how do I transfer my contacts to a new computer

Diane1349 wrote:

I would like a way to transfer my contacts from my older Mac mini to my new Mac mini.

If all you want to do is transfer your contacts, here is the way to do it:

• On your old Mac, open Contacts and do File > Export > Contacts Archive. This will create a file named something like "Contacts 02-22-2024.abbu" on your Desktop.
• Copy that file to your new Mac.
• On your new Mac, open Contacts and do File > Import and select the .abbu file that you copied from your old Mac.
• You will get a warning that this will overwrite the entire contents of your Contacts. Since that's what you want to do, say OK.

In my experience on Monterey & later versions of macOS, after you import the archive, your Contacts will appear to be empty! Not to worry. Just close Contacts and reboot your Mac. After rebooting, the imported contacts should appear in Contacts on your new Mac.

I can offer the following comments:

• I'm puzzled why anyone would have told you you have "...too much data and MA has a limit...". That's just not true, unless you were attempting to migrate the contents of, say, a 1TB hard drive, to a new mac that has only 256GB of storage space.
• You didn't provide the specs of your older Mac mini, nor did you provide the specs of your new one. Not a lot to go on there.
• You mentioned transferring your Contacts and folders over to your new Mac mini. That's all you want to transfer? No need to transfer your settings so that you don't have to set up everything from scratch on the new Mac mini?
• The best means of transferring from an older Mac to a new one is to use Setup/Migration assistant via an external Time Machine backup drive. You'd simply back up your old Mac mini to the external drive, then eject the disk there. Then connect the external Time Machine backup drive to your new Mac mini and use Migration Assistant. Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support
• You mentioned you weren't able to redownload Photoshop on your new Mac mini. Do you have the subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud for Photoshop? If so, it shouldn't be an issue to install a new copy of Photoshop on your new Mac mini.

We'd welcome the opportunity to assist you, but would need more details in order to do so.

> I didn't want to buy iCloud storage

I have always transferred my Contacs via iCloud to many devices and it has been OK.

AFAIK when you set up iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of storage.

I have managed to do with that amount just fine as long as I don't use iCloud Photos (I always make sure it is turned OFF) and iCloud drive only minimally for small files if any. I periodically move iCloud Mail to local mailboxes. Also Notes, Calendar, Safari bookmarks fit there.

I backup my iPhone to iCloud and also locally to the Mac but the iPad is backupped only locally to the Mac because it does not fit in that 5GB anymore.

Manage your iCloud storage - Apple Support

...it is also possible to export Contacts as .abbu, Vcards or .xml files but that seems flaky and luckily I have not needed to dive in that:

.abbu archive has not worked since they change the backing store to XML files. Previously, all of the files in that back up were Vcards which contacts can import. It cannot import XML files.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254842588?answerId=259017238022#259017238022

https://www.cisdem.com/resource/convert-abbu-to-csv.html

I use Carbon Copy Cloner for backups but the Migration Assistant can use CCC backups, and I have not noticed any size limits other than the target drive must be large enough for the migrated data when other members of the family have used that route to transfer data from an old Mac to the new.

I can understand your frustration.

I can tell you, though, that the migration limit was absolutely incorrect. I've used Time Machine backup drives to migrate 1TB of data in the past with no issues.

So, again, unless your new Mac has significantly less internal storage than your new one, there's no reason it should have failed to migrate everything.

Best of luck in your transfer endeavors.