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when and when not to use migration assistance

wfriedwald

wfriedwald

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 1, 2017
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I am gradually switching from my 2018 Mac Mini to my (2020?) M1 MacBook Air.

I already have installed most of the major programs that I use most regularly.

But there are still a whole lot that I haven't installed.

so question: would this be a good use of the MIGRATION ASSISTANT?

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Grateful as always for any feedback.

Yes! thanks!

w
 
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thank you!

so I guess there's no way to use MIGRATION ASSISTANT to copy over individual apps along with all the licenses? that's the headache!

But thank you for the feedback, that is, alas, the answer I was expecting - not hoping for, but expecting.

thanks again.

W
 
Not individually. MA is pretty much all or nothing with apps. Even then, MS Office and Adobe apps almost always recognize they are on a new machine, and make your reregister.

If you have a lot of non MS/Adobe apps to bring over, you could go to recovery and wipe the drive, then reinstall the OS from scratch. Then on the first start, tell it to import using MA.
 
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Another app that has horribly aggressive copy protection is Final Draft. If you make the mistake of wiping your old machine without deactivating it, it will not activate on the new one and you'll have to email them about it. (And, if my experience is typical, endure a condescending lecture from their tech support about it.)
 
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thanks for all the excellent feedback!

Now, of course, I am regretting not being more thorough about saving the license info for all these apps.

Which begs the question: is there a recommended app that does save all this license info?

thanks!

W
 
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Migration assistant has gotten better the last few years. I've used it to migrate from Intel to ARM, from Sierra to Catalina, Big Sur to Ventura, so, big jumps, and I find it totally trustworthy. And incredibly useful. Licenses, passwords, bookmarks, permissions, settings, most everything that would take me days to restore, is done in a few minutes. Of course, there is always some small things you need to re-enable, some security settings f.ex. And some things might need to be updated.

I never had a problem with Lightroom/Photoshop after migrating, but Avid Pro Tools, one of my main apps will always give a horrid "This app is broken. Reinstall it."-message when opening it. But the fix is easy - don't double-click to open it, right-click and use "Open…" in the context menu. Next time it will open on double-click.
 
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wfriedwald said:
I am gradually switching from my 2018 Mac Mini to my (2020?) M1 MacBook Air.

I already have installed most of the major programs that I use most regularly.

But there are still a whole lot that I haven't installed.

so question: would this be a good use of the MIGRATION ASSISTANT?

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Grateful as always for any feedback.

Yes! thanks!

w
Click to expand...
Only use migration assistant during the initial setup - if you've already created a user account, it's too late. Otherwise permissions end up being a total mess.

It will copy over licensed software, but if those programs are linked to specific hardware (e.g. itunes), you'll need to reactivate it.

I do use it every time I change Macs - saves a ton of time, and it's the only way to bring over all your email/calendar/contacts (if you use on-your-mac folders). But again, I do it right away when prompted to 'migrate from another mac'.

One tip: If you do that, use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old machine to a USB C 3.2 or thunderbolt SSD drive (suggest encrypted of course), then migrate from that drive. It'll bring over 2TB in < 1 hour. Target disk mode is orders of magnitude slower, and wifi slower still. Haven't figured out why Apple hasn't fixed the target disk mode speed bug, but it's been there for a number of years. Bonus: you then have a backup of the old machine, so if you wipe it to sell, and then the new one dies, you're not totally out of luck.
 
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I can imagine there are issues migrating from intel to apple silicon versions of software. Duplicated software etc... has anyone had any such issues?
 
wfriedwald said:
thanks for all the excellent feedback!

Now, of course, I am regretting not being more thorough about saving the license info for all these apps.

Which begs the question: is there a recommended app that does save all this license info?

thanks!

W
Click to expand...
I'm already using 1Password, and it has a built-in template for software licenses.

If I wasn't, though, I'd probably just store them in Notes.
 
wfriedwald said:
I am gradually switching from my 2018 Mac Mini to my (2020?) M1 MacBook Air.

I already have installed most of the major programs that I use most regularly.

But there are still a whole lot that I haven't installed.

so question: would this be a good use of the MIGRATION ASSISTANT?

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Grateful as always for any feedback.

Yes! thanks!

w
Click to expand...
Personally, I am not a fan of Migration Assistant. It does a good job at what it does, but what it does can often lead to cruft and stuff moving over that would've either been better to have moved over manually or not at all. It also gets really murky with licensed software with esoteric copyright protection schemes.

I use generally only use it when I'm going from the same OS version to the same OS version and generally on the same hardware. Like, if my SSD dies (or, in the case of most MacBook Pros made since 2016, if the logic board needs to be replaced), I'll get it replaced, I'll use it to put my data back. Since, I'm really just recovering from a speed-bump at that point, I don't have to worry about cruft from computers past moving over.

In your specific case, I'd advise against using Migration Assistant as you are changing over from Intel to Apple Silicon as a part of this move and there's a ton of stuff you're likely apt to move over that just shouldn't be moved over and/or won't work. Since you're only really talking about moving over apps, I'd say that it's probably better to just reinstall them on your new machine.

Also, yes, the M1 MacBook Air came out in 2020 and is therefore a 2020 model.
 
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wfriedwald said:
I am gradually switching from my 2018 Mac Mini to my (2020?) M1 MacBook Air.

I already have installed most of the major programs that I use most regularly.

But there are still a whole lot that I haven't installed.

so question: would this be a good use of the MIGRATION ASSISTANT?

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Grateful as always for any feedback.

Yes! thanks!

w
Click to expand...

When to use Migration Assistant:
1. Adding machines to your user profile. e.g. Adding a laptop when you have a desktop.
2. Replacing a machine with basic apps and everyday use. e.g. All your apps are App Store apps with maybe Microsoft Office or Adobe CC.

When not to use Migration Assistant:
1. Anytime you’re moving from a machine with a different chipset.
2. Anytime you have small developer apps that may be outdated.
3. Anytime your library is filled with conflicting preferences (lots of old apps or uninstalled apps).

Basically you want to ensure that your new machine doesn’t carryover all the “junk” from your old machine.
 
Whether to use Migration Assistant or load everything manually is a very personal choice. There are plenty of people who will say they always use Migration Assistant and never load from scratch and they have no problems and cruft is harmless and uses negligible space.

I am more in cruft-is-harmless camp but sometimes load from scratch. After a few years I have installed apps I no longer use, and so start from fresh minimum install and only load apps as I need them.

Note that "cruft" can only exist on the -Data volume, not on the Signed Sealed System Volume which is verified every boot. If it deviates by a single byte the machine will not boot. If in doubt about whether to migrate or load from scratch you can always start off Migrating and if not happy with the results, return the machine to factory state with "Erase all Content and Settings" very quickly and safely and then load from scratch...no need to use Disk Utility to erase anything. You have not lost anything by trying Migration first.
 
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OP:

If your backups are good you could do this:

1. Use the "erase all content and settings" option (system settings) to restore the MB back to "out of the box" condition.

WARNING: this will erase ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION and DATA that is on the MB right now.

2. Now it should boot to the setup assistant "as if it were brand new".

3. Next, connect your backup drive.

4. Begin setup. When setup assistant asks if you wish to migrate, YES.

5. Point the way to the backup for setup assistant and give it time to digest everything.

6. Setup assistant will present you with a list of stuff to migrate. I suggest you just accept it all.

7. Let SA do its job. When done, you should see your login screen, just as before.

IMPORTANT:
The "state" the MB will be in after doing this will represent "where you were at the last backup".
If you've been "migrating piecemeal", some things may not be there.

Whether you wish to do this is up to you.

But it would have been "the proper way to migrate" when the MB was brand new.
 
Migration Assistant gives you the option to copy all or just Applications or User Data. It will not install over existing apps. It should work fine for your goals using that option.
You will have to look into the apps moved to understand whether they are x86_64 or Universal and whether there exists an Apple Silicon option for the X86_65 apps. You might have to download the most fitting version in those cases.
 
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