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Migration Assistant stuck on Updating System Settings for days now.

IN this thread: Migration assistant stuck - Apple Community someone reported that they were getting stuck in migration assistant at the end, with "Updating System Settings. 11 people said Me Too. That was in 2021. This has just happened to me trying to go from an M1 MBP to an M2 MBP with same disk size and same memory size. I have tried Old Machine to New Machine via ethernet and thunderbolt wire,, TimeMachine Back up to computer, all files and just backing up ONLY the account. The results are always the same. It takes some time to get to the end of finish transferring (which it reports that it transferred more files than requested -- like saying 15 out of 10 files transferred) and then changes to Updating System Settings. And there it sites. When using the TimeMachine Backup, about every 20 minutes the disk spins up, there is a small amount of action, and then it spins down. The machine is not froze. Hovering the cursor over the progress bar tells you how many files it transferred, and key presses play a funny little sound.


I called for support, and they did NOTHING, not even suggestions. Even implying they were not aware of this issue. Except Google search turns up discussions, and right here on the forum from 2021 is a thread on this problem.


So I am stuck too. My computer sits now for three days (I thought it might finish at some point)updating system settings.Must be a lot of settings. I guessing it might be setting privileges on each file, one at a time? If I cancel, which I tried, it wipes out all the files it has transferred, so I am not canceling again just yet. Maybe I'll give it a week.


But has anyone found a work around to this? Id really like to use my new computer without starting over. Thanks


MacBook Pro Apple Silicon 2023

Posted on Feb 7, 2023 6:43 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 27, 2023 2:45 PM

Leroy, thanks for taking the time to answer, but not really helpful.


I said. "If I cancel, it wipes out all the transferred data..." just like nothing happened, so rebooting would be very similar to canceling would it not? So how would rebooting be any different than canceling and rebooting? Are you suggesting I do a hard shutdown and reboot? That's a great way to damage a drive's structure if writes are going on.


Your advice on backup is not helpful at all and has nothing to do with this question. I have a number of backups actually (2 local, 2 remote), I just would rather migrate than download backup files and rebuild and set up everything again.


This was the initial boot of a brand new machine, and it asks if you want to migrate, then launches the migration assistant to do the transfer. M2s obviously have not been around that long, I assumed it was obvious, but maybe not. And Set Up runs the Migration Assistant to do the transfer to the new machine. When it failed, I also reinitialized the M2 to "new" and tried again, so just like brand new.


And the name of my question was "migration assistant stuck..." so obviously I am using migration assistant. So why would you just assume I was trying some other way? Again, might help to read my entire question before answering.


Thanks anyway, I do appreciate that you wanted to help. Just didn't tell me anything I did not already know from this this and the other thread, and I have been using Macs since the very first one, so kind of know how to use them.


cheers

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3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 27, 2023 2:45 PM in response to leroydouglas

Leroy, thanks for taking the time to answer, but not really helpful.


I said. "If I cancel, it wipes out all the transferred data..." just like nothing happened, so rebooting would be very similar to canceling would it not? So how would rebooting be any different than canceling and rebooting? Are you suggesting I do a hard shutdown and reboot? That's a great way to damage a drive's structure if writes are going on.


Your advice on backup is not helpful at all and has nothing to do with this question. I have a number of backups actually (2 local, 2 remote), I just would rather migrate than download backup files and rebuild and set up everything again.


This was the initial boot of a brand new machine, and it asks if you want to migrate, then launches the migration assistant to do the transfer. M2s obviously have not been around that long, I assumed it was obvious, but maybe not. And Set Up runs the Migration Assistant to do the transfer to the new machine. When it failed, I also reinitialized the M2 to "new" and tried again, so just like brand new.


And the name of my question was "migration assistant stuck..." so obviously I am using migration assistant. So why would you just assume I was trying some other way? Again, might help to read my entire question before answering.


Thanks anyway, I do appreciate that you wanted to help. Just didn't tell me anything I did not already know from this this and the other thread, and I have been using Macs since the very first one, so kind of know how to use them.


cheers

Feb 24, 2023 12:31 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks for the answer. Not my first rodeo, so yea, tired both machine to machine, and TimeMachine to machine with the exact same results. I have off site backups (several actually) but I really wanted the machine to be an exact copy of the 1 year old machine it was replacing, so I did not choose to recover that way, as no settings come along, and email can get really screwed up.


And yes, after waiting almost 2 days to see if it would finish on its own, I had to do a force shutdown. Several times on each attempt. Each time, when the machine rebooted, it was back to the non-updated original state, as if all the files it said it transferred had not been transferred. (That surprised me, but I suspect the files are not marked active until the very end so if the migration is stopped, there is "nothing there.)


And yes, I used set up assistant with the same results, and then tried migration assistant.


So thanks for all the suggestions, but I had tried them all already. Hopefully your suggestions will help others, but not me. That said...


I did finally get it to migrate to the new machine. I updated the MacOS on the source machine to the exact same as the one on the target machine, did a time machine backup, which went fairly fast and then did the migration. That all took a few hours (because I have a lot of files), but in the end, the target machine was properly updated with my previous settings, files, and all.

Feb 8, 2023 9:06 AM in response to orubin

orubin wrote:

IN this thread: Migration assistant stuck - Apple Community someone reported that they were getting stuck in migration assistant at the end, with "Updating System Settings. 11 people said Me Too. That was in 2021.

This has just happened to me trying to go from an M1 MBP to an M2 MBP with same disk size and same memory size.

I have tried Old Machine to New Machine via ethernet and thunderbolt wire,, TimeMachine Back up to computer, all files and just backing up ONLY the account.

The results are always the same. It takes some time to get to the end of finish transferring (which it reports that it transferred more files than requested -- like saying 15 out of 10 files transferred) and then changes to Updating System Settings. And there it sites. When using the TimeMachine Backup, about every 20 minutes the disk spins up, there is a small amount of action, and then it spins down. The machine is not froze. Hovering the cursor over the progress bar tells you how many files it transferred, and key presses play a funny little sound.

I called for support, and they did NOTHING, not even suggestions. Even implying they were not aware of this issue. Except Google search turns up discussions, and right here on the forum from 2021 is a thread on this problem.

So I am stuck too. My computer sits now for three days (I thought it might finish at some point)updating system settings.Must be a lot of settings. I guessing it might be setting privileges on each file, one at a time? If I cancel, which I tried, it wipes out all the files it has transferred, so I am not canceling again just yet. Maybe I'll give it a week.

But has anyone found a work around to this? Id really like to use my new computer without starting over. Thanks


Do you have an alternative backup to transfer besides the problem source...?


it is recommended for this reason—If you value your user data

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

More than one device, more than one backup methodology.



If you are stuck did you try a force quit a shut down? Mant times you find a reboot as normal and you are ready to go.


force quit a shutdown by holding the power button/TouchID for ~6-10 sec.

Force Shut down your Mac.


Log out, sleep, wake, restart or shut down your Mac

Shut down or restart your Mac - Apple Support



The most trouble free way to move to a new machine, is using the Setup Assistant on the initial boot of a brand new machine— you have one shot here. Set up your MacBook Pro - Apple Support


the second best way is using the Migration Assistant.

How to move your content to a new Mac Move content to a new Mac - Apple Support




Migration Assistant stuck on Updating System Settings for days now.

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