Can an old rMBP talk to a brand new Macbook?

[davagorn]

Hello.

I am still using a 2013 rMBP. It works pretty well, except its original battery is dying. Time for an upgrade.

I'll get a MBA15 or MBP M3 or something. Doesn't really matter...they'll be stupidly fast and more capable than what I have now.

Say the new laptop arrives. Can I create a network (wired or wireless, I don't care) where I can drag and drop stuff from my old laptop to my new laptop? The ports seem to have completely changed. If it helps, my old laptop is running Mojave 10.14.3.

I know some things will sync right over with iCloud, like photos, music, etc. But I have a bunch of random files and movies that would be nice to share between the two.

Thanks!

 

[thejadedmonkey]

You could use AirDrop, although it might take a while.

 

[davagorn]

You could use AirDrop, although it might take a while.

I thought about that. I don't have a huge rush for speed, as I'll have both laptops for a while. But I bet AirDrop would be pretty slow still, for scores of gigabytes? Maybe it would be fine, and my question is already answered...

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Do you keep a backup drive?
Created with time machine, CarbonCopyCloner, or SuperDuper?

If so, THAT is the easiest "pathway to migration" when the time comes.

Connect your external backup drive BEFORE you open the lid for the very first time.
Then, as you run through the setup, setup assistant will ask if you have a backup?
So... "point the way" for setup assistant to find and "digest" the contents of the backup.

It will present you with a list of stuff to migrate.
I'd either migrate everything, or... EXCLUDE apps (which may be old), but migrate accounts and data.

That's the easiest way to do it...

 

[davagorn]

OP:

Do you keep a backup drive?
Created with time machine, CarbonCopyCloner, or SuperDuper?

If so, THAT is the easiest "pathway to migration" when the time comes.

Connect your external backup drive BEFORE you open the lid for the very first time.
Then, as you run through the setup, setup assistant will ask if you have a backup?
So... "point the way" for setup assistant to find and "digest" the contents of the backup.

It will present you with a list of stuff to migrate.
I'd either migrate everything, or... EXCLUDE apps (which may be old), but migrate accounts and data.

That's the easiest way to do it...

Thanks, I'll look into that. I don't keep a cloned/bootable backup. I just have all my important docs/photos/etc. backed up with iCloud, and everything else I figure is software that I can redownload.

But there were a few things that would be nice to just "drag over" to the new machine. Maybe easiest is just getting a 256 thumb drive. Keep it simple.

 

[svenmany]

Your use case is just to casually grab a few files and folders now and again. It's so trivial to do with file sharing. It's been part of the OS forever. I use it all the time from my 2023 M3 connected to my 2013 Intel.

On the old machine, open System Preferences/Sharing and make sure the "File Sharing" checkbox is checked. On the new machine, in the Finder sidebar, click on Network. You'll see your old machine listed there. Connect using credentials that are known to the old machine. You'll have access to all the files and folders that that user has access to. You'll get an icon on your desktop representing the "share" you connect to (maybe the user's home folder or the whole disk, whatever you chose when you connected).

This all assumes the two machines are on the same local network. It's ever so slightly more complicated if they are on different networks. Certainly, if the two machines are connected to the same wireless router, you'll have no problem. One slight wrinkle could crop up if you use a "guest" network on the wireless router - probably not worth discussing unless you're interested.

You could also play with screen sharing. You can drag files right out of the shared screen onto you local computer. You'd enable that with the "Screen Sharing" Sharing checkbox.

Of course you can do this in either direction. You can connect to your new machine from your old machine in roughly the same way.

 

[davagorn]

Your use case is just to casually grab a few files and folders now and again. It's so trivial to do with file sharing. It's been part of the OS forever. I use it all the time from my 2023 M3 connected to my 2013 Intel.

On the old machine, open System Preferences/Sharing and make sure the "File Sharing" checkbox is checked. On the new machine, in the Finder sidebar, click on Network. You'll see your old machine listed there. Connect using credentials that are known to the old machine. You'll have access to all the files and folders that that user has access to. You'll get an icon on your desktop representing the "share" you connect to (maybe the user's home folder or the whole disk, whatever you chose when you connected).

This all assumes the two machines are on the same local network. It's ever so slightly more complicated if they are on different networks. Certainly, if the two machines are connected to the same wireless router, you'll have no problem. One slight wrinkle could crop up if you use a "guest" network on the wireless router - probably not worth discussing unless you're interested.

You could also play with screen sharing. You can drag files right out of the shared screen onto you local computer. You'd enable that with the "Screen Sharing" Sharing checkbox.

Of course you can do this in either direction. You can connect to your new machine from your old machine in roughly the same way.

Hey, thanks so much!

 

[waw74]

you can also use migration assistant, it's apple's tool built just for this, it'll copy over your accounts, apps and most of your settings and stuff. the Macs will make their own wifi network between them and copy everything for you. (if your older Mac is El Capitan or older, I think it will use your house wifi instead of making their own)

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Use Migration Assistant to copy your files from another computer.

support.apple.com

 

[wonderings]

You can direct connect still, I do this with an old Core 2 Duo Mac Mini that runs specific software for a large format poster printer I have at him. To upgrade the software it would be around $3K so it could be used on newer machines so I just opted to keep the Mini going as is, no updates, it does one thing. If file sharing and screen sharing is on on the old machine you will see it on the new machine under Network places. When you click to connect it will ask for username and password. As this is your computer just enter in that computers username and password. You have full access to all files and folders. You can also screen share, so when again clicking on that network place you should have an option to share screen. It works really simple, and with a shared screen you can drag and drop between them almost like you were running a virtual machine.

 

[MapleBeercules]

Hello.

I am still using a 2013 rMBP. It works pretty well, except its original battery is dying. Time for an upgrade.

I'll get a MBA15 or MBP M3 or something. Doesn't really matter...they'll be stupidly fast and more capable than what I have now.

Say the new laptop arrives. Can I create a network (wired or wireless, I don't care) where I can drag and drop stuff from my old laptop to my new laptop? The ports seem to have completely changed. If it helps, my old laptop is running Mojave 10.14.3.

I know some things will sync right over with iCloud, like photos, music, etc. But I have a bunch of random files and movies that would be nice to share between the two.

Thanks!

As long as your device is connected to the network and has access to Icloud, the migration software will move it for you. During the setup process on the new macbook just follow on screen to migrate data from old device.

Best of luck with the new mac