used migration assistant on a very slow imac, but the result is a very slow new imac

[berbes]

hello all mac gurus. i had a verry slow 10 year old imac. bought a new imac used migration asisstant and the initial message said it all migrated, but sign-on was also very slow (like the old imac) and now it says an unknown error occurred.

when dealing with a possibly damaged/virused imac, what is the best way to get the old info over to the new imac without taking the "bad" parts?

THANK YOU!!

 

[rpmurray]

Before you go through a lot of hassle, have you tried starting up your Mac in Safe Mode?

 

[berbes]

no. what would that do? thanks for the reply!!

 

[tom123]

Have you ever run extensions? Try the safe mode it’s fast & easy.

 

[berbes]

you mean to run the migraton after booting into safe mode (on both machines)?

 

[rpmurray]

no. what would that do? thanks for the reply!!

Starting up your Mac in safe mode can help you identify whether issues you’re experiencing are caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up, and it also clears the caches. The idea is to see if a vanilla system has the same problems. If it doesn't then it means something you've installed is causing this. In that case you may want to run EtreCheckPro and follow their recommendations.

 

[berbes]

thank you SO much!!! will do that.

 

[chabig]

Tell us about the new iMac. What year? What model?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Try this (it's easy and won't hurt anything).

Go to system preferences/users & groups.

In the lower left, click the lock icon and enter your password.

Now, click the "+" sign to create a new account.

IMPORTANT:
Make sure you give it administrative privileges.
Give it a name and password acceptable to you.

Once this is done, LOG OUT of your old (slow) account, and log INTO your NEW account.

Try a few things that way -- open apps, browsers, etc.
Does it "feel any faster"?

If it DOES, then the problems you are having are almost certainly "localized" in your OLD account -- not in the Mac OS itself.

Again, try this -- takes only a few minutes.
Let us know what you find.

 

[berbes]

hello, the old pc is a iMac 21.5" late 2012 running 10.13.6. the new one is a sweet iMac 24" M1, 2021 running 11.4. all the migration did was move the painfully slow O/S to the new one. i'm thinking i should just reset the new one to factory fresh, then just move the data over from the dying iMac, then install the programs.

unless, anyone has a better suggestion? ) thanks for helping me stumble thru this project!

 

[berbes]

OP:

Try this (it's easy and won't hurt anything).

Go to system preferences/users & groups.

In the lower left, click the lock icon and enter your password.

Now, click the "+" sign to create a new account.

IMPORTANT:
Make sure you give it administrative privileges.
Give it a name and password acceptable to you.

Once this is done, LOG OUT of your old (slow) account, and log INTO your NEW account.

Try a few things that way -- open apps, browsers, etc.
Does it "feel any faster"?

If it DOES, then the problems you are having are almost certainly "localized" in your OLD account -- not in the Mac OS itself.

Again, try this -- takes only a few minutes.
Let us know what you find.

i sure will! thank you for the suggestion!

 

[rpmurray]

I'm thinking i should just reset the new one to factory fresh, then just move the data over from the dying iMac, then install the programs.

That's generally my plan when I move from one Mac to another. It's amazing the stuff you find that you no longer need or use, so it gives you a chance to prune the deadwood.

If you go this route you may also want to check if your programs could use updating. I'd recommend MacUpdater to do this job once you've moved over the programs that you want to keep.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"all the migration did was move the painfully slow O/S to the new one."

NO.
This IS NOT what happened.

Migration assistant/setup assistant DOES NOT "move the OS".
That gets "left behind" on the old Mac.

What it DOES move are your 3rd-party applications, your account, your data, and your personal settings.

I'm going to guess that what's "slowing you down" is something (we don't know what) that is in your user account, your settings, or the way your apps are running (or possibly misbehaving).

That's why I suggested above to create a NEW, temporary account.
If you log into the new account and the performance "jumps up" to where it should be, that would confirm the above.

It can be a problem to track down JUST WHAT in the old account is the source of the problem.

Good luck!

 

[rpmurray]

It can be a problem to track down JUST WHAT in the old account is the source of the problem.

That's why I suggested booting into Safe Mode and using Etrecheck. Another suggestion is to open Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder) and sort by % CPU in descending order. Heck, I just found out that on my iMac the Apple Mail app is taking nine times the amount of CPU that my whole Windows 11 VM is using.

 

[ADGrant]

OP wrote:
"all the migration did was move the painfully slow O/S to the new one."

NO.
This IS NOT what happened.

Migration assistant/setup assistant DOES NOT "move the OS".
That gets "left behind" on the old Mac.

The M1 iMac can't even run the same OS that the old 21" iMac was running.

 

[berbes]

OP wrote:
"all the migration did was move the painfully slow O/S to the new one."

NO.
This IS NOT what happened.

Migration assistant/setup assistant DOES NOT "move the OS".
That gets "left behind" on the old Mac.

What it DOES move are your 3rd-party applications, your account, your data, and your personal settings.

I'm going to guess that what's "slowing you down" is something (we don't know what) that is in your user account, your settings, or the way your apps are running (or possibly misbehaving).

That's why I suggested above to create a NEW, temporary account.
If you log into the new account and the performance "jumps up" to where it should be, that would confirm the above.

It can be a problem to track down JUST WHAT in the old account is the source of the problem.

Good luck!

so true. i meant to say the effects of the old mac was moved into the new environment. i am still so noobish on macs, especially some of the basic stuff. i really appreciate the time you took out to help me on this!

 

[rmihai]

I have the same problem.The new Mac is very slow and laggy it is wors than the old Mac book pro 2015.I make a test user and work perfect.It is frustrating to make a clean instal and reinstal all the apps i have.Do you know any fix for this?
Mac pro 2019 with Monterey.

 

[HDFan]

I make a test user and work perfect.

That implies that there is a problem with the user configuration.

First thing to try is to remove all Login Items in System Preferences. If the problem goes away add them back one by one until you find the culprit.