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Migration Assistant - Is it Frozen?

Transferring between 2 MacBook Pros over Wifi, but it has shown “Transferring Your Information - Starting Up...” for 2 hours now without any time estimate. Is this normal?

Posted on Sep 12, 2019 7:00 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 14, 2019 9:32 AM

Hello Napisarn and welcome to Apple Support Communities.


I see you have a question about the amount of time to transfer data between two Macs over Wi-Fi. The amount of time is totally dependent on the speed of the network and the amount of data being transferred. If there is a large amount of data being transferred, two hours-plus is not unheard of. If you're already deep into the transfer process, I'd advise letting it finish.


If the transfer process hasn't progressed much or you wish to consider other, potentially faster methods of accomplishing this, check out the article below:


How to move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

"Connect the computers to each other

  • If both computers are using macOS Sierra or later, just make sure that they're near each other and have Wi-Fi turned on. If either is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, connect them to the same network using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
  • Or connect them using target disk mode and the appropriate cable or adapter. Then start up your old computer in target disk mode.
  • Or connect your new Mac to a Time Machine backup of your old Mac."


Cheers.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 14, 2019 9:32 AM in response to Napisarn

Hello Napisarn and welcome to Apple Support Communities.


I see you have a question about the amount of time to transfer data between two Macs over Wi-Fi. The amount of time is totally dependent on the speed of the network and the amount of data being transferred. If there is a large amount of data being transferred, two hours-plus is not unheard of. If you're already deep into the transfer process, I'd advise letting it finish.


If the transfer process hasn't progressed much or you wish to consider other, potentially faster methods of accomplishing this, check out the article below:


How to move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

"Connect the computers to each other

  • If both computers are using macOS Sierra or later, just make sure that they're near each other and have Wi-Fi turned on. If either is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, connect them to the same network using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
  • Or connect them using target disk mode and the appropriate cable or adapter. Then start up your old computer in target disk mode.
  • Or connect your new Mac to a Time Machine backup of your old Mac."


Cheers.

Sep 15, 2019 11:37 AM in response to Napisarn

Hi Napisarn.


At the 24 hour point, it's a pretty safe assumption that either the transfer was happening but not showing on the screen (i.e., a "cosmetic" issue) or the two Macs are having a hard time connecting wirelessly.


At this point, I would suggest forcing both Macs to shut down by pressing and holding the Power buttons. When you restart the new Mac, if the transfer has not taken place, consider using one of the wired methods listed previously such as target disk mode or using a Time Machine backup, instead.


Cheers.

Migration Assistant - Is it Frozen?

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