Migrating from a Catalina Mac to a Big Sur Mac

rssimmons999 wrote:

I am upgrading from a mid-2012 MacBook Pro running Catalina to a new M1 MacBook Pro running Big Sur.

What is going to be my best method of migrating everything from the old one to the new one?

I know it’s ideal to have both computers running the same macOS version, but the old Mac has reached it’s limit, and Big Sur is not available to it.

Am I going to be able to use Time Machine or the migration assistant at all, or am I going to have to copy everything over manually?

The most trouble free way to move to a new machine, is using the Setup Assistant on the initial boot of a brand new machine— you have one shot here. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205749

If that opportunity has past, the second best way is use the Migration Assistant.

How to move your content to a new Mac https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350