Best way to transfer files to new MBA

[stephg]

It's been awhile since I've done this so I'd appreciate some help. I'm going from a 2012 iMac to a new MBA M2. I don't want to transfer everything over from the iMac. I want to transfer some photos, music (ripped from CDs), some documents (tax records, PDFs, etc.) I have an external hard drive I have some of the stuff backed up on. It's not a Time Machine backup because I think that takes the whole drive? I really don't want to transfer a bunch of old stuff from the iMac, so I'm wondering should I just set it up as a new computer and transfer stuff manually to the external drive and then to the MacBook? Or can I connect them directly but only transfer some of the stuff?

Also, my external drive is a portable hard drive (not SSD). I'm thinking of getting a SSD backup drive. Good idea? My external drive is 6-7 years old but not used much lately. I used to use it between home and school a lot though. I'm not sure what the life span is on them. I read on here somewhere that the Samsung t7 shield is a good one and the 1TB is $99 right now. Any advice on that?

Thanks for any help! I'm excited to get the MacBook but I want to start out right and not have it cluttered up with old stuff I don't need anymore.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Lots of ways to do this.

You could clean out debris on the old machine and use the Migration Assistant to transfer your entire user account. No OS, applications, or other cruft would come over (unless you select it).

You coulld use the external drive as you mentioned, if you have very limited data, and you know exactly what you want to leave behind.

If you have any cloud sharing accounts (iCloud, OneDrive, etc.) that is safe way to move data, if perhaps a bit slower depending on your internet connection. Pretty much the same manual process as an external drive.

As for externals, yeah, SSDs are great. Besides the enhanced speed, they are much more rugged (HDs can me easily damaged from shock or vibration when in use). Modern SSDs typically have a very long life span...they are typically worn by excessive reads/writes, not time or while idle. There are expecptions, so keeping at least one backup of everything important is still an imperitive.

One down side is that when SSDs fail, they typically shut off. Poof. Dead. Very little chance of recovering data...whereas hard drives will often cough up blood for a while before kicking the bucket.

 

[Madonepro]

I did something similar a few years back, but for me it was two MacBook Pro's. My music and movies were in the Movies and Music folders on my Mac, and I use iCloud for documents, as you get a local copy which is continually updated on iCloud.
Using this Apple support page https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1413/mac I connected an ethernet cable to my older Mac and using an ethernet adaptor, connected to my new MBP. Much faster transfer I found.

 

[Basic75]

You can use an external drive for both Time Machine and as a regular drive at the same time. If you open your Time Machine drive in the Finder you'll see it's just like any other drive. There'll just be some Backups.backupdb or similarly named folder used by Time Machine that you should refrain from modifying manually (looking into it in a read-only fashion is perfectly safe).

 

[Basic75]

I'm much in favour of selectively copying over the data that you need. However you need to keep at least one or two backups. If I were you I'd buy a new backup drive that is large enough to keep a backup of your old computer and of your new computer. Once you have current backups of your old computer on both the old and new backup drive you can put the old backup drive in a cupboard for emergencies (in a month or so you can (wipe it and) start putting a second backup of your new computer on it). Then use the new backup drive to get your stuff onto your new computer, and once you are all set up you could activate Time Machine with disabled automatic backups on your new computer with this new backup drive. Then as often as necessary you plug it in and start a Time Machine backup cycle. A single backup drive is not really a backup because if something goes wrong while you are updating the backup you might destroy the copy on the computer and the currently being-written-to backup at the same time. But you can use the new backup drive for daily or weekly, and the old one for weekly or monthly backups, depending on how important your data is. Speaking of which, if your livelihood depends on your data you need two additional drives that you keep somewhere else, a friend or relative not in the same block, so that a home fire doesn't destroy everything. You then alternate between updating these off-site backup drives in addition to your local ones. And that concludes my TED talk on home-made backups.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
"I have an external hard drive I have some of the stuff backed up on. It's not a Time Machine backup because I think that takes the whole drive? I really don't want to transfer a bunch of old stuff from the iMac, so I'm wondering should I just set it up as a new computer and transfer stuff manually to the external drive and then to the MacBook? "

This will work.

However, you must realize that all the "settings" from your old account will likely be "left behind" if you do a manual migration.

There are ways to manually migrate settings as well, but that's getting complicated. That's because -some- settings are stored in home/library/preferences but others may be stored in places like home/library/application support, etc.

That in itself isn't that big a deal. You just "re-do" your settings on the new Mac.

VERY IMPORTANT:
When you manually migrate, you MUST take action to prevent permissions conflicts.

Even though you set up an account on the new Mac that has the same username and password as the old one, the new Mac will not "recognize" files from your old Mac as "belonging to your new account". It will see them as "alien".

The easiest way to overcome permissions issues:
a. Connect the "transfer drive" (the one that has your stuff from the old Mac) to the new Mac
b. Let the icon mount on the desktop, but do not "open" it yet
c. Click on the icon ONE TIME to select it, then bring up the "get info" box for it (type "command-i").
d. At the bottom of get info, click the lock and enter your NEW password (the one you're using on the NEW Mac)
e. Put a check into "ignore ownership on this volume" (sharing and permissions)
f. Close get info.

Now, whatever you copy from the transfer drive (files from your previous account) to the NEW Mac will "fall under the ownership" of your NEW account.

Hence, no permissions issues.

I suggest you print out this reply and keep it for reference.

 

[stephg]

Thanks for all the great information! I didn't know that about permissions. I will definitely refer back to all of these posts as I decide how to go about this. I appreciate the help!

 

[hobowankenobi]

FYI: One of the beneifts of using Migration Assistant is that permissions are handled, unlike some manual moves.

 

[stephg]

Okay, so I'm thinking trash all the stuff I don't want out of my user account before I transfer. Then use migration assistant to to transfer my user profile, documents, music, and photos. (And anything else I decide I want.) I will keep the old iMac for awhile so there's no worry about losing anything since I can still access it. That should make sure permissions are okay. I don't need to transfer any apps that I can think of right now. I should be fine downloading things Acrobat, etc. Does this sound right? Thank you!

 

[kitKAC]

Sounds like a plan!

 

[Fishrrman]

"Okay, so I'm thinking trash all the stuff I don't want out of my user account before I transfer. Then use migration assistant to to transfer my user profile, documents, music, and photos."

This should work.
You could either trash the unwanted files outright, OR... "archive" them to another drive to get them out-of-the-way.

 

[stephg]

Well, I'm posting this from my new MBA so I'm happy to report that it all went well! I used Migration Assistant and everything transferred over fine. I'm still getting used to everything and getting it set up, but I love it! Thanks again for all the help!