Migration Assistant Hung at "Transferring Your Information" "Starting up..." screen - progress bar complete

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Level 1

4 points

Migration Assistant Hung at "Transferring Your Information" "Starting up..." screen - progress bar complete

I've seen several posts relating to similar situations (with inconclusive answers). However, the symptoms that I'm having are slightly different. The time machine restore occurred overnight and seemed to have progressed fine. It is from a USB connected backup to an SSD internal drive. The screen is as described in the subject line. But my screen doesn't have a "back" button as others have described. Just "Transferring Your Information" as the title, an iMac icon in the middle with the description "This Mac" and a progress bar that is all blue with the description "Starting up...". It has been in this state for at least 4 hours. I'm hesitant to force a restart.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Apr 27, 2022 11:21 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

141,318 points

Apr 27, 2022 11:53 AM in response to winterr

You are leaving out some very critical context such as what exactly are you trying to achieve. If you want to migrate from an older Mac to a new Mac and are using the older Mac's Time Machine backup EHD to migrate please state that. If you are trying to do something else, please write clearly so we understand what you are attempting to achieve.

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Answer 2

winterr Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 27, 2022 1:46 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Good point. I replaced my failed disk with an SSD and set up the OS on it. So same hardware. I'm restoring from a recent Time Machine backup from a USB connected drive. The iMac is a Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014 model. I did use Internet recovery mode and it installed Yosemite. I was assuming that the time machine restore would lay down Big Sur. But perhaps the old Yosemite version of Time Machine has a bug?

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Answer 3

winterr Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 29, 2022 8:56 AM in response to winterr

It worked much better when I upgraded to my latest possible OS (Big Sur in my case) and then using Migration Assistant. Interesting side-note, it is a good idea to make sure your recovery partition is updated so you have the latest tools. In my case, it still had Yosemite.

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Answer 4

winterr Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 27, 2022 7:28 PM in response to rkaufmann87

So you are suggesting that I install and upgrade from Yosemite to Big Sur - then do the Time Machine restore?

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Answer 5

winterr Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 27, 2022 1:48 PM in response to winterr

I'm also restoring nearly 3TB of data so maybe it just takes that long to finish. Although it is strange that there is not a hint of activity occurring and the progress bar shows complete.

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

141,318 points

Apr 27, 2022 6:12 PM in response to winterr

Your problem is that Mac OS will not migrate from a newer version of Mac OS to an older version of Mac OS. You have to move forward with technology as a general rule of thumb.

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