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I started the file transfer using migration assistant and my receiving iMac says "starting" and the old MacBook Pro says "looking for applications and documents' to transfer" but nothing has happened in the last few hours. How long does it take?

I started the file transfer using migration assistant using WiFi and my receiving iMac says "starting" and the old MacBook Pro says "looking for applications and documents' to transfer" but nothing has happened in the last few hours. How long does it take?

The old Mac Book Pro doesn't have that many documents so I thought it wouldn't take long.

Posted on Jul 2, 2021 12:34 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 2, 2021 1:13 PM

When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method to migrate from the old Mac to the new Mac -is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. You will likely need a USB A to USB C adapter, you can find them on Amazon for $10 or less. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes  and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.

 

If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.

 

The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.


 Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps) , data files, settings, it does not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not a big deal.

 

Finally, please NEVER EVER use WI-FI to migrate, this will fail in almost 100% of the situations in my experience. WI-FI was never intended to move large amounts of data at one time.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 2, 2021 1:13 PM in response to TedSchultz

When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method to migrate from the old Mac to the new Mac -is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. You will likely need a USB A to USB C adapter, you can find them on Amazon for $10 or less. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes  and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.

 

If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.

 

The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.


 Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps) , data files, settings, it does not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not a big deal.

 

Finally, please NEVER EVER use WI-FI to migrate, this will fail in almost 100% of the situations in my experience. WI-FI was never intended to move large amounts of data at one time.

Jul 3, 2021 6:55 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Yes, this was helpful. I am disappointed that Apple Support suggested the Migration Assistant with WiFi was the way to go. It ran fore 14 hours yesterday and made no progress. I finally cancelled it at midnight last night. I also, shut down the iMac. Now I have to re-start the iMac setup process and get to the point where I can use Setup Assistant (SA). I don't know how to do that at this point since the set was started yesterday and did not complete.

Any suggestions how to re-start the set up on the iMac so I can get to the SA? I went out yesterday and bought the USB A to USB C Adapter. Thus, I can use my Time Machine backup to migrate the data.

I also, have a case # with Apple Support should I need them. When I called yesterday, the tech still wanted the WiFi migration to do its job but after 14 hours, I think its pretty clear in was a failure.

I started the file transfer using migration assistant and my receiving iMac says "starting" and the old MacBook Pro says "looking for applications and documents' to transfer" but nothing has happened in the last few hours. How long does it take?

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