[Frank777]

It's finally time for me to finally bid adieu to my 2009 27" iMac and migrate everything over to a new (to me) 2017 27" iMac.

When I upgraded my MacBook Air a few years ago I just transferred some files, so it's been well over a decade since I've used Apple's Migration Assistant to upgrade to a new machine. And never, I think, with an iMac.

Does anyone have a personal checklist of best practices? I have Apple's support page, but it doesn't say anything about setting up the Macs in advance, and I had thought you needed to ensure the new Mac had the same User Account Name, Password and Hard Drive name as the old Mac for things to go swimmingly.

I'm also assuming the iMacs will be connected via ethernet, since that's likely faster than the wi-fi.

Did I miss anything?

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Frank777 it doesn't say anything about setting up the Macs in advance, and I had thought you needed to ensure the new Mac had the same User Account Name, Password and Hard Drive name as the old Mac for things to go swimmingly.

Doesn't this cover it?

Before clicking Continue, learn what it means to transfer a user account. In the example pictured here, Danny Rico is a user account on the old Mac. If an account on the new Mac has the same name, Migration Assistant asks whether to rename or replace: Rename: The account on your old Mac will appear as an additional user on your new Mac, with a separate login and home folder. Replace: The account on your old Mac will replace the identically named account on your new Mac.

(I never use Migration Assistant, but what I'd do to be in the safe side is to create a temporary account, run the migration, then delete that account.)

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by chucker (I never use Migration Assistant....)

So you think it's better to create a brand new account on the new Mac, reload all the Applications, and then just copy the Documents over?

Won't that miss a lot of stuff held in the Library and other places that might be needed?

[chucker]

I'm just a bit of a tabula rasa guy myself.

[turtle]

I would just build new on the new machine. Sure there will be some things that don't move over, but it is minimal and normally just an install away from being right again.

I've used Migration Assistant before and it is fine. It is actually faster to just grab the apps you really want now and install them instead of migrating everything.

[709]

Personally, for a production machine that I've got a decade+ of random goodies/shit stored on I'd do a Time Machine backup first, then hook that drive to the new iMac and 'Restore from Time Machine' (or whatever the prompt is) on the new machine.

A few advantages over a clean install that I can think of: The new install will move all the apps that don't work on your new iMac anymore into a single 'Apps Need Update' folder - you'll probably have to upgrade a few to a new version and it's nice to know whats boinked and what isn't. You'll be installing new 2023 Creative Cloud apps for the first time on this OS, so you'll be able to move your preferences and settings from the old apps to new. All your piles of mail and browser bookmarks and your crazy, ignored Downloads folder will be moved over - not that it's a huge deal to transfer those to a fresh install, but I find it easier just to transfer and set myself an 'organization day' on a new machine, where I'll do some much needed housekeeping so the new place feels fresher.

If it was a laptop I'd say go for a clean install. For some reason laptops always work better with a fresh start. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[turtle]

You save your mail on your Mac instead of the IMAP server? How interesting...

[709]

Who among us really knows where email resides once its read? It's a mystery.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by chucker Doesn't this cover it? (I never use Migration Assistant, but what I'd do to be in the safe side is to create a temporary account, run the migration, then delete that account.)

Originally Posted by Frank777 So you think it's better to create a brand new account on the new Mac, reload all the Applications, and then just copy the Documents over? Won't that miss a lot of stuff held in the Library and other places that might be needed?

Here at the shop, we always create a Temp account before doing a migration. It gives you an account to log into if the migration goes bonkers and you have to start over. Otherwise, you may find yourself having to wipe the machine and reinstall the OS.

[Frank777]

I'm back up and running in my new (to me) 27" iMac.

Interesting journey. Had I read 709's missive before I jumped in, I would probably have gone the Time Machine route. I started off with the clean install and then got tired and worried I'd miss something. I decided "I just want this done. Now." And so I defaulted to the Migration Assistant. The MA only asks you to approve transfers of Apps, the User folder, Other Files and Folders, and System and Network. The latter seems to be mostly just settings, so I think it's still fairly close to the clean (Ventura) OS I installed before the transfer.

The first time, it went for a couple hours and got stuck. So I had to bail. I'm not sure why, but I didn't need a temp account (Thank God!) and both machines restarted fine. The new machine took a bit longer to restart, so I'm thinking it went into Recovery mode or the last state it was in before the Migration attempt.

Before trying again, I realized that I had left the Time Machine drive plugged into the old machine and that might have spun up and interfered with the transfer. So I disconnected it, and this time told Migration Assistant not to transfer any apps, and things went well. The transfer took about six hours, with the machines connected by ethernet.

Took another day to get all the apps reloaded, and then many of them needed activations with serial numbers I hadn't used in years. No major problems there, just really time-consuming, with a few of them having to be deactivated on the old and then reactivated on the new. For the first time, I started to think Apple's App Store might actually be worth that 30% commission. I had zero problems there.

Overall, a not-bad experience. I held on to the 2009 machine far too long. I imagine with my next machine transfer happening over Thunderbolt, it should be much easier.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Frank777 I imagine with my next machine transfer happening over Thunderbolt, it should be much easier.

Yeah, from what I gather from people using it, Thunderbolt is way smoother. (Makes sense; Ethernet is generally 1 Gb/s, and Thunderbolt 40.)

[Frank777]

Just one significant issue so far. I guess Migration Assistant doesn't copy over fonts. All my InDesign docs are borked...

[drewprops]

Oy, that SUCKS.

I still haven't set myself up with a new font management app.

...

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Frank777 Just one significant issue so far. I guess Migration Assistant doesn't copy over fonts. All my InDesign docs are borked...

Maybe those are part of "Apps".

[709]

Just out of curiosity, was it a machine issue or just its age (and software limitations) that made you upgrade? I ask because I had the same model start overheating to the point of auto-shutdown, to the point where it could barely start up for more a few minutes. I'd be using it as an additional monitor somewhere if it would stay running - for now it's sitting on a rack waiting for me to pull out a few guts before carting it off to the electronics recyclers.

[PB PM]

At that age the CPU and GPU likely need new thermal paste, it gets hard and transfers less heat as it ages, if that is the case you could easily solve the overheating issue. The fan could also be full of dust.

[709]

I've thought about yanking it apart and attempting a fix, but at this point it's not worth it. It topped out at High Sierra and I think most apps have long abandoned that OS. I did have a tiny partition with Snow Leopard that I'd boot up and play the original Mac HaloCE and RtCWolfenstein, but now my little Linux thingy runs all that goofiness. I've had visions of replacing the glass and turning it into an ant-farm, but that could take a while and I have enough Mac antiques sitting around.

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by 709 Just out of curiosity, was it a machine issue or just its age (and software limitations) that made you upgrade? I ask because I had the same model start overheating to the point of auto-shutdown, to the point where it could barely start up for more a few minutes. I'd be using it as an additional monitor somewhere if it would stay running - for now it's sitting on a rack waiting for me to pull out a few guts before carting it off to the electronics recyclers.

It's the age and software limitations. I haven't had overheating issues. But High Sierra means I'm stuck without upgrades (and in the case of Adobe I'm paying for the upgrades without using them on the home machine.) Safari stopped being reliable on several sites a while back, and the kicker was when Chrome started to have seizures during online banking sessions. I need my money.

My plan is to yank out the 1TB SSD for myself, replace it with the cheapest HDD that fits, and give it to my parents as a monitor for their MacBook.

Younger me would have tried to keep it as a reminder of good times. Older me sees that as a sign of hoarding issues.