Migration of data from old iMac to new iMac is stalling in WiFi mode?

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Level 1

8 points

Migration of data from old iMac to new iMac is stalling in WiFi mode?

I'm currently transferring my data from an old iMac to a brand new one. I'm using Migration Assistant via my WiFi. It all started well, but after a couple of hours it seems to be stalled (after about 80,000 items moved). The screen on the old computer says the migration is "switching" wifi (showing the proper wifi), and the new machine says simply, "switching". It's bee hung up like this for over 2 hours now? Should I wait longer? Or should I cancel and start over, or start over with something other than wifi???' (eg. can I use an old ethernet cable from computer to computer?) Thanks.

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.13

Posted on May 23, 2019 2:25 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,952 points

May 23, 2019 2:39 PM in response to jfdowshen

NEVER EVER use Wi-Fi to migrate your data. This will takes weeks (I am not kidding) and it will fail 100% of the time!

The fastest and most reliable method is to connect your old Mac Time Machine (or bootable Clone) EHD to your new Mac via a USB cable, then run Migration Assistant and follow the on-screen prompts. It is that simple! You can use Ethernet between the two computers however it is not as reliable as using the backup EHD method connected by a USB cable.

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,952 points

May 23, 2019 3:06 PM in response to jfdowshen

Assuming your backup drive is a Time Machine or Bootable Clone it should work perfectly.

The reason Wi-Fi will not work is Wi-Fi simply does not have the bandwidth to transfer large amounts of data. If your migration was just a 10-12 GB that may work, however most users now have hundreds of GBs of data and many cases terabytes of data which is way too much for Wi-Fi to handle.

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Answer 3

jfdowshen Author

Level 1

8 points

May 23, 2019 3:22 PM in response to rkaufmann87

So far, it seems you are right. I'm using the latest Time Machine backup (about 500K GB) and it's already way past the wifi attempt, showing about 3 hours left to go. I'll let you know (I assume you're curious). Amazing that the Apple tech I spoke with (very nice by the way) did not suggest this tack, saying the the wifi backup should work fairly quickly. As proven, experience is everything. Thanks again.

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Answer 4

jfdowshen Author

Level 1

8 points

May 23, 2019 7:07 PM in response to rkaufmann87

As expected, the Apple time estimates was off by about 2 hours, but it did load. I'm setting up the new iMac and my wife's user desktop migrated perfectly, BUT, mine did not carry my desktop or documents. I'm now hoping someone can tell me what best to do. I think I can restore them from iCloud, or an earlier backup, but I'll have to find out how to do so I don't lose anything.

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Answer 5

Tesserax

Level 10

152,254 points

May 23, 2019 2:27 PM in response to jfdowshen

I would suggest that you start over and use an Ethernet connection for both Macs. This should eliminate the problem you are having and make the migration go considerably faster.

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Answer 6

jfdowshen Author

Level 1

8 points

May 23, 2019 2:53 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks. I just stopped the WiFi migration and connected my backup drive via usb cable to the new computer and started the migration from it. I'll let you know how it works out.

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