Setting up new MacBook
When transferring your data to a new MacBook from Time Machine, should you choose to rename your user account or replace your user account?
Question marked as
Hi MBsunshine2,
That is entirely your choice.
If you want to remove the existing user account and only restore the data in your Time Machine backup, you should choose to replace the user account. Your apps and system-wide settings will remain.
If you want to completely remove all previous data and only restore the contents of your backup, you should first erase and reinstall macOS, then restore from your Time Machine backup in Setup Assistant.
If you want to preserve all existing data and merge the contents of your backup with what you already have on your Mac, you should choose to rename the existing account. This might result in having two user accounts with the exact same data, but you can easily remove the duplicate account afterwards using System Preferences -> Users and Groups.
Hope this helps!