Migration Assistant

I’m looking to move my old iMac to a new Mac Mini and wanted to find out if I use Migration Assistant to do this will it move the toolbar I’d set up at the bottom of my iMac Home Screen as part of the move and all the things shown on my desktop? ie will my new Home Screen look the same as my old on when I see on my new Mac Mini?


Also, due to the age of my old iMac it is only running MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 but the latest release is 14.1 (my old iMac says my Mac is up to date? Will this matter when I run Migration Assistent to transfer my files etc from my old iMac to my new Mac Mini?


thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 12, 2023 5:10 AM

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3 replies

Nov 12, 2023 7:41 AM in response to swindonpete

Migration Assistant will move your desktop settings (and, therefore, your Dock setup) over, so your home screen should look the same.


As long as your Catalina OS is updated as far as possible, it shouldn't be any issue migrating over to Sonoma from it.


There may be apps that haven't been updated for Sonoma that may not work. Apps written for Intel Macs will run under Rosetta (which will be installed automatically the first time it's needed). Some apps are written as Universal apps, and will run on either Intel or Apple Silicon Macs. If you're curious regarding the apps you have on your iMac, you can see the Kind of apps you have by going to Apple menu-->About This Mac-->System Report. Under the System Report, select Applications in the left hand column. In the resultant report, scroll over to Kind and you'll see if they're Intel, Universal, Apple Silicon, etc. apps.


It's probably a good idea to make a note of the apps that are Intel only and check for updates on any of them.


A couple of other notes regarding migrating to a new Mac:



I hope this helps.

Nov 12, 2023 9:35 AM in response to swindonpete

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. 


Migration Assistant

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