Migration Assistant from Time Machine backup hangs in 'updating your system settings'

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Level 1

4 points

Migration Assistant from Time Machine backup hangs in 'updating your system settings'

I have tried many times now to migrate from M2 Macbook Air to M4 Macbook Pro. Both using Sequoia same version/update level. The restore seems to go through fine. I was initially using a Seagate Ultra Touch, 1TB, as the Time Machine destination (and first 3-4 attempts at migrating) but as it was taking a long time to backup I upgraded to an SSD backup device which is much quicker.

The migration assistant seems to progress fine but just sits at 'updating system settings' and even after many hours doesn't seem to have done anything. It would be nice if there is any way of accessing a 'log' file which shows what migration assistant is actually doing.

I did have a chat session with Apple support yesterday and they suggested directly connecting the two machines together with a Thunderbolt cable.

MacBook Pro 14″

Posted on Jan 21, 2025 6:07 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

James Brickley

Level 5

5,674 points

Jan 21, 2025 7:53 AM in response to trevor_rg22

IMHO, Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper are more reliable than Migration Assistant and Time Machine. Offering more flexibility but not quite as simple as Apple's solutions.

Migration Assistant writes to /var/log/install.log It is available on the left side of Console under Log Reports, double-click the install.log to open a new window and you can search use the strings "Setup Assistant" and "safecp" to filter the messages written by Migration Assistant to the install.log. May or may not be helpful, depending on the errors that are logged.

What are you restoring with Migration Assistant?

I would consider not migrating software, Only migrate your data files. Then re-install the software on the new Mac. Make sure you include the /Library & ~/Library so all your App / OS settings are restored. Manually re-installing your software on a new Mac can help clean out old leftovers from Apps you no longer use, etc.

Migrating some software can be problematic depending on what software you have installed. Migration Assistant works great with AppStore Apps and simple DMG drag to /Application apps. But those Apps installed via a PKG file can so some strange things in comparison. Old software may be incompatible with security restrictions in macOS. You likely have stuff floating around on the old Mac that doesn't impact Sequoia but Migration Assistant might be failing to migrate it.

Watch out for any Security based software such as anti-virus, etc. They are always far more complex. Most retail Mac users do not need these security tools. The days of Norton, McAfee, etc. are done. They are near worthless and they impeded the overall performance of your Mac. Cleaners are also not great.

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Answer 2

trevor_rg22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 21, 2025 9:11 PM in response to James Brickley

Hi, James

Thanks for your reply. I had ordered a Thunderbolt cable and it arrived yesterday. I connected that and ran the migration assistant successful (though this time I did everything except Applications. After that was successful I migrated just Applications. All ran through fine.

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Answer 3

Jan 21, 2025 1:19 PM in response to trevor_rg22

Sounds like networking. Did you attempt a Thunderbolt connection between the two devices with Wi-Fi turned off? The charge cables that come with Mac's are not normally Thunderbolt data cables, but just wired for power no data. So you'll need an actual Thunderbolt4 /USB4 cable.

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Answer 4

trevor_rg22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 21, 2025 9:37 AM in response to James Brickley

Thanks for the info, James.

I checked install.log and found quite a few entries 'error running installation-check script: TypeErrror: null is not an object' and 'Failed to get bridge device'

I will try just migrating everything other than applications then reinstalling them on the new Mac.

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