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Moving Photos app from El Capitan (10.11) to Catalina

I'm going from an early 2008 Mac Pro to a clean install on a Mac mini (M1). How do I move my organized Photos from one to the other? My organized iTunes from one to another? I am fearing that all of my categorization, organization, facial recognition, and rankings will be lost since they're not the same versions.

Mac Pro, OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 11, 2021 1:53 PM

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Posted on Feb 12, 2021 3:12 AM

You can select what Migration Assistant will move.

Do not import system or network settings or apps

Just use Migration Assistant to import your personal data.

Do not delete anything from the Mac Pro until you are happy

everything is working as you would like it on the Mac Mini.


2008 Mac Pro, graphics card easily replaced, quite easy to get other parts for it, maybe just needs a good clear out,

dismantled as much as you can and rebuild. I have clothed my entire family with the dust this thing collects.

My 2008 MP is still going strong, 13 years old in March.

Replaced a DVD drive and upgraded the graphics card, installed two SSD Drives and upgraded two HDDs,

If this thing ever pegs it I am going back to running about with sticks and making fire.

And yes "officially" it can't upgrade further.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 12, 2021 3:12 AM in response to LouIsFatAndSassy

You can select what Migration Assistant will move.

Do not import system or network settings or apps

Just use Migration Assistant to import your personal data.

Do not delete anything from the Mac Pro until you are happy

everything is working as you would like it on the Mac Mini.


2008 Mac Pro, graphics card easily replaced, quite easy to get other parts for it, maybe just needs a good clear out,

dismantled as much as you can and rebuild. I have clothed my entire family with the dust this thing collects.

My 2008 MP is still going strong, 13 years old in March.

Replaced a DVD drive and upgraded the graphics card, installed two SSD Drives and upgraded two HDDs,

If this thing ever pegs it I am going back to running about with sticks and making fire.

And yes "officially" it can't upgrade further.

Feb 11, 2021 7:56 PM in response to LouIsFatAndSassy

The Apple way would be to use Migration assistant which should preserve all of those settings.

The only way to find out is to do it.

You will still have the information on your Mac Pro to compare.

How did you organise your images on El Capitan, were you using iPhoto or Photos, or some other

imaging organiser.


Why are you giving up on the old 2008 Mac Pro these old cMPs are probably better than any mac that came

after them.

Feb 12, 2021 2:42 AM in response to Eau Rouge

I was using iPhoto, but moved to Photos with an upgrade when it required me to.


I’m graduating from my Mac Pro for a number of reasons, but not because it’s too slow. First, it’s 13 years old, so some parts are starting to fail (video card has some horizontal lines, disc trays won’t eject, one of my bays doesn’t work so I have to rely on a USB, it doesn’t support newer HDD SATA drives, the fan is occasionally very loud and probably needs replacing, etc); I want to stay ahead of it. Second, since it can’t upgrade past 10.11, many applications are no longer supported and I can’t even use some newer apps. It has been a very good beast, and I was hoping to get a used Mac Pro to replace it, but since they stopped making them until 2019, the used market is still insanely expensive. Maybe in a few years.

Feb 12, 2021 6:08 AM in response to Eau Rouge

The graphics card sells for more than the whole unit these days. I could just buy a 2012 instead of all of the parts. But then I could just spend double that an get a late 2020 Mac Mini, which is what I have done. Don't worry, she's not going to the scrapheap!


Yes, I clean her out pretty regularly. At least every different decade, which makes 3 times, minimum.


I just...don't want to maintain it as my primary.

Feb 19, 2021 6:05 AM in response to Eau Rouge

"You can select what Migration Assistant will move.

Do not import system or network settings or apps

Just use Migration Assistant to import your personal data."


Can you explain why this is your recommendation since Migration Assistant defaults to migrating just about everything? I could then just upgrade any apps that aren't 64bit. Or is there a major benefit to clean-installing everything? As much as I'd like to do this the "easy" way, I'd rather do it the "right" way.


Also, it looks like CS6 that I had was 64bit. Not sure if it works on the Mac Mini, but I suppose I'll see.

Moving Photos app from El Capitan (10.11) to Catalina

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