Trouble with Migration Assistant / TimeMachine (not copying Docs & Files)

[MalagLagoon]

I've recently reinstalled macOS Mojave on Machine A (a 2015 MacBook Pro). There are no files on Machine A - this is a completely fresh install of Mojave. On machine B (also a 2015 MacBook Pro) I have macOS Mojave installed plus all of my applications, documents and user profile that I've used for a few years.

I made an attempt to transfer only the documents and other files from machine B to machine A using Migration Assistant. In the menu of migration assistant I only checked "Other Files & Folders" and continued. Migration Assistant gave no error and acted like everything was fine - but it did complete much faster than expected. No documents were copied.

What when wrong? Is it because these are two different user profiles?

Machne A and B are not the same user account - both are for me / created by me - I'm just creating a fresh install of macOS and want to move everything over to the new install on Machine A.

Also, I want to copy all documents regardless of their extension -- but didn't really see much in the way of options other than just checking Other Files & Folders.

I'm actually going through all this hoopla to solve periodic system freezes described here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/system-freezes-2015-macbook-pro.2275404/

This is why I'm not planning on copying my profile (or applications) over from Machine B to Machine A.

-M

 

[Fishrrman]

My advice:

Download either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to use for 30 days.
You want CCC version 5 for Mojave.

Using either of the above, create a CLONE of the Machine A on an external drive.

Connect the cloned drive to Machine B.

Open Migration Assistant and migrate EVERYTHING (don't "uncheck" anything).
This will migrate:
- the non-Apple applications from the other drive
- your home folder from the other drive (it may ask if you wish to replace the NEW home folder... this is up to you.
Because it's your home folder, any "documents" or other files INSIDE the home folder will be migrated
- settings that you had set on the old mac.
- other data not IN your home folder.

I think that because you checked ONLY "other files and folders", anything inside your home folder was ignored.

Having said that....
There's ANOTHER way. It's to do things manually without migration assistant.
Again, mount the cloned backup.
Click on the icon for the drive, then bring up the get info box (command-i)
At the bottom of get info click the lock and enter your password (for the NEW Mac).
Put a check into "ignore ownership on this volume" (Sharing & Permissions)
Close get info.

Now you can copy anything you want from the backup (your OLD account) right into your new account (or anywhere else on the new drive you wish), AND, it will all "come under the ownership" of your NEW account.
This avoids permissions problems that you might get by trying to copy files from one account into another...

 

[MalagLagoon]

I bought CarbonCopyCloner a few years ago (not sure if what I bought works for Mojave). I forgot to say that I have a TimeMachine backup of Machine B already. But, purposely chose not to copy everything to AVIOD recreating the cursor/system freezing problem. I've already transferred from one machine to the other (TM restore) and the system freezing issue followed. It was my thought that there's something from my original profile or some installed software causing the system/cursor freeze issue. This is why I only wanted to copy just files (documents and other such thing) to Machine A.

 

[Weaselboy]

Machne A and B are not the same user account

That is the problem. Migration Assistant won't work for this.

Just attach the TM disk to the new Mac then option key click the TM menu bar icon and select browse other disks. Then navigate to the documents you want and drag/drop them to the new Mac.

 

[MalagLagoon]

What I ended up doing was restoring from Time Machine creating a second user profile on Machine A - the machine with the fresh install of Mojave. At the time, it was my thought that I could access data from the second user. I can't or don't know how. So, my question is this:

So, should I delete the added user profile and follow @Weaselboy's advice or, is there a way to drag my data from the user profile added by Time Machine (then delete that account)?

EDIT: Using terminal I can see the second user added - however, I don't have permissions to change into that directory. So, maybe it'd be easier to just delete the added user profile and get my data from TM. I'm fuzzy on how to explain to the computer that it's oaky to access this data even though it belongs to a different user account.

 

[Weaselboy]

In the /Users folder there is a Shared folder both accounts can access. So just copy the files to that folder then go to the other account and copy them out of there to where you want.