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Migration Assistant incomplete transfer

I have a time machine backup. I had repairs made to my mabook air laptop which required a clean wipe (new logic board). After using Migration Assistant to transfer the time machine backup, back onto the repaired machine, Migration Assistant gives a message that migration is complete. However only moved a fraction (~1/10) of the files/apps/settings etc., after transferred after two tries....Can anyone suggest solutions for a complete/total migration of a time machine backup? Thank you.

MacBook Air (2020 or later)

Posted on Dec 14, 2021 6:47 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 15, 2021 8:28 AM

We were able to restore my backup using an older backup (one before the latest). This fixed the issue. (Option-shift-command-R: start up from Mac OS recovery on the internet. This reinstalled the version of OS X that came with my Mac and allowed me to select a backup other than the most recent during the set up.


Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 15, 2021 8:28 AM in response to SnickZ.

We were able to restore my backup using an older backup (one before the latest). This fixed the issue. (Option-shift-command-R: start up from Mac OS recovery on the internet. This reinstalled the version of OS X that came with my Mac and allowed me to select a backup other than the most recent during the set up.


Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

Dec 15, 2021 7:52 AM in response to katherinefromnorman

Hello katherinefromnorman, 


Apple Support Communities is a great place for help with Time Machine, and restoring a Time Machine backup to your Mac. It sounds as though you’ve walked through the right steps with using Migration Assistant to restore to the backup you have available. When restoring to the backup via Migration Assistant, are you making sure that all options are checked as outlined in the following article?


Restore your Mac from a backup


If not, make sure that all options have been selected. If they already have been, or after selecting all options content is still missing. It’s possible it may not have been stored in the backup. If the missing content is synced to iCloud, you would want to make sure you’re signed in to iCloud, and the sync settings are enabled within System Preferences so the content returns. You can find more information about using iCloud on your Mac in the following article.


Set up iCloud on all your devices


Take care!

Migration Assistant incomplete transfer

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