Migration assistant

Before you begin

• Update the software on both computers.
• Make sure that both computers have Wi-Fi turned on and are near each other. If either of them is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, make sure that they're on the same Wi-Fi network.
• If you installed antivirus or firewall software, turn that software off until you're done.

We could troubleshoot your computer-computer connection, which generally has a solution but will require some investigation. Both computers must be configured properly and any number of things could be the root cause.

Instead, you can make a Time Machine backup of the old Mac. Then you simply run Migration Assistant on the new Mac and select the option to migrate from a Time Machine backup, which you then connect for this purpose to the new Mac.

Be careful that you have not already created a user on the new Mac with the same username as the account you are transferring from the old Mac. That can result in a confusing situation, which is fixable, but best avoided.

The Migration works best on first boot up of the new Mac, before any users have been created.

If you already created such a user, with the same username as the one you are migrating, it might make sense to first create another administrator user, say called ADMIN, then log in as that user and delete the other user so its account can be migrated unimpeded from the old Mac.