With regards to the article "Move Your Content to a New Mac" I was linked to for my new M1 iMac: Not sure I understand the instructions under "1. Select the information to transfer" regarding replacing or renaming the account name. I want my new Mac to look and act just like my old one. Second, my wife has an account on the old machine. Does she log in and run Migration Assistant for herself?
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15
When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method to migrate from the old Mac to the new Mac -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. You will likely need a USB A to USB C adapter, you can find them on Amazon for $10 or less. 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, please NEVER EVER use WI-FI to migrate, this will fail in almost 100% of the situations in my experience. WI-FI 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 to migrate from the old Mac to the new Mac -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. You will likely need a USB A to USB C adapter, you can find them on Amazon for $10 or less. 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, please NEVER EVER use WI-FI to migrate, this will fail in almost 100% of the situations in my experience. WI-FI was never intended to move large amounts of data at one time.
The support page I was directed to by Apple's "Welcome to Your New iMac" email was https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350?cid=trx-us-dm-ppm-sup-00ONLINE_SESSION_PD2_VID_INVITE00-enus-xx-xx. Please reference. I also looked at the support site for "restore your Mac from a backup" referenced in the first section of that page. Both suggest slightly different schemes that you do, and both have the same text that I can't quite understand in the section "Select the information to transfer". Both also appear to like WiFi transfer. So.....
My method works 100% of the time as witnessed by hundreds of others on these forums not to mention the over 10 Macs I have owned over the years. Why does it work, because its simple and direct.
Yes, I have read Apples article many times by the way.
Thank you.
Rename or replace account name in Migration Assistant
