Manual migration from one Mac to another.

Question

Room101A Author

Level 1

47 points

Manual migration from one Mac to another.

We are dealing with three pieces of hardware:

A 2011 MB Pro running Yosemite (with only one serviceable USB port)-hereinafter referred to as MBP

A 2009 MB running High Sierra - hereinafter referred to as MB

A clone of the 2011 MBP.

The relative who gave my pal the MB set it up for him with a Home folder with his full name: johndoe.

The name of the Home folder on the MBP is jtdoe.

Efforts to run Migration Assistant have proven fruitless: it ran for over 12 hours and only migrated about 20GB of data.

On my advice, he ran MA a second time, this time choosing to migrate only Network & System settings and his MB is now up and running. We used the very nice, and free for home use, AnyDesk to screen share because screen sharing the Mac way, using Messages, failed. (Will try to troubleshoot that at a later date).

I found this Apple Support Document on how to manually migrate data from another Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202910

Yes, there is a question coming..

I have read in the past where moving files from one computer with a Home folder with one name to another computer with a Home folder with a different name made an unholy mess of things and that is of course something I want to avoid.

Questions:

First - Should the name of the Home folder on both Macs match; i.e., should he change the name of the Home folder on the MB to match the name of the Home folder on the MBP before manually copying data over?

Second - With the clone of the MBP attached via USB to the MB, can he simply drag and drop folders from the clone to the Home folder of the MB? If not, then how?

Third - what about the ~library folder? Leave it? Move it?

Lastly - anything I missed? (I have a goat tethered in the yard which we are prepared to sacrifice, but only if absolutely necessary).

Posted on Mar 22, 2020 8:04 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

macjack

Level 10

111,204 points

Mar 22, 2020 8:36 AM in response to Room101A

Room101A wrote:

He goes to the first folder in the Home folder on the clone, called Biking);

Everything seems right except I have no idea what Biking is. I assume it is a folder he created in which case that's OK. (It's usual to keep all document folders within the Documents folder.) I'm talking about the folders named Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures, etc.

Swing the chicken counter-clockwise and it will recover.

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 22, 2020 8:17 AM in response to Room101A

If you have a USB-3 (faster) external storage, boot Recovery on the old Mac, use Disk Utility to transfer the data to faster storage. That’ll be slower on the old Mac, but hopefully faster on the newer.

This’ll also inherently give you a backup. Maybe a good backup.

This transfer will take a very long time with older storage and older connections—I’ve seen some of these as long as a couple of days—and then disconnect that external storage and reconnect to the newer and use that as the local Migration Assistant import source.

Having the backup is also beneficial should the old hard disk storage be failing. A nascent disk hardware failure could well stretch the backup or the migration closer to infinity

Requiring 12 hours and variously longer to untangle some of these systems is far from unusual, too. If the hard disk drive has gone sketchy, 12 hours would be speedy.

Reply

Answer 3

macjack

Level 10

111,204 points

Mar 22, 2020 8:17 AM in response to Room101A

Yes, with a clone you can drag and drop. Drag the contents of the folders from within the Home folder of your clone to the Home folder to the new Mac. Leave the ~/Library alone. This will mean you'll need to reset some preferences but it is much safer that way.

I think the goat is safe but waving a chicken around your head while making incantations can't hurt. 😎

Reply

Answer 4

Room101A Author

Level 1

47 points

Mar 22, 2020 8:25 AM in response to macjack

Thank you SO much for the speedy reply; means we can get cracking on it right now.

Beowulf the goat sends his thanks, the chicken got dizzy and puked.

Just to be certain I understand contents correctly:

He opens the Home folder in column view in the clone;

He opens a new Finder window on the MB;

He goes to the first folder in the Home folder on the clone, called Biking);

He drags and drops that Biking folder into the Home folder on the MB.

And so on until he's finished but NEVER moves the ~/Library folder.

And, thanks again.

Reply

Answer 5

Room101A Author

Level 1

47 points

Mar 22, 2020 8:44 AM in response to macjack

Got it: thanks so very much.

I guess I am the odd man out re Home folder organization. E.g., here's a screenshot of my Home folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1ot7ifnfm45lhi/Screen%20Shot%202020-03-22%20at%2011.41.18%20AM.jpg?dl=0

I use the Documents folders for misc. items that don't rate their own folder.

Reply

Answer 6

Room101A Author

Level 1

47 points

Mar 23, 2020 9:41 AM in response to macjack

Reporting back: complete success!!

As an aside - I wonder, are the numbers reported by About This Mac/Storage reliable?

We did a desktop sharing session and I had him drag and drop all the folders from one ~/Users folder to the other.

We followed that by moving his non-Apple applications to the 2009.

When we were done, About This Mac/Storage revealed 216 GB were available out of 249.2GB, so his HD contains a measly 33.2 GB of data.

It is troublesome to me to note that, before we moved his data and applications to the 2009 MB from the 2011 MBP, when we checked the HD on the 2011 MBP, About This Mac/Storage, “Other” was identified as taking up 201 GB of the HD.

I think I have seen elsewhere folks questioning the accuracy of the numbers reported by About This Mac/Storage.

Any insights/opinions/etc.?

Reply

Answer 7

macjack

Level 10

111,204 points

Mar 23, 2020 10:55 AM in response to Room101A

Well done! The Storage tab is known to report incorrectly. Also check by choosing your Mac HD and "Get Info" (command-i). It may be different. If you're really interested in delving into you can download Omni DiskSweeper:

https://www.omnigroup.com/more

DiskSweeper can give you a more accurate read of disk space than Finder or Storage Tab of About this Mac. It can also show you the precise size and location of all your files. It will inventory your disk starting from the files that take up the most space.

Reply

Answer 8

macjack

Level 10

111,204 points

Mar 22, 2020 8:52 AM in response to Room101A

Yes, that is a peculiar setup but each to their own. You can drag those folders directly to your Home folder. It is also peculiar to have a goat named Beowulf in your backyard.

Reply