Migrating from 2015 to 19

[Glockworkorange]

That was the OP problem. For some reason, what should have just worked was very slow. Here's the support page.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

We never knew enough to discern the real reason. I still suspect a faulty cable or one that wasn't Cat 5e. He was transferring at 802.11n wireless speed, approximately 1/10th that of Gigabit Ethernet. That's damned slow.

Last night, I upgraded an old 2012 MacBook Pro and decided to see how fast was fast. The source machine was my 2017 iMac Pro. I transferred about 350GB of System & Account files + Apps.

I started out wireless. Because the 2012 only supports 802.11n, it was extremely slow as expected. I never saw an estimate as to how long it would take. Yikes!

After about 5 minutes watching the paint dry, I connected the MacBook to Ethernet. It now cruised at 46–50 MB/s with bursts up to 80 and gave me an ETA of 1hr 51min — respectable.
I gave it about 10 minutes of Ethernet and then hooked up my TB2 cable with an Apple TB2/3 adapter on my iMac Pro. The average speed jumped to 86 MB/s with spikes at 120. The entire transfer was done in less than an hour.

If the MBP was newer, it would have supported 802.11ac. In a clear connection, it should have been about 1.3x faster than Gigabyte Ethernet. I regularly get those wireless speeds around here but not with a 2012.

Also, because of its age, I could not test TB3 or 10G Ethernet. That would have been fun.

I never considered trying to migrate over wireless.

 

[mac_in_tosh]

That was the OP problem. For some reason, what should have just worked was very slow. Here's the support page.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

That page appears to indicate that you can do the migration after the new computer is already set up and running. Fishrrman's procedure (above) as well as my experience from years ago is that the migration is done when first turning on the new machine. Can you comment on the pros and cons of doing it either way i.e. on first startup of the new machine vs getting the new machine up and running including doing all updates and then doing the migration. Thanks.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Can you comment on the pros and cons of doing it either way i.e. on first startup of the new machine vs getting the new machine up and running including doing all updates and then doing the migration."

When you use setup assistant and do the migration the very first time you power up, your accounts are all "brought over" just "as they were" on the older Mac. User IDs are preserved in the same order they were on the old Mac.

If you "set up" the Mac with a NEW user account and then use migration assistant to bring over accounts, you could end up with TWO accounts with (or close to) the same username (i.e., YOU), and permissions problems between them.

There are "ways around this" -- to get the new Mac running before any migration is done -- BUT (at least the way I do it) it involves creating "placeholder" accounts:
"temp501" -- occupies the "501" user ID account
"temp502" -- occupies the "502" user ID account
"temp503" -- occupies the "503" user ID account

Now, if I need to migrate a "primary" account (and want it to occupy the prime "501" user ID spot), I log into one of the OTHER temp accounts, DELETE the temp501 account, and THEN "do the migration".

This way the migrated account will "fall into the space left behind" by the deleted temp501 account.

But it you want to AVOID going through this rigamarole, just have your CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper cloned backup ready for the moment you first press the power-on button.

Then setup assistant will "do it all for you".

 

[mikehalloran]

That page appears to indicate that you can do the migration after the new computer is already set up and running. Fishrrman's procedure (above) as well as my experience from years ago is that the migration is done when first turning on the new machine. Can you comment on the pros and cons of doing it either way i.e. on first startup of the new machine vs getting the new machine up and running including doing all updates and then doing the migration. Thanks.

When you turn on a brand new Mac, it has an OS installed. This is what the support doc assumes. Connect the two and away you go. As you know, once you've selected your language, it asks if you want to transfer from another Mac or Time Machine backup.

What I did was replace the drive on mine, install the OS from a USB drive and proceed from there. It's the same thing. I could have done Internet Recovery to install the OS but a thumb drive or any external is much faster.

The idea that one needs to create a clone first is ridiculous and a waste of time.

If you use Time Machine and are replacing your old Mac then, once you have made the transfer, it will ask you if you want to inherit the old backup. When replacing my 2010 with my iMP, I clicked on Yes. Since the laptop is not replacing the iMP, I click No (Create new backup) and it begins new backups onto the same drives.

 

[mac_in_tosh]

But it you want to AVOID going through this rigamarole, just have your CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper cloned backup ready for the moment you first press the power-on button.

I definitely would want to avoid all that rigamarole. But as to what to use for the migration, isn't there an option to just connect the old and new computers with ethernet and is there any disadvantage to that compared to using a cloned backup? Of course, with the new laptop I will have to use an ethernet port on a USB-C dock, and step 6 in your procedure advises against using attaching a hub - with a cloned backup I can avoid a hub and use a USB-C to eSata cable that I have ordered to connect to an external drive with a cloned backup. Which way would be better/faster? Thanks.

 

[Fishrrman]

Having a "just-created" backup (of the old Mac) via CarbonCopyCloner, and connecting that to the new Mac at "first boot", will always be "the fastest way to migrate".

My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.

 

[mac_in_tosh]

Having a "just-created" backup (of the old Mac) via CarbonCopyCloner, and connecting that to the new Mac at "first boot", will always be "the fastest way to migrate".

Your recommendation is clear by now. I haven't started up a new Mac in years but plan to soon, and I believe it prompted me to connect it to the old one by ethernet (by firewire previously) if you want to use Migration Assistant. I will probably use your method with a SuperDuper backup as I hope to be able to directly connect the new Mac to the external hard drive using a USB-C to eSata cable; ethernet would involve using a Thunderbolt hub I have on order and whose reliability is as yet not fully known.

Having said that, I am still curious as to the technical reason why you think using a just-created backup is superior to a direct ethernet-to-ethernet connection (neglecting the hub issue).