Migration Assistant dilema

[PedroHC]

Hello folks,
I was waiting for the new touchbar MacBook Pro, but with this price, I decided to buy the "old" MacBook Pro, 13'' Retina display (just now, November).

I'm moving away from a MacBook Air, dated from 2011. Now I'm at the Setup Assistant facing a hard question: should I use or not the Migration Assistant. I have initially decided to do so, but it told it would be done in 13 hours. My old MBA had only 4GB 128 storage, so I dont even know where all the data would come from.

I read some people saying that nothing could be better with a new machine in front of you to avoid MA and start everything from scratch. Opinions? Maybe migrating only apps, like Office for example?

Cheers

 

[deadworlds]

I ran migration assistant on my new 2016 15"MBP yesterday. I had them hooked up using an Ethernet cable. The process took about 9 hrs to transfer 300Gb worth of data. Although I let it run I wouldn't recommend you go about it in this manner. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I used migration assistant as now my new laptop is setup just like my old one. Instead of using the Ethernet cable you'd probably be better off creating a time machine backup onto an external hard drive for your MBA. then you can run migration assistant on your new MB and restore from the backup.

 

[Cougarcat]

How much data is on that 128 GB drive? I'm guessing the time estimate would go down dramatically after a few minutes. Just let it sit overnight and it'll be done in the morning.

Starting from scratch is overrated, IMO. I've used migration assistant from a PowerBook, to an iMac, to a hackintosh...11 years' worth of stuff, no problems. Although that will end with my new rMBP, but that's due to storage reasons!

 

[poorcody]

I'm having the same dilemma, but I think I will end up using the Migration Assistant. The last time I used it it worked well and it does save time setting everything up yourself.

Does anyone know if using Time Machine on a USB-3 drive or using a Thunderbolt cable would be faster?

 

[PedroHC]

The storage is pretty much full. Thing is that the old computer has a 10.7.5 system, also with some battery issues. Wifi is good, so don't know why it takes forever. I read in some places that if the old operational system was not running flawless, it could be a problem for the new Mac. I'll wait for more opinions - the possibility of starting from scratch is indeed appealing

 

[scotty588]

I thought about using Migration Assistant and even ran it but after looking at the options I cancelled it. Started from scratch and just shared my old macs HDD and copied files over my network.

 

[Weaselboy]

Starting from scratch is overrated, IMO.

Agreed. I have used MA over and over from one Mac after another over the years and never had a problem.

 

[maflynn]

Starting from scratch is overrated,

This is why I go with the clean install:

Although that will end with my new rMBP, but that's due to storage reasons!

I have complete say of what is getting installed on my new computer. While I'll use TM to restore the data, I do it on a folder by folder basis.

Going that route, while has more work up front pays dividends in that I have clean Mac.

 

[Cougarcat]

This is why I go with the clean install:


I have complete say of what is getting installed on my new computer. While I'll use TM to restore the data, I do it on a folder by folder basis.

Going that route, while has more work up front pays dividends in that I have clean Mac.

I'm cleaning out my mac now, for pretty much the first time since 2005. It's kind of fun––it's like a historical expedition. I am finding such files as "ClassicSystemFolder.icns" and remnants of Unsanity's Haxies. Good times! But I can certainly see the merit in your method.

 

[bjdraw]

I've used MA to switch Macs 6 times in the past 10 years, never had a problem. It too me about an hour to transfer 190GB worth of data from my 2015 rMBP to my 2016 rMBP via gigabit ethernet. Was expecting it to take half as long as the throughput was around half what gigabit ethernet is capable of.

 

[Marshall73]

Migration assistant is fine if you are not technical. We never use it as it is totally inefficient and brings a load of stuff that you probably don't want on a new Mac. It's much quicker to manually setup the new machine install software and transfer over files. You are far less likely to bring bugs etc from old apps etc.

 

[Weaselboy]

It's much quicker to manually setup the new machine install software and transfer over files.

I have to disagree with you there. I am a fairly advanced user and know my way around OS X, and it would take me a couple days work to get everything installed and configured like I have it now.

Sure, if someone just has a couple App Store apps and nothing but some documents and music, it can be fairly easy to start over, but that is not the case for everyone.

 

[Howard2k]

Wifi is good

That's probably your answer. If you can plug one or both MacBooks into your router via Ethernet that'll speed things up a fair bit. As mentioned, the external drive is a better way to go. Or connect the two MacBooks via an ad hoc network, not via the router, that'll help too.

 

[Marshall73]

I have to disagree with you there. I am a fairly advanced user and know my way around OS X, and it would take me a couple days work to get everything installed and configured like I have it now.

Sure, if someone just has a couple App Store apps and nothing but some documents and music, it can be fairly easy to start over, but that is not the case for everyone.

Guess we have to disagree on that one then. We manage various clients who run solely on Macs and not once has it been quicker to use MA. I had our engineers roll out 12 new 5k iMacs 2 weeks ago to replace 12 2011 iMacs, this involved moving all local docs (the users get to store personal stuff locally and company files are on a server), installing adobe apps, office, setting up everything as it was previously. The amount of local files ranged between 100gb and 650gb, all apps were installed from server shares or via profile manager from the server. All 12 done in a day, and that included imaging the old machines so they could be moved into the admin office (we have prebuilt images for those as they all use the same apps).