Migration Assistant with APPS

The Migration Assistant will ignore any macOS apps from the old Mac.

Third-party apps may be migrated, and any other user files, of course.

Only 3rd party apps migrate. Mac OS and ALL the Apple apps do not migrate.

The fastest, most reliable and easiest migration method is to plug in the old Macs Time Machine External Hard Disk. Connect it when you start up the new Mac the first time and follow the on screen prompts.

Trying to update new Mac mini from old minis Time Machine. Is there a way to get the Time Machine to recognize and use an external ssd? It keeps telling us not enough space to transfer our data even though it’s a 2T ssd. Thinking it’s not recognizing it.

No, MA only goes into the MM itself, you cannot migrate to an External Hard Disk. If your old Mac has 1 TB of data on it (this is just an example) and the new Mac mini only has 256GB of internal storage Migration Assistant will NOT work. You simply cannot put 1 gallon of milk into a 1 cup container!! That's just common sense, you can try to put 1 gallon of milk into a 1 cup container however what you will end up with is a huge mess. The same holds true with migrating data!

The new MM should have at least the same amount of storage as the old Mac. It is unwise to try anything else, yes we know it's more expensive but that's the ONLY way its going to work!

If my hunch is correct (that you have more data on old Mac than the new MM has room for) then you will have to setup the MM manually and try to copy data files from the old Mac to the External drive. That will be a very slow and messy process. If my hunch is correct, please return the MM and buy one with the correct amount storage.

As already stated the OS will not transfer, only your files and other non Apple apps. Also, I would suggest that you use a TM backup of your old Mac to migrate to your new Mac. Less issues.