migrate from Mojave drive clone to new laptop with Ventura

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migrate from Mojave drive clone to new laptop with Ventura

I purchased a 2023 MacbookPro 16 which came with Ventura installed. On first boot up, the laptop updated the OS to v13.2 from whatever version of Ventura was installed.

Having successfully done that, and signing into my iCloud account, I used Migration Assistant to transfer files from a clone of my desktop, running Mojave, to the new laptop. I didn't deselect any of the categories or files listed as available to transfer.

It all went remarkably well, but there are numerous files and folders that are nowhere to be found on the laptop, most specifically folders of pictures and documents that were located on the top level of the cloned hard drive. A full search of the laptop doesn't find the files or folders.

I didn't receive a log of any errors or exclusions, and am running across missing items as I get used to the new OS. Are the missing items "hiding," quarantined somewhere, or truly missing?

Any help or advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

-SS-

Posted on Feb 7, 2023 2:28 PM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

56,840 points

Feb 12, 2023 11:55 AM in response to schifrin

schifrin wrote:

I used Migration Assistant to transfer files from a clone of my desktop, running Mojave, to the new laptop. I didn't deselect any of the categories or files listed as available to transfer.

there are numerous files and folders that are nowhere to be found on the laptop, most specifically folders of pictures and documents that were located on the top level of the cloned hard drive.

I've highlighted a very important part of your post "located on the top level". If you mean the root of the Mojave boot drive, then the items were moved to the "/Users/Shared" folder inside a folder called "Reallocated Items".

If a Relocated Items folder appears on your Mac after upgrading macOS - Apple Support

It is no longer permitted to store anything outside of the "/Users" folder beginning with macOS 10.15 Catalina. See these Apple articles for more information about the new drive layouts and security features of the new drive layouts:

About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina or later - Apple Support

Signed system volume security in iOS, iPadOS, and macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Lee_ms

Community Specialist

Feb 9, 2023 9:29 AM in response to schifrin

Hi schifrin,

If you were using iCloud to store data like your documents and photos they wouldn't come over through the migration. Instead they will download from your iCloud account locally to the computer. Here's how to check some of those settings:

"Turn on Desktop and Documents

Turn on Desktop and Documents on every Mac that you want to use with iCloud Drive.

From your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings. In macOS Monterey or earlier, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences.
Click Apple ID, then click iCloud.
Make sure that iCloud Drive is turned on.
Next to iCloud Drive, click Options.
Choose Desktop & Documents Folders."

You can take a look at the full resource here: Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Take care.

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Answer 3

Feb 11, 2023 4:38 PM in response to schifrin

Some files on a clone, rather than the original source, could have different permissions, or perhaps those files never made it onto the clone due to permissions issues.

Despite the main article being entitled "MOVE content to a new device.." only a COPY is performed, and the original is not modified.

Move content to a new Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

56,840 points

Feb 12, 2023 5:04 PM in response to schifrin

schifrin wrote:

Just to make sure I'm calling things by their right name, by "top level," I mean all the items revealed with one opens the "HardDisc" icon.

Sounds like the root of the drive then. Some other system related folders on the root of the drive would be "Users", "Applications", and "System"to name a few.

Only one of the folders inside the reallocated items folder has the dreaded "you don't have permission" finger wag that Grant mentioned above. I'll assume for now that the fix for that follows the usual Mac procedure. So far it appears that the only thing with improper permissions is the folder itself, not the contents.

Yes, you should be able to use the normal macOS method of changing permissions on the folder and possibly the enclosed items:

Change permissions for files, folders, or disks on Mac - Apple Support

Or you can just drag & drop that locked folder into a folder within your home user folder which should prompt you for your admin password. The folder and its contents should now have your user account as the owner. At least this is what would happen with older versions of macOS.

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Answer 5

schifrin Author

Level 1

18 points

Feb 11, 2023 11:41 AM in response to Lee_ms

Thanks so much, Lee_ms for the reply.

Unfortunately in this instance, I don't use iCloudDrive to back up documents or the desktop, as the computer backs up daily to an attached RAID array, and I like to have a lot of those things resident on the computes so that, in the case of the laptops, I'm not relying on someone else's network/WiFi connection, or lack of one.

I still can't figure out where these might have gone.

I'm also now slogging my way through the new "online only" restrictions on Dropbox, which used to give users the option of local storage as well as cloud storage, for the same reasons. On migration, all the files resident on the Mojave machine were moved to a Dropbox folder within the new Cloud Storage folder, each with a little download icon next to them. Getting them back on the new machine has been painfully slow...

I re-populated the Dropbox folder in the User's folder, but new additions to it appear only in the Cloud Storage folder.

Again, thanks, Lee-ms.

-SS-

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Answer 6

schifrin Author

Level 1

18 points

Feb 11, 2023 3:30 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks, Grant. I looked at that this morning, having also read about it in a related thread. I've always been long on storage space due to my desire to keep things as handy and independent as possible, so I normally don't invoke the Optimization. Not that somewhere along the line it couldn't have defaulted to "on" from some update. I've searched the Ventura drive for a random assortment of filenames that were in the original folders missing on the Mojave drive, and keep coming up empty, so neither they nor any pointers to them are anywhere to be found. It's just curious.

-SS-

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Answer 7

schifrin Author

Level 1

18 points

Feb 12, 2023 2:37 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks, Grant. Permissions have always caused me a bit of grief from the first time I ever migrated files to a new computer and had a conflict with the user account name conflict by forgetting to name the new user something different than the user I was migrating. Yes, that's worth looking into.

-SS-

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Answer 8

schifrin Author

Level 1

18 points

Feb 12, 2023 3:21 PM in response to HWTech

HW,

This is incredibly illuminating and educational.

I've looked in the shared folder you mentioned, and indeed there are gobs of files there. Just to make sure I'm calling things by their right name, by "top level," I mean all the items revealed with one opens the "HardDisc" icon. Almost all the items in the reallocated items folder were on the desktop of the Mojave disc, many of which were aliases to their actual folders at various locations on that disc, quite a few were on the "top level" of the Mojave drive. Only one of the folders inside the reallocated items folder has the dreaded "you don't have permission" finger wag that Grant mentioned above. I'll assume for now that the fix for that follows the usual Mac procedure. So far it appears that the only thing with improper permissions is the folder itself, not the contents.

So many places to look, and from you links, a couple of rabbit holes to follow, but I'll end up a lot smarter when I'm done, so thank you very much.

-SS-

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