Best Method to Copy M1 Air to M1 Air Replacement

[wacomme]

I originally purchased the base M1 Air. However, I needed more memory so I bought the 512/16 M1 Air. I will return the base model for a refund. The 16GB RAM Air arrived yesterday - well ahead of schedule. What's the best way to transfer my files/settings/everything from one computer to the other? Migration Assistant? Time Machine? CCC? I would like a good, clean install, but retain all of my settings.

 

[chrfr]

I originally purchased the base M1 Air. However, I needed more memory so I bought the 512/16 M1 Air. I will return the base model for a refund. The 16GB RAM Air arrived yesterday - well ahead of schedule. What's the best way to transfer my files/settings/everything from one computer to the other? Migration Assistant? Time Machine? CCC? I would like a good, clean install, but retain all of my settings.

Migration Assistant is the way to go.

 

[4sallypat]

If you have both M1 next to each other, use the USB-C (TB3) charge cable between the 2 during initial setup.

If that does not work (my Intel to M1 didn't), then go ahead and setup the new M1 and use Migration Assistant (that worked for me).

 

[chrfr]

If you have both M1 next to each other, use the USB-C (TB3) charge cable between the 2 during initial setup.

If that does not work (my Intel to M1 didn't), then go ahead and setup the new M1 and use Migration Assistant (that worked for me).

The charge cable only provides USB 2.0 speeds. Migration Assistant over wifi would be dramatically faster.

 

[wacomme]

I will or can have both computers next to each other. So connecting them via cable is actually slower than wifi? Wow! So Migration Assistant is better than CCC or Time Machine? I forgot the setup, but does the computer walk me through the setup asking it I want to migrate everything to the new computer, and does it do that via Migration Assistant? Will doing this essentially clone my old M1 computer?

 

[nothingtoseehere]

I just migrated from MBP early 2015 to M1 Mac mini. What I did:

• Both Macs hooked up to the wall.
• At the first start of the new Mac, immediately say that I want to migrate from another Mac.
• New Mac was searching for sources.
• I restarted the old MBP in "Target Disk Mode" (apple.com says how to do that).
• Connected both machines with a Thunderbolt cable (TB2 to TB3 adapter in this constellation needed but I had one).
• New Mac found old Mac, asked me what to migrate, I clicked all. Things started.
• Estimation was 4 hours, took much less time (600 GB of data), no need to stay there.
• Started new Mac. I forgot to eject the old Mac before removing the cable. Alert popped up. I think I should have ejected the old Mac via Finder. Didn't think of it, but no harm so far.

I liked the procedure very much. So easy! No need to do or to install anything - Migration Assistant did all automatically. It was my first migration between two Macs but I cannot imagine that Time Machine could do better. TM is so sloooooow always!
Did not want to use WiFi as my wife had a Zoom call

 

[chrfr]

I will or can have both computers next to each other. So connecting them via cable is actually slower than wifi? Wow! So Migration Assistant is better than CCC or Time Machine? I forgot the setup, but does the computer walk me through the setup asking it I want to migrate everything to the new computer, and does it do that via Migration Assistant? Will doing this essentially clone my old M1 computer?

As I said, the charge cable only supports USB 2.0 speeds, but there are faster cables. Migration assistant is pretty automated, and yes, it'll walk you through even with the computers both on wifi. If you have a Time Machine backup you can use that. Trying to clone an M1 drive is not totally straightforward so trying to use CCC for these purposes will almost certainly end in failure.
Migration Assistant will move all your apps and data.