Selective migration from old mac to new?

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Selective migration from old mac to new?

I've just bought a new Macbook Air to replace my 8-year old model. My current/old one is a bit chaotic and there's a lot of junk built up on it. I'm looking forward to starting afresh with a new clean laptop and therefore don't want to transfer *everything* over (I especially don't want my mess of a desktop to just be replicated on the new Mac).

That said, there are lots of documents that I do need to be on the new one. I haven't used Migration Assistant before - can it be done quite selectively - i.e you pick what you want moved across and what you don't? That said, I'm running a very old OS on my old laptop (Yosemite) and am not sure it's able to upgrade to the required to even use migration assistant. In that case, can I use Time Machine - and again, can I be selective in what I move across, rather than copying over the entirety of my old Mac? Is it a case of organising/c;leaning up the old Mac before attempting to transfer anything (that feels like a big job!).

Grateful for any ideas.

Yours,

Clueless

MacBook Air 13″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Aug 20, 2022 9:38 AM

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Answer 1

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John Galt

Level 10

146,588 points

Aug 20, 2022 3:57 PM in response to CT_678

Migration Assistant only allows you to choose among broad categories of items to transfer.

There are two approaches to setting up a new Mac, and the one I advise is to transfer information from the one it's replacing — either directly or from its Time Machine backup. It makes literally no difference which you choose. Do that when initially setting up the Mac. The setup assistant will segregate apps that are not compatible with the new operating system. It works well and that's what I have been doing for decades.

Refer to Set up your MacBook Air - Apple Support.

Is it a case of organising/c;leaning up the old Mac before attempting to transfer anything (that feels like a big job!).

That's what I'd do. Of course it would be ideal not to accumulate a lot of stuff to begin with, but if you transfer everything you can take as long as you want to decide what you need and what you don't. Every once in a while I may find an old file or Preference that has not been used or updated in ages, and drag it to the Trash.

And some things I keep around for no particular reason:

The point is, whatever software you have that still works will continue to work if you transfer everything. There may be some obscure apps that can't be obtained any more.

(And yes, I did buy PCalc because it's an indispensable utility that I highly recommend. I just like looking at the old version once in a while.)

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Selective migration from old mac to new?

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