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I have an older iMac and will be buying a new iMac. How do I migrate all the information on my old system to the new system? Do I need any wire type connection or can I do it via wifi?

I have an older iMac and will be buying a new iMac. How do I migrate all the information from my old system to my new system? Do I need some type of hard wire or can it be done wifi? Thank you.



iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 22, 2021 2:20 PM

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Posted on Jan 22, 2021 2:47 PM

Do you have Time Machine setup on your old Machine? Or a clone of your hard drive on an external HD?


If yes to either connect the backup drive to your new Mac and when you first boot up your new Mac you'll get to a window where you choose from where you want to copy your data files from. Select the backup and continue.


You do not want to use WiFi to do the transfer if you have to use your old Mac. I'd try using an ethernet cable between the two as it will be much faster and more reliable.


This Apple document describes it in detail: Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 22, 2021 2:47 PM in response to rnbass

Do you have Time Machine setup on your old Machine? Or a clone of your hard drive on an external HD?


If yes to either connect the backup drive to your new Mac and when you first boot up your new Mac you'll get to a window where you choose from where you want to copy your data files from. Select the backup and continue.


You do not want to use WiFi to do the transfer if you have to use your old Mac. I'd try using an ethernet cable between the two as it will be much faster and more reliable.


This Apple document describes it in detail: Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support


I have an older iMac and will be buying a new iMac. How do I migrate all the information on my old system to the new system? Do I need any wire type connection or can I do it via wifi?

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