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Migration with one monitor

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polyphenol

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Sep 9, 2020
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I'm hoping my new M4 mini will arrive tomorrow. And I intend to migrate. (It's possible I'll reinstall afresh at some point but I want it done and dusted to get the M1 ready to trade in.)

However, I only have one monitor. And Apple seem to say you have to view both machines at the same time.

Can I use screen sharing (using my MBP) on my M1 mini, unplug my monitor from my M1 mini and plug my M4 mini into it?

Just looking for an easy answer - if there is one.
 
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Chancha

macrumors 68020
Mar 19, 2014
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It should work, when you initiate the screen sharing, the resolution of the virtual screen is already set the same as the plugged in monitor. Upon unplugging it shouldn't change or loses a screen like it would normally.

And the connection between the old M1 and the new M4 is supposed to be maintained regardless of the remote access screen sharing.
 
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yalej

macrumors member
Mar 6, 2021
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Have same situation. Doesn't your monitor have multiple inputs? Use one for current computer and another one for new computer and just switch the input as needed. You do not have to literally see the output of each mac at the same time. One at a time is sufficient to use migration assistant.
 
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ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,925
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Redondo Beach, California
polyphenol said:
I'm hoping my new M4 mini will arrive tomorrow. And I intend to migrate. (It's possible I'll reinstall afresh at some point but I want it done and dusted to get the M1 ready to trade in.)

However, I only have one monitor.
Click to expand...
One monitor works fine with Migration Assistant. You never have to even power-up the older Mac. All you do is connect the Time machine drive to the new Mac.

I think you can also connect the old mac to the new mac and it is used as if it were a disk drive but I have never not have a TM backup drive.

I'd say if you do not have TM setup on the old machine NOW is the time to do it. It is kind of nuts not to use TM with macOS. It should be your first line backup. (That is 1st of 3)
 
Mr.Fox

Mr.Fox

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2020
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polyphenol said:
I'm hoping my new M4 mini will arrive tomorrow. And I intend to migrate. (It's possible I'll reinstall afresh at some point but I want it done and dusted to get the M1 ready to trade in.)

However, I only have one monitor. And Apple seem to say you have to view both machines at the same time.

Can I use screen sharing (using my MBP) on my M1 mini, unplug my monitor from my M1 mini and plug my M4 mini into it?

Just looking for an easy answer - if there is one.
Click to expand...
You can use one monitor by connecting one to mac mini M1 and the other to mac mini M4.
If you mean “hot plug and unplug”. I strongly advise against it. You can easily kill the motherboard, and considering that everything is located on it, the central M chip itself.
 
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polyphenol

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Sep 9, 2020
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Mr.Fox said:
You can use one monitor by connecting one to mac mini M1 and the other to mac mini M4.
If you mean “hot plug and unplug”. I strongly advise against it. You can easily kill the motherboard, and considering that everything is located on it, the central M chip itself.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I don't get the "one" and "the other" when I only have one monitor available!

My monitor is connected by USB-C - not HDMI.

And I was thinking of connecting to my M1 mini from my MBP using screen sharing, hot unplugging the USB-C (bearing in mind, I could just wait a while for the monitor to switch off and then "warm" unplug it!), and then plugging the new M4 mini into the monitor.
 
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polyphenol

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Sep 9, 2020
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yalej said:
Have same situation. Doesn't your monitor have multiple inputs? Use one for current computer and another one for new computer and just switch the input as needed. You do not have to literally see the output of each mac at the same time. One at a time is sufficient to use migration assistant.
Click to expand...
I'll check the monitor. I think I remember having an issue with trying to use HDMI...
 
Mr.Fox

Mr.Fox

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2020
285
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polyphenol said:
Sorry, I don't get the "one" and "the other" when I only have one monitor available!

My monitor is connected by USB-C - not HDMI.

And I was thinking of connecting to my M1 mini from my MBP using screen sharing, hot unplugging the USB-C (bearing in mind, I could just wait a while for the monitor to switch off and then "warm" unplug it!), and then plugging the new M4 mini into the monitor.
Click to expand...
One monitor, two HDMI and one USB-C or Thunderbolt connected to a USB-C port (1). If you have two Mac computers with USB-C or Thunderbolt ports, you can connect them to each other so that one computer appears to the other as an external hard disk drive. This is called external disk mode.
Communicate information directly. Why go to all the trouble?

  1. On the Mac you want to use as an external drive, do one of the following.
    • If your computer is turned off, boot your computer by holding down the T key.
    • If the computer is on, go to Apple > System Preferences, then click Basic in the side menu (you may need to scroll down). On the right side, click “Boot Disk,” then click “Reboot in External Disk Mode.”
    • When the system boots, the hard disk icon will appear on the desktop of the second computer.
  2. On the other Mac, open a Finder window, then double-click the Mac you're using as an external disk in the side menu.
  3. Drag files from the disk and vice versa.
  4. To eject a disk, click its name in the Finder side menu while holding down the Control key, then select “Eject [volume]”
 
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polyphenol

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Sep 9, 2020
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Mr.Fox said:
One monitor, two HDMI and one USB-C or Thunderbolt connected to a USB-C port (1). If you have two Mac computers with USB-C or Thunderbolt ports, you can connect them to each other so that one computer appears to the other as an external hard disk drive. This is called external disk mode.
Communicate information directly. Why go to all the trouble?

  1. On the Mac you want to use as an external drive, do one of the following.
    • If your computer is turned off, boot your computer by holding down the T key.
    • If the computer is on, go to Apple > System Preferences, then click Basic in the side menu (you may need to scroll down). On the right side, click “Boot Disk,” then click “Reboot in External Disk Mode.”
    • When the system boots, the hard disk icon will appear on the desktop of the second computer.
  2. On the other Mac, open a Finder window, then double-click the Mac you're using as an external disk in the side menu.
  3. Drag files from the disk and vice versa.
  4. To eject a disk, click its name in the Finder side menu while holding down the Control key, then select “Eject [volume]”
Click to expand...
Thank you -I might try that for the experience!
 
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ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,925
2,185
Redondo Beach, California
What are you going to do or look at on the monitor connected to the old Mac? Miration Assistant will never ask you to type anything or click on anything. All the monitor will show is a login screen if even that. After some time the screen will blank off and go to sleep.

Of course you could ignore and not use Migration Assistant and set up ujr new mac from scratch, enter you information. Then later you can use your WiFi or Ethernet to transfer you data files. None of you preferences or setting will move over but you can set those manually. It that case you would need to set up network sharing omn the old Mac, then shut it down, move the monitor and then power up the old mac and let it run headless. Then from the New Mac, you drage files a few at a time from the shared disk. It would work but it is silly because the process is automated with MA.
 
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polyphenol

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 9, 2020
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Fishrrman said:
OP:
Read THIS reply I put up in another thread yesterday.
That's all you need to do:
Click to expand...
I know it can be done from a TM backup, but I wanted to do it directly - partly for the experience.

Unfortunately, now I am actually doing it, it has complained the old machine is corrupted. So have been forced to use the TM backup route. (No idea why - the old mini has been rock solid.)

And I had to allow the new one to update itself before it would actually start the import.
 
orpheus1120

orpheus1120

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2008
1,432
59
Malaysia
Mr.Fox said:
One monitor, two HDMI and one USB-C or Thunderbolt connected to a USB-C port (1). If you have two Mac computers with USB-C or Thunderbolt ports, you can connect them to each other so that one computer appears to the other as an external hard disk drive. This is called external disk mode.
Communicate information directly. Why go to all the trouble?

  1. On the Mac you want to use as an external drive, do one of the following.
    • If your computer is turned off, boot your computer by holding down the T key.
    • If the computer is on, go to Apple > System Preferences, then click Basic in the side menu (you may need to scroll down). On the right side, click “Boot Disk,” then click “Reboot in External Disk Mode.”
    • When the system boots, the hard disk icon will appear on the desktop of the second computer.
  2. On the other Mac, open a Finder window, then double-click the Mac you're using as an external disk in the side menu.
  3. Drag files from the disk and vice versa.
  4. To eject a disk, click its name in the Finder side menu while holding down the Control key, then select “Eject [volume]”
Click to expand...
First of all, it's not external disk mode. It's called Target Disk Mode.

On your Point 1(2), there's no "Basic" in the "side menu". Instead one should go to "General" in the sidebar, then go to "Startup Disk" on the right, then click Restart in Target Disk Mode. Or simply follow the instruction provided by  . It is important to ensure correct information is provided in the forum, or else it's just a waste of time.

Anyway target disk mode is not suitable in the OP's case. It's a method for manually transferring files across 2 Macs, and never meant for the purpose of system migration between Macs. That's why Apple created Migration Assistant.
 
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