions, and to my knowledge, did not make a distinction between SSD and HDD formatting. Food for thought. I'll see if I'm a glutton for punishment and erase the disk and do it again. Do you know if CCC will work with macOS Extended, and whether the new MBA M5 w/Tahoe will be able to read it? Assume yes to both but...Thanks.