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Transfering data to new MacBook Air - how?!

M

Mildredop

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2013
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I have a 2017 MacBook Air and now a 2023 MacBook Air. I want to transfer most files (not all) to my new Mac.

Apple's website says this about Taget Disk Mode when trasfering between two Mac computers:
"If either of the computers has macOS 11 or later installed [both are running OS13], you must connect the two computers using a Thunderbolt cable [instead of a USB-C cable]"

So I ordered a Thunderbolt cable at great expense and neither of my Macs have the necessary connection.

So what on Earth do I do?! And why do Apple insist on me using a Thunderbolt cable if even their newest computers don't accept Thunderbolt cables?
 
I believe a 2017 Air has a Thunderbolt 2 port & a 2023 : TB3 over USB-C.
An adapter + TB2 cable should work :

www.apple.com

Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter

Effortlessly connect your Mac to a Thunderbolt 2 device with the Apple Thunderbolt 3 Adapter. Buy now at apple.com
www.apple.com

www.apple.com

Apple Thunderbolt Cable (0.5 m) - White

Apple Thunderbolt Cable lets you conduct fast data transfers by connecting Thunderbolt-enabled devices to your Mac. Get fast, free shipping.
www.apple.com
 
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ab22 said:
I believe a 2017 Air has a Thunderbolt 2 port & a 2023 : TB3 over USB-C.
An adapter + TB2 cable should work :

www.apple.com

Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter

Effortlessly connect your Mac to a Thunderbolt 2 device with the Apple Thunderbolt 3 Adapter. Buy now at apple.com
www.apple.com

www.apple.com

Apple Thunderbolt Cable (0.5 m) - White

Apple Thunderbolt Cable lets you conduct fast data transfers by connecting Thunderbolt-enabled devices to your Mac. Get fast, free shipping.
www.apple.com
Click to expand...
My old Air has 2x USB-C, no Thunderbolt. Until I opened the box for the cable, I thought Thunderbolt was Apple's name for a special USB-C cable.

I'm not spending £100 on two adapters.
 
BaggieBoy said:
Sure they do, Thunderbolt 3 & 4 just have USB-C connectors. You probably purchased an old style Thunderbolt (1 or 2) cable which had a different connector
Click to expand...
I bought a Thunderbolt 2 connector. FFS - so I need one of the much more expensive TB 3 or 4. What a ridiculous and confusing system. USB-C cables that aren't USB-C but are actually Thunderbolt with USB-C connectors, unless you buy a different Thunderbolt cable that doesn't have USB-C ends.

What's wrong with one of the many, many USB-C cables I already have??
 
Mildredop said:
My old Air has 2x USB-C, no Thunderbolt. Until I opened the box for the cable, I thought Thunderbolt was Apple's name for a special USB-C cable.

I'm not spending £100 on two adapters.
Click to expand...
If the old air has USB-C there's no need for an adapter :

Thunderbolt 3 USB‑C Cable 0.8 m - Apple

Apple Store Search Results
www.apple.com

although even 'USB-C charge' cables will often work for data, albeit not necessarily at the high speeds of a Thunderbolt connection. Try what you have & see; or transfer from a Time Machine or other back up drive , if you have one.
 
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Mildredop said:
My old Air has 2x USB-C, no Thunderbolt. Until I opened the box for the cable, I thought Thunderbolt was Apple's name for a special USB-C cable.

I'm not spending £100 on two adapters.
Click to expand...

The 2017 MacBook Air has 2x USB-A ports (which are USB3) and one Thunderbolt 2 port.
 
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Not sure why everyone is complicating things. Just use migration assistant. Both laptops just need to be on the same network wired or wireless. A thunderbolt cable between the 2 devices will be the quickest but migration assiant over wireless or ethernet works just as well. I use migration assistant daily on the hundreds of apple devices i manage.
 
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Tyler.Schmaltz said:
Not sure why everyone is complicating things. Just use migration assistant. Both laptops just need to be on the same network wired or wireless. A thunderbolt cable between the 2 devices will be the quickest but migration assiant over wireless or ethernet works just as well. I use migration assistant daily on the hundreds of apple devices i manage.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm with you. Migration assistant works over wireless now, but even a couple USB C to Ethernet adapters would make this simple and cheap.
 
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Tyler.Schmaltz said:
Not sure why everyone is complicating things. Just use migration assistant. Both laptops just need to be on the same network wired or wireless. A thunderbolt cable between the 2 devices will be the quickest but migration assiant over wireless or ethernet works just as well. I use migration assistant daily on the hundreds of apple devices i manage.
Click to expand...
This is what I was going to say to. A Time Machine backup is another option. External drives are cheap and it's nice having backup options.
 
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MisterSavage said:
This is what I was going to say to. A Time Machine backup is another option. External drives are cheap and it's nice having backup options.
Click to expand...
This would be my recommendation as well. The literal first thing I'd do is back up the old Mac to Time Machine, then I'd set up the new one by running Migration Assistant and connecting that backup drive. It's a piece of cake and the new Mac will walk you through all the steps as part of the setup process.
 
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ignatius345 said:
This would be my recommendation as well. The literal first thing I'd do is back up the old Mac to Time Machine, then I'd set up the new one by running Migration Assistant and connecting that backup drive. It's a piece of cake and the new Mac will walk you through all the steps as part of the setup process.
Click to expand...
Yeah I had a time when the Apple Store had to completely wipe my drive from a botched OS upgrade and when I restored from my Time Machine backup it was like nothing had happened.
 
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Mildredop said:
I have a 2017 MacBook Air and now a 2023 MacBook Air. I want to transfer most files (not all) to my new Mac.

Apple's website says this about Taget Disk Mode when trasfering between two Mac computers:
"If either of the computers has macOS 11 or later installed [both are running OS13], you must connect the two computers using a Thunderbolt cable [instead of a USB-C cable]"

So I ordered a Thunderbolt cable at great expense and neither of my Macs have the necessary connection.

So what on Earth do I do?! And why do Apple insist on me using a Thunderbolt cable if even their newest computers don't accept Thunderbolt cables?
Click to expand...

Both machines should support Thunderbolt 3. The 2023 should support Thunderbolt 4.

I do this regularly with machines 10 years apart. I'm not sure what the issue seems to be but I would recommend putting the old machine in TGM. Apple did change some of the ways to do this, so you need to follow the directions fully with the old machine totally off.
 
I chose a clean, manual install copying my stuff from my 2017 Air to a M2 Mini. Could have gone to Time Machine or Migration Assistant, but I also didn't want to accidentally 'import' any old issues into the new machine.

Had manual backups on an external drive of my Docs, Photos, Movies, etc (none of which I kept in Apple's proprietary apps on my Air, but rather, in personal folders in my User Folder), while a folder also existed there for software and their various activation codes. Simply copied the personal folders to same location on M2, and did gentle installs of apps I needed - some of which I discovered wouldn't install on Ventura (from Monterey). Good to know which ones as I went along. Later sought out newer versions.

Signed into my Accounts for Mail and everything showed up there, too.

Might have taken longer than with either Time Machine or Migration Assistant, but I've also had no issues with any of the apps or files.

No reason similar actions wouldn't work for you.
 
Mildredop said:
I have a 2017 MacBook Air and now a 2023 MacBook Air. I want to transfer most files (not all) to my new Mac.

Apple's website says this about Taget Disk Mode when trasfering between two Mac computers:
"If either of the computers has macOS 11 or later installed [both are running OS13], you must connect the two computers using a Thunderbolt cable [instead of a USB-C cable]"

So I ordered a Thunderbolt cable at great expense and neither of my Macs have the necessary connection.

So what on Earth do I do?! And why do Apple insist on me using a Thunderbolt cable if even their newest computers don't accept Thunderbolt cables?
Click to expand...

As others pointed out, Migration Assistant is your friend. It can do Mac->Mac over wireless or via a Time Machine backup. I'm not sure a 2017 would work with a USB - A -> C in Target Disk Mode (holding T key during reboot) to allow using a cable to transfer.
 
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Why not use an external USB drive?

Edit: OP never said anything about migration. He just wants to copy lots of files.
A simple USB stick will do.
 
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Tyler.Schmaltz said:
Not sure why everyone is complicating things. Just use migration assistant. Both laptops just need to be on the same network wired or wireless. A thunderbolt cable between the 2 devices will be the quickest but migration assiant over wireless or ethernet works just as well. I use migration assistant daily on the hundreds of apple devices i manage.
Click to expand...
I was bewildered that OP has done some research and didn't come across migration assistant, and then I bunch of answered came without mentioning it. I assumed that's the first option people consider. I thought I must have misunderstood something.
 
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Mildredop said:
I have a 2017 MacBook Air and now a 2023 MacBook Air. I want to transfer most files (not all) to my new Mac.

Apple's website says this about Taget Disk Mode when trasfering between two Mac computers:
"If either of the computers has macOS 11 or later installed [both are running OS13], you must connect the two computers using a Thunderbolt cable [instead of a USB-C cable]"

So I ordered a Thunderbolt cable at great expense and neither of my Macs have the necessary connection.

So what on Earth do I do?! And why do Apple insist on me using a Thunderbolt cable if even their newest computers don't accept Thunderbolt cables?
Click to expand...
You need a Thunderbolt 1/2 cable and a Thunderbolt 3/4 male to Thunderbolt 1/2 female adapter. Apple still sells the latter, at the very least. They may still sell the former as well. That's how you do it using Target Disk Mode.

I'd strongly consider manually moving your data over which, while not the most efficient method, can be done over AirDrop or over your network. Using the Migration Assistant to move data over between two Macs, running different macOS releases and across the Intel to Apple Silicon divide is only likely to make things needlessly messy as you bring over cruft from your older machine.
 
Get an external SSD. Using network will limit to 125 MB/s max with Gigabit and you would be lucky to get that on WiFi. A simple external SSD at USB 3 speeds can reach much faster and save you time. Even with the double time of copying and pasting to target system it will still be faster. And you will get an added benefit of having your files on a backup drive!

If you don't want to get a drive, I don't know how fast a direct Thunderbolt connection would be but that would be my second choice.

For me, I don't mind using the physical network since I have most of the network on 10Gbps and some of it at 40Gbps. Wifi is still horrible even with WiFi 6E.
 
Tyler.Schmaltz said:
Not sure why everyone is complicating things. Just use migration assistant. Both laptops just need to be on the same network wired or wireless. A thunderbolt cable between the 2 devices will be the quickest but migration assiant over wireless or ethernet works just as well. I use migration assistant daily on the hundreds of apple devices i manage.
Click to expand...
Migration assistant will migrate everything. When I buy a new Mac I like to take the opportunity to have a clear out and transfer only what I want (and prevent transferring any junk/cookies etc etc I don't need).
 
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