Both old and new iMac are frozen. Migration went fine for a while, then old iMac froze at “About 31 hours and 16 minutes remaining,” while the new one froze at “transferred 10972 files” but with the time remaining increasing a minute at a time, now up to almost 80 hours.
iMac 21.5″
When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method to migrate from the old Mac to the new Mac is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. You will likely need a USB A to USB C adapter, you can find them on Amazon for $10 or less. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.
If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.
The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.
Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps), data files & settings. They do not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not an issue.
Finally, never EVER use Wi-Fi when doing Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant. Why, it simply fails in most cases. Please read and follow the directions in Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant. If you do not have a Time Machine backup of the older Mac then create one! If you are not aware of Time Machine, please read Back up your Mac with Time Machine and finally if you need an External Hard Disk to use as a Time Machine External Hard Disk then many experience users on these forums prefer the OWC Mercury Elite Pro due to it's reasonable price, high level of quality and ease of use.
When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method to migrate from the old Mac to the new Mac is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. You will likely need a USB A to USB C adapter, you can find them on Amazon for $10 or less. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.
If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.
The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.
Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps), data files & settings. They do not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not an issue.
Finally, never EVER use Wi-Fi when doing Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant. Why, it simply fails in most cases. Please read and follow the directions in Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant. If you do not have a Time Machine backup of the older Mac then create one! If you are not aware of Time Machine, please read Back up your Mac with Time Machine and finally if you need an External Hard Disk to use as a Time Machine External Hard Disk then many experience users on these forums prefer the OWC Mercury Elite Pro due to it's reasonable price, high level of quality and ease of use.
Migrating over your local Wi-Fi Network is slow, un-reliable and highly prone to fail.
Migrating over a direct Ethernet to Ethernet connection (if the new iMac has an RJ45 port) is still slow, but more reliable.
Migrating from the old iMac's Time Machine or a clone backup on an external hard drive, is the easiest, fastest and most reliable way to move to a new iMac.
Sincere thanks to both who responded. I had previously tried migrating via ethernet cables *and* Time Machine external disc drive without success. The Time Machine yielded mysterious error messages, but I'm now halfway through another attempt which appears to be going smoothly. The only apparent difference is that this time I deleted lots of extraneous stuff from the drive before hooking it up.
Seems to me this was a lot easier last time I did it, five or six years ago. Maybe that's just me getting (significantly) older.
An hour and 39 minutes to go, so still opportunities for it to go belly up....but I'm hopeful.
Migration Assistant failure: both iMacs freeze mid-migration
