Migration Assistant to transfer data from my old Mac (running macOS Sonoma 14.8.1) crashed on setting up step

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Migration Assistant to transfer data from my old Mac (running macOS Sonoma 14.8.1) crashed on setting up step

I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to transfer data from my old Mac (running macOS Sonoma 14.8.1) to a new Mac (running macOS Sequoia 15.7.1).

However, the process gets stuck on the “Setting Up Your Mac to Transfer Information” screen, before I even get to the step where I can choose the transfer source (e.g., “To another Mac / From another Mac”).

When I start Migration Assistant, it closes all apps, logs me out of my user account, and then hangs indefinitely on “Setting Up.” After several minutes, the system returns me to the login screen, and the migration process never starts.

I’ve already tried:

Restarting both Macs and retrying the migration

Disabling Spotlight indexing

Using both Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt connections

Resetting Migration Assistant and Setup Assistant preferences

Nothing helped — the old Mac consistently freezes at that stage.

Posted on Oct 28, 2025 10:37 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

73,032 points

Oct 29, 2025 4:22 AM in response to chen_malish

While Migration Assistant is supposed to work as you describe, and I have at times used it like that,

it is best to use with an external disk. Make sure your Time Machine backup of the old mac is up to date,

attach the Time Machine disk to the new mac, and use Migration Assistant from the Time Machine. It is faster and more stable that migrating from one mac to another.

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