Migration assistant not finding time machine

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Level 1

9 points

Migration assistant not finding time machine

New MBA with M1. BigSur. Attach a USB time machine backup disk created from a MBP, also running Big Sur. Start Migration assistant on the MBA and it does not find the USB drive even though it is attached and I can see it in Finder. It just keeps looking for a TimeMachine backup.

I tried to reattach it to the router (AirPort Extreme) and the MBA did find it! But I really do not want to restore over the network because last time I did that it took over 36 hours - at that time there was about 400Gb of data. More data to restore this time!

MacBook

Posted on Dec 10, 2020 9:33 AM

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PecosPeet Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 10, 2020 11:27 AM in response to PecosPeet

A little more perseverance and I could have avoided posting this question.

I found a solution that worked for me. Migration Assistant had found my other laptop on the network and offered that as the only source for copying data. I did not highlight that. Instead, with nothing selected, I clicked on Continue. That brought up a box asking for the password for the encrypted back up - that's the encrypted backup on the USB drive that I wanted to use. From that point on, everything has worked well.

I have no idea if the problem is the way M.A. handles encrypted backups or if there was some other issue. But hopefully if anyone else runs into this problem, clicking on Continue will take you where everything finally works.

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