How do I clean up after Apple migration Assistant on my new iMac?

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Level 1

15 points

How do I clean up after Apple migration Assistant on my new iMac?

I just set up a new 2021 M1 iMac, replacing a 2015 21-inch iMac. The Migration Assistant appeared to hang during the setup, so I cancelled it and re-ran it standalone after setup had completed. I now have 168GB of my storage listed as 'Other' taking up far more drive space than on my old iMac. Is there a way to identify duplicate or other unnecessary files created during the data migration that I can safely delete or will I need to erase the drive, reinstall MacOS and restore from a Time Machine backup?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on May 24, 2021 12:09 PM

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Answer 1

be2653

Level 1

4 points

May 24, 2021 3:25 PM in response to G01ngG0n3

I think you have to do a clean install and do a migration assistance Again.

if you do a time machine backup and use it after the clean install, it will just put everything back including the "other" files.

I also bought a new Macbook and did Migration Assistance but since it moved the Library folder and other stuff from my old mac, I had issues on the new macbook. Had to do a clean install and move files manually with usb afterwards

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Answer 2

G01ngG0n3 Author

Level 1

15 points

May 24, 2021 5:06 PM in response to babowa

Figured it out; Go to 'Macintosh HD/Users'. There may be a 'Deleted Users' folder, which will contain a copy of user(s) previously copied. I compared the contents of the deleted user folder with the actual user folder (mine) from the initial migration for any non-duplicate files. After confirming no differences I deleted the duplicate folder under 'Deleted Users' which was causing the over-utilization of my disk space. Keep in mind that this was an instance where the Migration Assistant was run manually a second time after the first run under the initial setup on the new iMac appeared to hang, creating the user directory duplication.

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Answer 3

babowa

Level 9

78,441 points

May 24, 2021 4:25 PM in response to G01ngG0n3

The easiest way out of the mess is to go to recovery, erase the entire drive, download/install the OS and then, during setup, use Setup Assistant to migrate your data. That will work correctly; using Migration Assistant later always leaves a mess because a user account is already set up and it will set up another so you wind up with duplicates galore. Trying to sort through that mess is more than frustrating; before I knew better, I did that and after a week of trying to fix it, I finally erased and did it again using Setup Assistant. That worked.

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How do I clean up after Apple migration Assistant on my new iMac?

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