Transfer data from an old iMac to a new iMac

Question

Level 1

22 points

Transfer data from an old iMac to a new iMac

Hi everyone,

I'll be soon receiving my new iMac and I would like to know what is the "best" way to transfer my data, my settings, my apps, everything. The old one is a late 2013 iMac 21" with macOS Catalina, the new one... well I think it will have BigSur...

I do not want to upgrade the OS of the old one. It is too slow to upgrade (imho) and it is my "production" machine where I need to work until the new one runs perfectly.

I do have TimeMachine backups. The disk of the old Mac has about 550 GB used on it.

Is the migration assistant the best way? Even with so many GB to transfer?

Or is the TimeMachine Backup better?

I do not want to risk to "clog" my new iMac with the OS of the old... does TimeMachine restore only the data and settings?

I'll be grateful for any opinion (I've seen there is a previous thread about this question, but it was locked)

Thanks in advance

Best regards

Claudio

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 8, 2021 10:16 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Jack-19

Level 8

46,062 points

Feb 8, 2021 10:24 PM in response to Claudio P.

Hi Claudio P.,

Here are the ways:

Time Machine (External Drive) Restore - Simple, Quick, Easy. (Can transfer old system "junk".)
Manually copy data - Everything is new on the new Mac, and you only transfer what you want, and only your content, not system info.
Migration Assistant - Typically shows poor reliability and is very slow.

Cheers,

Jack

Reply

Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

144,856 points

Feb 8, 2021 10:38 PM in response to Claudio P.

When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.

If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.

The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.

Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps) , data files, settings, it does not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not a big deal.

Reply

Answer 3

Claudio P. Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 9, 2021 1:18 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Hey, thanks a lot to both @rkaufmann87 and @Jack-89 for the compact and very helpful answers.

I do have a Time Machine external disk backup (that's how I do backups anyway) and since I now have the confirmation that it will not "reload" the old MacOS, that's the way I will go.

The only small question remaining would be @Jack-89 what kind of "junk" could be transferred? To copy everything "by hand" (option 2) would be very time consuming and error prone, wouldn't it? I am not so expert as to be able to copy (for example) the "Photo"-Library or the Musik-Library... So actually I would prefer option 1 (Time Machine)

As soon as I will have completed the migration I'll try to give feedback here, how it went.

Best regards

Claudio

PS: how do you insert the (linked) name of a user, as you did? :-)

Reply

Answer 4

qbht

Level 1

22 points

Feb 9, 2021 1:16 AM in response to Claudio P.

I usually backup my softwares and setting by iCloud it will be fast and safe but Time Machine is so easy and safe also for people are not looking for headache. with Time Machine you don't need upgrade your old OS also and you will not loose any data but you will not have a clean OS. use

Reply

Answer 5

Claudio P. Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 10, 2021 10:15 PM in response to Claudio P.

Hi everyone,

the migration has worked with the Time Machine method. Thanks again everyone.

Only there are two issues, but I think I will have to post them separately.

1) the new iMac has only 500 GB SSD Disk and I had more data than this (films and photos) so I had to "leave them back" to complete the migration. I guess the right way would be to have an external disk for this kind of data

2) the passwords from Safari have not been imported (that is a problem actually)

Best regards & again thanks

Claudio

Reply

Answer 6

Claudio P. Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 11, 2021 12:00 AM in response to qbht

Hi qbht,

For some strange reasons, yesterday after terminating the transfer, it did not work but today after I started the new iMac and followed the system setting requirements to log in in my Apple-ID again, now the Keychain ("Schlüsselbund") works again (from iCloud, of course). And my Passwords in Safari are there again. :-)

Thanks a lot

Regards

Claudio

Reply