I have a new iMac arriving today. I want to move entire contents of old iMac to it, but that machine is very old (purchased 2010 or 2011, PowerPC chip). Does Migration Assistant work with machines that are that old? With High Sierra. Newest OS not supported on my old Mac. Thanks!
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13
When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. If you are using a M1 based iMac you will need a USB A to USB C adapter, you can find them on Amazon for $10 or less. or you may need to invest in a hub. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.
If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.
The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.
Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps) , data files, settings, it does not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not a big deal.
Finally, NEVER EVER use WiFi to migrate, this will fail in almost 100% of the situations in my experience. WiFi was never intended to move large amounts of data at one time.
When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. If you are using a M1 based iMac you will need a USB A to USB C adapter, you can find them on Amazon for $10 or less. or you may need to invest in a hub. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.
If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.
The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.
Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps) , data files, settings, it does not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not a big deal.
Finally, NEVER EVER use WiFi to migrate, this will fail in almost 100% of the situations in my experience. WiFi was never intended to move large amounts of data at one time.
More on the above (correct) reply…
Migration Assistant works with macOS Lion OS X 10.7.5 and later.
Click or tap for details > Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support
As stated above, either cabling directly, or working off a Time Machine backup of the old machine, or working from a Disk Utility disk image (clone) copy of the old machine on an external storage device, is preferred. I’d also tend to avoid the Wi-Fi migration path, as that path is both slow, and prone to glitches if your Wi-Fi is at all unstable.
You will not have access to your existing 32-bit apps from High Sierra.
You might want to run the Go64 app on High Sierra before you upgrade, to see which apps you will need to update, upgrade, replace, or retire.
You will lose access to the 32-bit Office 2011 apps and earlier versions if you use Office for instance, and will need to upgrade to Office 2016, Office 2019, the upcoming Office 2021, the Office 365 subscription, or switch to LibreOffice app, or maybe migrate to the Apple iWork apps that can read and write many Office documents. Your Office documents will be migrated.
It will work with your Macs. Simply use an Ethernet cable to connect the new Mac and the old Mac directly together. Do not use Wi-Fi.
Also, it cannot have a PowerPC chip. It is an Intel Chip.
Cheers,
Jack
Migration Assistant - Very Old Mac to New
