I always use Migration Assistant via a Time Machine backup. It has always worked wonderfully for me and I’m back up and running with all my apps and settings in no time!
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If I purchase a new MBP will migration assistant transfer everything 100%?
- Thread starter richard371
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I just restored from a TM Back up w MA .. No issues everything is back on my new M1 air. All the settings as well.
I just transferred to a new M2 Pro MacBook Pro from a 2020 Intel MacBook Air (running macOS Monterey). Overall, it went really well.
I used a Time Machine Backup from the old Mac on an SSD drive with Migration Assistant. I made sure to have the right type of USB-C cable for the drive. It took less than an hour to do about 300 GB of files. When I logged into the new MBP after that, there were a bunch of security approvals I had to do, of course. But, all of my network and system settings that matched from Monterey to Ventura came over well. I didn’t need to re-enter any Wi-Fi passwords. A few apps needed to be updated/replaced. But, that had nothing to do with Migration Assistant.
Unless you have a LOT of time available, or perhaps if you like working with a Mac mostly similar to default, I wouldn’t bother starting from scratch. It takes a lot more time to get everything set the way you want. I’ve done both, and just don’t have the time it would take to get everything back the way I want it if I had to start from scratch.
I used a Time Machine Backup from the old Mac on an SSD drive with Migration Assistant. I made sure to have the right type of USB-C cable for the drive. It took less than an hour to do about 300 GB of files. When I logged into the new MBP after that, there were a bunch of security approvals I had to do, of course. But, all of my network and system settings that matched from Monterey to Ventura came over well. I didn’t need to re-enter any Wi-Fi passwords. A few apps needed to be updated/replaced. But, that had nothing to do with Migration Assistant.
Unless you have a LOT of time available, or perhaps if you like working with a Mac mostly similar to default, I wouldn’t bother starting from scratch. It takes a lot more time to get everything set the way you want. I’ve done both, and just don’t have the time it would take to get everything back the way I want it if I had to start from scratch.
I've had to do something like 15 migrations in the past few years. It seemed to me that it was actually quite thorough in transferring everything that could be useful. If anything, it transferred too much. I'm still weeding out weird plists, caches, and preference files for programs I deleted a decade ago.
Just because settings get transferred doesn't mean they'll work on your new machine. The most common issue is that your old license code only worked on your old machine and you have to work with the software author to release the old license and reassign it to your new machine.
Now, I may have done a ton of migrations, but I did each of them under duress so I'm not going to be the most reliable narrator. I wasn't in a mood to take notes and compare results carefully. Everything I expected to transfer seemed to transfer even though the results weren't what I had hoped.
The stuff that got messed up the most were programming packages that I installed from the command line. I'm not sure if some of that stuff got left behind, got permissions corrupted in transfer, or just wasn't compatible with my new system. That stuff is breaking all the time anyway so it's hard for me to tell.
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I'd be all for install from scratch if it were a reliable way to fix problems, but the thing is that you can spend all that time doing a "clean install" and end up in the same place because very few of us have any idea what might be causing those issues we have so we could very well just reinstall the package that's causing our very issues.
That said, system maintenance isn't a bad idea. I just think clean installing is a poor way to do it. That annoying Ventura bug that kept telling us we had login item issues made me realize how many helper agents I've got hanging around from a decade ago. I've since periodically spent a few minutes going through that list to remove anything that I can't find any use for anymore. Doing that in small increments has the advantage that if purge something I really shouldn't have, I'll have a pretty good idea what I might need to get back. If you did a mass purge through a clean install... good luck.
These are saved in iCloud Keychain. Just make sure you sync it across your devices.
My M1 Pro has an issue and rather frustratingly I'll be sent a replacement (although on the plus side it m right be an M2). I'll then need to transfer all my apps and documents over.
I don't mind reinstalling my apps, but documents is gonna be a pain. Does migration assistant at least transfer all documents spot on and 100% accurately?
I don't mind reinstalling my apps, but documents is gonna be a pain. Does migration assistant at least transfer all documents spot on and 100% accurately?
"I don't mind reinstalling my apps, but documents is gonna be a pain. Does migration assistant at least transfer all documents spot on and 100% accurately?"
If you've kept a proper backup (time machine, CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper), there should be no problems.
See reply #20 earlier in this thread.
If you've kept a proper backup (time machine, CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper), there should be no problems.
See reply #20 earlier in this thread.
And just looked at post 20 and it looks dead simple... on screen anyway 😄 I also looked, and it should be possible to use Migration Assistant from Mac to Mac so that's a relief.
This is how I migrated my M1 MacBook Air to an M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Did it with a Thunderbolt 4 cable. Worked like a charm and was surprisingly fast.
Just went through this.
iCloud notes & mail are smooth. Everything else: It's not smooth.
- Software licenses & checks (Creative Cloud, Scrivener, Sketch, HEY, etc)
- Disabling Dropbox on older machines to fall under device limit
- Logging into Gmail, net accounts triggers security & 2FA checks
- Keyboard shortcuts and replacements
- Sublime text preferences
- Browser preferences, bookmarks, custom scripts & plugins, history, commonly visited sites
- Twitter preferences, like hiding trends
- Photoshop plugins
- Calendar syncing, some events don't show
- Pastebot stopped working
- Slack and Teams notification settings bug out, show badges when supposed to be hidden
- Provisioning profiles & signing certificates for Xcode developer
- Saved passwords don't all transfer
- Favorited Emojis and the ordering of commonly used emoji
- Japanese language dictionary, having learned my commonly used spellings and kanjifications
- In-app data history and preferences
- Time Machine doesn't continue seamlessly... not all data is recovered from last backup
- Music library: iTunes synced/authorized but playlists don't restore items that weren't purchased from iTunes
- Spotlight indexing
Just to name a few...
iCloud notes & mail are smooth. Everything else: It's not smooth.
- Software licenses & checks (Creative Cloud, Scrivener, Sketch, HEY, etc)
- Disabling Dropbox on older machines to fall under device limit
- Logging into Gmail, net accounts triggers security & 2FA checks
- Keyboard shortcuts and replacements
- Sublime text preferences
- Browser preferences, bookmarks, custom scripts & plugins, history, commonly visited sites
- Twitter preferences, like hiding trends
- Photoshop plugins
- Calendar syncing, some events don't show
- Pastebot stopped working
- Slack and Teams notification settings bug out, show badges when supposed to be hidden
- Provisioning profiles & signing certificates for Xcode developer
- Saved passwords don't all transfer
- Favorited Emojis and the ordering of commonly used emoji
- Japanese language dictionary, having learned my commonly used spellings and kanjifications
- In-app data history and preferences
- Time Machine doesn't continue seamlessly... not all data is recovered from last backup
- Music library: iTunes synced/authorized but playlists don't restore items that weren't purchased from iTunes
- Spotlight indexing
Just to name a few...
Mac to Mac Thunderbolt I think runs at a minimum of 10 Gbps (10,000 Mbps).
Wifi, depending on what kind of system you use, is about 100-800 Mbps. I'd say anticipate ~300 Mbps on 802.11ac 5GHz.
Bluetooth 4 has a maximum of 24 Mbps. Bluetooth 5 (if both devices have it) is a maximum of 50 Mbps.
* I believe you can do it over ethernet, but you'd have to double check; that could run up to 1 Gbps (max. theoretical) if both machines have gigabit ethernet.
You definitely do not want to attempt a Mac to Mac migration over bluetooth (I don't even think that's an option).
GREAT! Never knew this! I just used MA but after the setup process. Have to try this way next! Thanks !
Thanks guys. I'm going to buy this tomorrow and use it with Time Machine then transfer all my stuff when the new machine arrives
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I have an M1 Mini 16gb/512gb. My SSD has 364gb free. I have my Time Machine backup on an external USB 3 HDD. I have ordered a 16" M2 Pro MBP 32gb/1tb. I have Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Topaz programs, XnView MP, and FreeFileSync installed. I think that is all the non-Apple software I have. And not so much data on my SSD (as you can see by all the free space I have on the 512gb SSD).
You say that Setup Assistant will take a while, but how long are you talking about? Do you mean tens of minutes, hours, many hours?
I had my two computers (Intel MBP and the new M2Max MBP) connected by a Thunderbolt 4 cable and it took about a little over an hour to transfer everything - my SSD had more data than yours (I think it was around 800GB that was on it). I don’t know if it would have been quicker to do it from the Time Machine backup I had for the old computer or not. Since you are not migrating from an Intel computer, you won’t have the problem I had with some of the older Topaz Labs plug-ins that only work on Intel macs - that was a surprise for me as I used one a lot.
In the past I have always gone through the pain of a clean install of all the apps. I am considering the migration assistant but ...
Over time you will always have left over trash from applications that you no longer use, applications you trialed and did not buy and just mysterious stuff that turns up. A clean install tends to get rid of this junk. Will the migration assistant ignore this junk as it transfers the applications that you select?
Over time you will always have left over trash from applications that you no longer use, applications you trialed and did not buy and just mysterious stuff that turns up. A clean install tends to get rid of this junk. Will the migration assistant ignore this junk as it transfers the applications that you select?
Recently I bought a 16" M2 Pro MBP 32gb/1tb. I used the Time Machine external drive on my M1 Mini 16gb/512gb and Migration Assistant to transfer everything to the MBP. It took about an hour. Four of my apps had problems though. The first time I ran them a window came up, said the app was corrupted, and it would be moved to the trash. Had to download those from the internet and install them. A few configuration problems too.
If I had it to do over I would install everything manually. I did not save any time. In fact, in total I spent more time trying to fix stuff and figure out what was not right than if I just did everything manually from the beginning.
If I had it to do over I would install everything manually. I did not save any time. In fact, in total I spent more time trying to fix stuff and figure out what was not right than if I just did everything manually from the beginning.
I have a usb-c ssd, believe it’s 3.0. I want to migrate that TM to aMBP WITH TB 4.
What would be the correct cable to use? Can I use the Apple TB4 cable?
I’m more confused than ever.