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MAC migration to new MAC with different (AFPS) file system?

I'm migrating from macOS CATALINA to BIG SUR on a new system. Will Migration app handle migrating from older file system to AFPS on new system?


iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 16, 2021 2:33 AM

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12 replies

Sep 16, 2021 2:44 AM in response to mr-ed

Move your content to a new Mac


The New System is the new Apple Silicon M1 computer ?? Reason for asking - would strongly suggest Only Migrating your User Account and nothing more. If there were any problematic issues on Catalina and everything is Migrated from Catalina to Big Sur - the problems will Migrated to an otherwise virgin install of Big Sur. That and Applications from Catalina do not automatically translate to functioning well on Big Sur and Especially if moving to the M1 CPU.

Sep 16, 2021 2:54 AM in response to mr-ed

Yes. As Catalina is already AFPS you don't have an issue there.


An important point: do not create a user on your new Mac before doing the migration. Simply import the user from the old Mac. If you create a user first with the same name, the imported user will have a modified name and then you will have a lot of permissions problems transferring data to the newly formed user.

Sep 16, 2021 8:13 AM in response to PRP_53

yes new MAC is M1.

Great advice- migrate user to new M1 MAC rather than create beforehand.


However, Apple support says I cannot set up new Time Machine disk on old MAc because AFPS not on Catalina. I intended to create TM backup and restore it to M1 MAC but feared the file structure differences could be problem. So will use Migration Assistant.

Sep 16, 2021 8:17 AM in response to mr-ed

When I booted my new M1 mini and went through the setup process, I plugged in my Mojave Time Machine backup drive, and let Migration Assistant put all pertinent files and settings onto the M1 mini in the user folder that the setup process had just made. Consequently, on first boot, all of my Mail, configuration settings, etc. were exactly like they were on Mojave. It just worked.


Your files and folders, when migrating between two APFS formatted operating systems, are like leaves floating on a pond, and the underlying file system partition type is irrelevant.

Sep 16, 2021 8:19 AM in response to mr-ed

The Time Machine Backup used on the Catalina computer is probably in the older HFS Journaled / GUID Partition Map format.


Regardless of this - the Migration Assist on the New Apple Silicon M1 can still read and write to HFS Journaled drives.


The issue, might be, when setting up a New Time Machine Backup on the M1 CPU - Time Machine Backup may want to Convert the New Drive to the new APFS / GUID format.


Notation : If reusing the same Catalina Based Time Machine Backup Drive on the New M1 computer - the Old Catalina Backups may become totally unusable in the future.


Personally - would keep the existing Drive with the Catalina Backups aside and in safe place. On the New Machine - start fresh with a new & empty Drive.

Sep 25, 2021 2:02 PM in response to PRP_53

You are correct (use APFS with Big Sur, HFS with Catalina). However, the disk used on Catalina will be moved to Big Sur when I migrate. I'm not sure how the Migration tool would handle this, so I'm going to just wait and format APFS for Time Machine on the new M1 system I won't use Time Machine on the current system since it doesn't accept APFS. Thanks.

MAC migration to new MAC with different (AFPS) file system?

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