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Will Migration Assistant move my all my songs and photos? Will my photo and music structure be preserved? I am transferring information from my old MAC to a new MAC I received as a gift.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15
If the Music and Photos are all LOCALLY stored, then yes, that is what Migration Assistant does. If they are stored in iCloud, then you would need to log in to that iCloud account on the new Mac for the music and photos to appear there.
Depending on how old your old Mac is, you might have been using iTunes and iPhoto -- the new Macs have Apple Music and Photos, newer versions of those older apps. The visual appearances can differ in some ways, but the music and photo content is there in basically the same form.
See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350
Note that a slightly different process must be followed if the old Mac is running an OS earlier than Lion, as explained in the article.
If the Music and Photos are all LOCALLY stored, then yes, that is what Migration Assistant does. If they are stored in iCloud, then you would need to log in to that iCloud account on the new Mac for the music and photos to appear there.
Depending on how old your old Mac is, you might have been using iTunes and iPhoto -- the new Macs have Apple Music and Photos, newer versions of those older apps. The visual appearances can differ in some ways, but the music and photo content is there in basically the same form.
See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350
Note that a slightly different process must be followed if the old Mac is running an OS earlier than Lion, as explained in the article.
I had not used the new MacBook at all, this was part of its startup. I reversed the new machine as far as I could, using the MA (Migration Assistant) BACK key, and started again, even answering the most basic questions again. I stopped MA on the old machine. When the setup screens on the new machine got into MA I proceeded as closely as I could to the directions. When it instructed me to start MA on the old machine I did, again. This time MA on the new machine did not detect a Firewall and proceeded with the transfer. This was a wireless transfer and MA said the transfer would take 38 hours! But after an hour or so the estimate dropped to 3 hours. I went to bed and let the transfer proceed. When I looked at it in the morning it had completed. Only a QUIT MA keypress remained on the old machine and a few clean-up questions remained on the new machine. I don't know why the firewall was detected on the first pass. So all I can recommend is to do what I did, restart.
These are great answers and just what I was looking for. Oe additional question, are the iTunes stored ini the cloud transferred with enough information that they can be downloaded from the Cloud at a later time on the new machine? Thanks again.
Thank You Steve626. This is not going well. Now my new machine is saying there is a firewall in the way. I looked on my old machine and it says the Firewall is not active. On my new Mac I don't want to exit the setup to check because I'm afraid I can never return to this point. Maybe it is Genius Bar time. But that is a 2 1/2 hour drive.
It sounds like there is something configured on the old Mac that may be interfering. OR ... have you been using the new Mac and are now running Migration Assistant after the fact?
How are you transferring, I hope it is not wirelessly, that is very slow usually, and also it presents other possible issues if you are going through a router and its firewall is the issue.
If the Mac is brand new with nothing on it, you may have no choice but to try to quit or cancel the migration. Is that an option? Best would be if there is a cancel button. It should pick up where it left off.
If you have been using the new Mac, I think there also quitting or canceling is the best option at this point, as it appears the transfer won't proceed. If it has been used, could its firewall been set to reject incoming connections?
Last resort would be to force quit or hold the power button. But the migration does not affect the operating system so you should be able to restart ok.
To try again, I recommend making a Time Machine or "clone" type backup of your old machine and use that for migration assistant instead of trying to connect the two Macs. I have done Migration Assistant about 20 times over the years, every time using a backup drive as the place to migrate from, and it has always worked without issue.
You just need to be sure to be logged in to the same Apple ID on the new computer. Then it will have access to all the same items you have in iCloud as before.
Could have been that some WiFi interference caused a bit error which caused the firewall to appear to be misconfigured to Migration Assistant. We'll never know for sure, but you got through it ok!
Will Migration Assistant move my all my songs and photos? Will my photo and music structure be preserved?
