Does Migration Assistant allow an account on the new mac to inherit a Time Machine backup?

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Level 1

35 points

Does Migration Assistant allow an account on the new mac to inherit a Time Machine backup?

I'm moving from an old MacBook to a new one, in a company environment. I have the old machine backed up to an external HD using Time Machine. The new MacBook comes to me already set up with an account created for me (but empty of user files), so Setup Assistant is not an option.

Will Migration Assistant be able to make the new MacBook inherit the Time Machine backup? In doing so, will it enable associating the existing (empty) account on the new MacBook with the backup of the correct account from the older MacBook? The two accounts (old and new) do have the same username.

In online tutorials, which never exactly match my situation, I see options to migrate entire accounts. But it is not clear whether it can migrate files to an account that already exists on the new computer.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 14.5

Posted on May 22, 2024 8:14 PM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,386 points

May 22, 2024 8:50 PM in response to James6M

It migrates the complete old account into a new account.

If the account they made on the new Mac uses the same short username as the old Mac, it will ask if you want to Rename or Replace. The permissions you have on that Mac will likely affect whether either is possible.

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

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Answer 2

James6M Author

Level 1

35 points

May 23, 2024 1:41 PM in response to Barney-15E

@Barney-15E: You describe transfers of whole accounts. Thanks for calling my attention to the "Replace" option, which clarifies some of my question.

Restore your Mac from a backup - Apple Support at Step 7 seems to show that it is possible to

transfer only some of the content of an account. (Although it's hard to tell, because the expansion arrow by the account name is not expanded.) If one does that, and a matching account already exists on the new Mac, will the same Rename or Replace choice apply?

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,386 points

May 23, 2024 4:08 PM in response to James6M

Restore your Mac from a backup - Apple Support at Step 7 seems to show that it is possible to

transfer only some of the content of an account. (Although it's hard to tell, because the expansion arrow by the account name is not expanded.) If one does that, and a matching account already exists on the new Mac, will the same Rename or Replace choice apply?

You can't choose individual files. You can choose from various categories or files.

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,386 points

May 24, 2024 6:17 AM in response to James6M

If you migrate an account, it is the same as it was on the other Mac.

The only option to rename is if you migrate an account with same username that already exists. That is near the bottom of this article.

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

If Documents are transferred, and a new account is created to hold them, will that account get a system default Library and so forth?

I don’t know what you mean by system default library. You get everything the same as you had.

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Answer 5

James6M Author

Level 1

35 points

May 23, 2024 9:18 PM in response to Barney-15E

Great, categories is what I expected. I've now found here a screenshot of what those categories are. (Really just home directory folders, it looks like.)

However, an essential part of the question is, how much flexibility is there in where those are transferred to. Will I be able to specify an account username that already exists on the target Mac? Or must the transfer be to an account with a matching username? If Documents are transferred, and a new account is created to hold them, will that account get a system default Library and so forth? If Documents are transferred to an account that was previously created, is the Library left unchanged?

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