I started my Migration Assistant about 8 hrs ago to xfer files from my MacPro cylinder to my new Mac Studio. The file count is now at transferring 313,366 files at 114.5 MB/s. The total file count show at over 2 million. Time is showing about 41 hours to transfer everything. Is this unusual?
Mac Pro, macOS 12.6
To get fairly speedy transfers, EACH leg of the connection must go over Ethernet cables. if any goes over Wi-Fi it will still be slow.
If you can connect your backup drive using USB, it will be FAR faster than over the network.
That screenshot says it is using ThunderBolt, which should be the fastest available.
One unexpected issue that can cause dramatic slowdowns is Bad Blocks on a rotating magnetic drive. Worst case re-reading can add a quarter minute for each block that must be re-read the maximum number of times.
Despite terms like 'Migration' and 'Moving', what this process does is COPY. No changes are made to the original source, so you can use a different method at any time and all that is lost is the elapsed TIME -- no source files are changed.
No, its not unusual.
Migration to a new Mac:
Move content to a new Mac - Apple support
Move content to a new Mac - Apple Support
Migration Assistant 'takes over' both computers, and takes a surprisingly long elapsed time. First it may need to compute a Spotlight index of the data. Once data transfer begins, it takes a bit longer than a FULL backup, likely all afternoon to overnight. You may want to set this up late in the day and let it run overnight, and be ready for it not to be done by morning.
"the best way" is to use your Time machine backup from the old Mac as the source for Migration Assistant running on the new Mac. USB-2 is as fast as almost every Rotating Magnetic drive, and will not produce a noticeable slowdown doing this transfer.
The way that always works but will seem really slow is using Wi-Fi through your Router.
If you could use Ethernet through your Router to BOTH Macs, that would be much faster. OR, if your old Mac is running 10.12 Sierra or later it can establish an Ad-hoc private Wi-fi connection to the new Mac when placed near the new Mac and both running Migration Assistant.
If your old Mac has no Thunderbolt-3 ports, Thunderbolt Bridge is off the table.
A USB cord sounds like a great idea, but does not work because USB is a local peripheral interface, and a Network interface is required, unless you can make your old Mac "look like a drive' to the new Mac.
Target Disk Mode can allow your old Mac to become a Hard drive, and it can be cable-connected to the new Mac. It requires ThunderBolt cable connection, so for a Thunderbolt-2 old Mac, you would need to obtain a Thunderbolt-3 <-> ThunderBolt-2 adapter (US$50) and a Thunderbolt-2 cable.
Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support
Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support
Thanks for that thorough answer. I started this Friday morning and the hours estimate keeps growing. I assume I have nothing to loose at this point by migrating from Time Machine? Currently the connection is via Thunderbolt cable. I have a cat 5 cable from the old computer to internet connection.
How long is too long for Migration assistant?
