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Migration of MacBook Air Sierra to MacBook Air Big Sur

My wife's old MacBook Air (one of the very first 11 inch Air) running Sierra is being replaced with a much newer MacBook Air running Big Sur. I have tried to migrate using WiFi --they (I don't know which one) keep dropping the connection. Can I use an USB cable to connect them? Is there actually a USB cable with two male ends?

MacBook Air

Posted on May 30, 2021 12:16 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 30, 2021 12:55 PM

Are the two Macs near each other? They should be. See step 2 under “Get ready” here.

Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

3 replies

Jun 1, 2021 5:31 PM in response to eddy7491

Status update: Using 12 inch USB male to USB male cable --tried both with and without this cable. Both computers are on the same local WiFi network. Sharing is turned on on both computers. Firewall is off on both computers. Source (old) computer is an original 11 inch MacBook Air (late 2010) running Sierra 10.12.6. Target (newish) computer is a refurbished MacBook Air (early 2015) running Big Sur (11.4). Process freezes with old computer showing that the computer is searching for applications and documents to transfer. New computer shows the old computer icon, says checking old computer, suddenly a popup says it cannot connect. I have tried turning off both computers a starting "fresh" several (at least 6) times --always stalls at the same point (cannot connect). Is there a fix for this or am I stuck with a tedious reinstall of all applications and copy of documents to an USB drive and transfer to newer computer?

Migration of MacBook Air Sierra to MacBook Air Big Sur

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