Heads up: currently impossible to use migration assistant to migrate a 2019 MBP case sensitive APFS formatted hard drive to M3 MBA

[smileman]

After spending many hours with at front line and then three Apple senior technical support staff, I was just informed of a "known issue" that prevents migration from my 2019 MBP with a case sensitive hard drive to a brand new 2024 M3 MacBook Air.

I have lost close to a day of my life troubleshooting with the following flow:

-turn off FileVault
-reformatting my new M3 Air hard drive to "case sensitive"
-having to then reinstall Sonoma (and not Sequoia, even though the Air was manufactured late-October and according to one tech should offer Sequoia as the reinstall option)
-then having to upgrade back to Sequoia as you cannot migrate from a newer OS to and older OS
-only to be confronted with the same error (migration impossible because the MBP is case sensitive and the new Air won't remain case sensitive for some reason)

So, at some point during the above process, the hard drive on my new M3 Air seems to revert back to plain APFS and is no longer case sensitive.

Any thoughts on how this is happening or whether there is a way to prevent the hard drive reverting to plain APFS?

The most frustrating part about this whole experience is that apparently this is a known issue to Apple, meaning if I had been warned I wouldn't have lost a day of my life.

To Apple's credit, all the techs were wonderfully patient and really trying their best. And they offered me a free HomePod mini for my trouble.

But I'm still not sure whether I should just return the MBA while I'm in the return window through Jan 15th and hope they fix the migration at a later date? Or bite the bullet and do a fresh manual install of everything?

Both the senior tech and I already sent all of the above through Apple's formal feedback channels. No hoping someone here has a magic idea to make easy migration possible?

Before this incident, migration assistant has generally been magical and worked flawlessly for me for many years and has made upgrading much easier (and more frequent).

 

[Bigwaff]

So, at some point during the above process, the hard drive on my new M3 Air seems to revert back to plain APFS and is no longer case sensitive.

You have confirmed this in Disk Utility in Recovery on MBA?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Have you tested after updating both to macOS 15.1.1, then ensuring (as @Bigwaff said) via Recovery that the MBA is still set to case-sensitive? 15.1.1 was just released yesterday.

 

[Hat Tric]

Have you thought about backing up the 2019 MBP to a new external Time Machine disk and use this for migration to the 2024 MBA? Doesn't really solve your problem but the result would be identical.

 

[Fishrrman]

Solution:
DO NOT USE "case sensitive" again.

First mistake was re-formatting the drive on a brand-new m-series Mac.

Can you get the drive RE-formatted to NON case sensitive?
If so, do that.

"So, at some point during the above process, the hard drive on my new M3 Air seems to revert back to plain APFS and is no longer case sensitive."

Umm... it's trying to tell you something.
DON'T FIGHT THIS.
This is the way you WANT IT TO BE.
Leave it alone, and it will work.

Can you get the M3air back to where it has an OS and will boot to the initial setup screen?

If you CAN'T...
... then take it to a brick n mortar Apple Store and see if they can "revive it" for you,
or...
Return it and then re-purchase a new one and proceed as follows.


Do you have an external backup already? If so, use that.
If not, get an external drive. USB SSD, or if not available, an HDD.

If you already have a tm backup, run it "for the last time" on the OLD Mac.

If you don't have a backup, use the external drive to create one.
I'd recommend SuperDuper, which is free to download and use for this purpose.
Get it by clicking this link:

https://shirt-pocket.com/downloads/SuperDuper!.dmg

SuperDuper is remarkably easy to use and understand.
Take the backup to the new m3.
Hopefully you still have the initial setup app available (setup assistant).

Begin setup.
When asked if you wish to migrate from another drive, YES, connect the backup.
Point the way to it and give setup assistant time to digest things.

I suggest you migrate everything.
Let SA do its job, will take a little while.

Finally, you should see your initial login screen.
So... log in and look around...

Good luck.

 

[smileman]

Have you thought about backing up the 2019 MBP to a new external Time Machine disk and use this for migration to the 2024 MBA? Doesn't really solve your problem but the result would be identical.

Yes, I tried this multiple times without success.

I can see the latest backup in migration assistant, but the “continue” button stays greyed out for tens of minutes of waiting and I’m never able to continue. When I hover over the backup, it also says that I can’t restore from that back up because of the same case sensitive issue.

 

[smileman]

You have confirmed this in Disk Utility in Recovery on MBA?

Yes

 

[smileman]

Have you tested after updating both to macOS 15.1.1, then ensuring (as @Bigwaff said) via Recovery that the MBA is still set to case-sensitive? 15.1.1 was just released yesterday.

Yeah, I tried all this before that update. My understanding is 15.1.1 is just a security patch, but maybe it’s worth trying it again.

 

[smileman]

Solution:
DO NOT USE "case sensitive" again.

First mistake was re-formatting the drive on a brand-new m-series Mac.

Good luck.

well, I’d like to use case sensitive encrypted, which is actually what I thought my old machine’s drive was formatted for.

Not sure why it was just case sensitive. Maybe from when I converted at some point to APFS?

 

[chrfr]

well, I’d like to use case sensitive encrypted, which is actually what I thought my old machine’s drive was formatted for.

Not sure why it was just case sensitive. Maybe from when I converted at some point to APFS?

This is tangential to the problem at hand, but what’s your use case for the case sensitive filesystem?

 

[KPOM]

well, I’d like to use case sensitive encrypted, which is actually what I thought my old machine’s drive was formatted for.

Not sure why it was just case sensitive. Maybe from when I converted at some point to APFS?

Unless you absolutely need case sensitive just restore to regular APFS. You can always turn on FileVault to encrypt.