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Migration from iMac to new MacBook Air 15

I am finding this incredibly frustrating and disappointing. Using migration assistant I have got as far as ‘Transferring documents’ with a blue line going from side to side, but there it has stayed for 20 hours. I have just clicked on ‘connection details’ and it returned the inscrutable message “(null)” (null) -> (null) on this Mac , with a red dot alongside. Can anyone translate this for me?


I am reluctant to cancel and start again because this is the third period of 20 hours without success, but on the other hand am I just wasting my time letting it go on seeming to be doing something when it might just be stuck in an eternal loop. If this were the case why isn’t there an error message?

I would be very grateful for any helpful suggestions.

MacBook Air (M2, 2023)

Posted on Jul 8, 2023 5:01 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 8, 2023 7:10 AM

Can you describe how you're implementing Migration Assistant? There are three methods, so it would be helpful to know which one you're using. (Direct connection Thunderbolt --> Thunderbolt on the two Macs; Via Time Machine backup external drive; Via WiFi). Are you choosing to migrate everything, or only certain things?


You didn't provide any details about the iMac you're migrating from...you can find those on the iMac by clicking on the Apple icon in the top left corner and selecting About This Mac. Are there any issues with this iMac? Is the Mac OS as updated as possible on it?


I migrated from my old late 2016 MacBook Pro to my new 15" MacBook Air a couple of weeks ago with no issues. I chose to migrate using a Thunderbolt cable connected from my MacBook to my new MacBook Air. While I respect woodmeister50's opinion of migrating using the Time Machine backup, I don't agree with it. I found the Thunderbolt-->Thunderbolt method much, much faster than either of the other two methods. (My entire migration took about 30 minutes to transfer nearly 900GB of data from my old MacBook Pro). But, of course, if your iMac doesn't have a Thunderbolt port, this option isn't available to you.


Anyway...perhaps some more details could help us.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 8, 2023 7:10 AM in response to RAD321

Can you describe how you're implementing Migration Assistant? There are three methods, so it would be helpful to know which one you're using. (Direct connection Thunderbolt --> Thunderbolt on the two Macs; Via Time Machine backup external drive; Via WiFi). Are you choosing to migrate everything, or only certain things?


You didn't provide any details about the iMac you're migrating from...you can find those on the iMac by clicking on the Apple icon in the top left corner and selecting About This Mac. Are there any issues with this iMac? Is the Mac OS as updated as possible on it?


I migrated from my old late 2016 MacBook Pro to my new 15" MacBook Air a couple of weeks ago with no issues. I chose to migrate using a Thunderbolt cable connected from my MacBook to my new MacBook Air. While I respect woodmeister50's opinion of migrating using the Time Machine backup, I don't agree with it. I found the Thunderbolt-->Thunderbolt method much, much faster than either of the other two methods. (My entire migration took about 30 minutes to transfer nearly 900GB of data from my old MacBook Pro). But, of course, if your iMac doesn't have a Thunderbolt port, this option isn't available to you.


Anyway...perhaps some more details could help us.

Migration from iMac to new MacBook Air 15

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