Migration from Mac to Mac

Migration process from Mac to Mac stopped in the middle. Now it’s stuck on 20hrs 13 min left. What do I do? They were both connected to the same Wifi

Posted on Oct 25, 2019 9:43 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 25, 2019 10:12 AM

WiFi isn't fast enough for migration if you are migrating more than a few GB of data. I recommend that you use an external hard drive to make a TimeMachine backup and then use that external drive to migrate to the new machine. (more on that in a second) Older Macs have USB 3 ports while new ones have USB C but there's a simple solution. Some externals come with either cables for both USB 3 and USB C or with a USB C dongle so the drive can be used with both. If not, you can pick up a USB 3 to USB C dongle for just a couple dollars.


To start recovering from this problem, force quit Migration Assistant. You'll have an account (or several) that are incompletely migrated. You may have applications that are incompletely migrated. My personal preference for handling this is to reboot into the recovery partition, download the OS, reinstall it, and start fresh. This time migrating with the external hard drive.

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 25, 2019 10:12 AM in response to Insidious24

WiFi isn't fast enough for migration if you are migrating more than a few GB of data. I recommend that you use an external hard drive to make a TimeMachine backup and then use that external drive to migrate to the new machine. (more on that in a second) Older Macs have USB 3 ports while new ones have USB C but there's a simple solution. Some externals come with either cables for both USB 3 and USB C or with a USB C dongle so the drive can be used with both. If not, you can pick up a USB 3 to USB C dongle for just a couple dollars.


To start recovering from this problem, force quit Migration Assistant. You'll have an account (or several) that are incompletely migrated. You may have applications that are incompletely migrated. My personal preference for handling this is to reboot into the recovery partition, download the OS, reinstall it, and start fresh. This time migrating with the external hard drive.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Migration from Mac to Mac

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.