Transferring all data from old iMac to a new one

Peter,

Essentially, you have 4 means of migrating from an old to a new(er) Mac:

• Via WiFi (slow, and doesn't always work properly)
• Via Time Machine backup external drive (back up your old Mac to a Time Machine external drive, then eject it and plug it into your new Mac, and tell Migration Assistant to use it. It can be a slow process, depending on how much data you have to transfer and how fast the external drive is)
• Via Ethernet cable (I've never used this method, but others here say it works fine)
• Via Thunderbolt cable (my preferred method. If you have Thunderbolt 3 or 4 ports on both Macs, a Thunderbolt 3 cable will work just fine. If your older Mac has only Thunderbolt 2 ports, you'll need a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adaptor or cable. Here's an Apple Thunderbolt 3 - Thunderbolt 2 adaptor: Thunderbolt Adaptor)

Hope this helps.

The simplest way to migrate your data is to use an ethernet connection between the two Macs. Then run Migration Assistant on the new Mac.

Here are the instructions -> Use Ethernet to connect two Mac computers - Apple Support

Be sure to select the correct version of macOS at the top of the instruction page. Once you have the two Macs "talking" to each other via the instructions, run Migration Assistant on your new Mac.

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. 

It can, but you can also use a thunder bolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 to connect them

peewee1940 wrote:

Thanks very much for your reply. As my old iMac only has

4x USB 2.0 ports

1x Fire Wire 800 port

1x Mini Display port

1x. Ethernet port (10/100/1000

Base-T)

I think my best option would be to connect with the Ethernet cable.

Many thanks for your suggestions.

Regards

Peter

I agree...I guess I assumed your Mac had a Thunderbolt port. Transferring via Ethernet cable looks like your best option, then...as I'm assuming you don't have a Time Machine backup external drive to migrate from.

This was very helpful and worked perfectly. Thanks!