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Transferring Old Mac to New Mac through Migration

First step is to be sure all updates have been done.

My Mac has OS Big Sur. I do not have the space to update to OS Monterrey. is this a problem while trying to migrate? How can I be sure that my Mac's backup to cloud is current?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Feb 3, 2022 10:23 AM

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Question marked as Apple recommended

The way to migrate is to either connect your old and new Macs or backup your old Mac with Time Machine and use that backup to migrate.


See this link on how to migrate between Macs: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350


Additionally, see this link to backup your Mac with Time Machine: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Posted on Feb 3, 2022 10:26 AM

7 replies
Question marked as Apple recommended

Feb 3, 2022 10:26 AM in response to GrammyX10_5

The way to migrate is to either connect your old and new Macs or backup your old Mac with Time Machine and use that backup to migrate.


See this link on how to migrate between Macs: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350


Additionally, see this link to backup your Mac with Time Machine: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Feb 4, 2022 3:33 AM in response to GrammyX10_5

If the new computer is going to be the Apple Silicon M1 Equipped Computer - would suggest Only Migrating the User Account and nothing more.


1 - Apple Silicon with either Big Sur macOS 11 or Monterey macOS 12 Only Support everything 64 bit and there is no workaround.


2 - Issues that may exist on the older computer will be migrated to the New Computer. This would badly pollute the new Original and Pristine installation of the new OS.


3 -  Applications, extensions and Software Drivers may or may not even work on the new computer.


4 - IMHO - it would be best to only install new application etc Directly from the Developer or the Apple Apps Store.


5 - Due Diligence on New Applications and make sure they are Monterey / Big Sur compatible and factor in the ARMs CPU of the Apple Silicon Computer  


6 - iCloud was designed as means to have files on iCloud so other devices, owned by the user, can access the same files on all other devices. Further, changes to a file on device # 1 will be reflected on all other devices.


iCloud is not designed or intended to work like an External Drive to archive data. That should be achieved by a Time Machine Backup.


For good measure - Do you have a Rescue Plan In-Place. This comprises having 3 Backups using 2 methods and 1 Off Site incase of Theft, Loss or Natural Disasters.


A Time Machine Backup  is very useful and can be used to Revert to Previous Working macOS.


For additional purposes - two Tested Bootable Clones each to separate external drives. This is insurance incase. At least one Tested Clone and / or Time Machine Backup should be Off - Site

Feb 4, 2022 4:06 AM in response to GrammyX10_5

FWIW my son just successfully migrated 2015 250 GB MBP to a new 1TB M1 MBP like this:


Do the final Carbon Copy Cloner Big Sur update to an external (bootable) backup.


Connect that external backup disk to the brand new M1 Monterey MBP via USB (he has an Apple USB A-C adapter) and choose it in the Migration assistant. He chose to select all items because he did not want to re-install any apps.


After 25 minutes and all data and user files, settings iCloud items and Universal and Intel apps migrated OK.


He keeps the old Big Sur backup for a while and continues with bootable Monterey CCC backups later (I hope they will continue to be bootable also in the M1 Mac).


I have briefly tried Time Machine but prefer CCC for speed and bootability (although macOS updates might sometimes make the data-only clone unbootable which is fixed by applying the full macOS installer).

Feb 4, 2022 4:22 AM in response to P. Phillips

Another method to keep the data-only CCC clone bootable is to apply the macOS incremental update also to it separately.


But the trouble is that not all macOS updates make the clone unbootable (after the master disk is data-only cloned to the backup).


CCC support suspected that bootability needs some items from the data disk and if the master and clone macOS versions differ too much, even a data-only clone makes the clone unbootable. CCC support sees fixing this a moving target.

Transferring Old Mac to New Mac through Migration

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