Cleaning up mac mini before xfer to new mini

TonyConigliaro wrote:

Transfer files to new mini:

I have ordered a new Mini M4 and will be tranferring files from my older 2014 mini running Monterey 12.7.6.

To move to a new Mac, see > Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Is there any kind of guide to help delete stuff I don't want and not delete vital files etc?

There is no guide or magic software that will know what you want to delete or keep.

You must go thru your files and manually delete what you do not want on the old Mac mini.

Any wisdom here is appreciated.

Then once you have trimmed down your files on old Mac mini.

You can migrate from the old Mac mini or a fresh Time Machine backup of the old Mac mini.

The other option is to setup the new Mac mini with the same User Name and Apple ID.

Then manually move what you want from the old Mac mini using an external drive or your local Network.

TonyConigliaro wrote:

Transfer files to new mini:

I have ordered a new Mini M4 and will be tranferring files from my older 2014 mini running Monterey 12.7.6.

Is there any kind of guide to help delete stuff I don't want and not delete vital files etc?

Any wisdom here is appreciated.

Thx in advance!

Tony

I’d get a complete backup before starting any cleaning.

You cannot delete important parts of macOS as those files are protected, though you can certainly delete your own files. Which is why I’d get the backup too, as that backup is a means to restore a mistakenly-deleted important file.

The Apple migration moves the relevant app and system bits to recreate your existing environment, and moves all of your own local bits, and those of other logins. You can control whether some general groups of files are migrated, too.

But as was sagely mentioned earlier, nobody but you can know which of the local bits are important to you.

Tools such as GrandPerspective and OmniDiskSweeper can be used to identify (big) unneeded files.

With an 12 year old computer and and old macOS you need do the following:

Go through all your applications and any 3rd party hardware drivers and verify which ones are compatible with macOS Tahoe and download the most recent versions and paying for upgrades or find alternatives if necessary as many apps may not be compatible with the new computer and OS. Install all of them fresh on the new computer.

You would then just migrate your user folder to the new Mac using either Migration Assistant or manually moving those files you decide are needed from your home folder.

If your new Mini has the same or more internal storage as your old Mini then you are in good shape.

Before migrating to the new Mini delete any of the following types of files: "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac. These types of apps generally have detrimental effect on the performance of the system and applications. The are not needed with the Mac OSX.

If you don't have the same or greater storage on your new Mini you'll have to offload enough files from your old Mini to an external drive so that you have 80-100 GB less files than what can be stored on the new Mini.

Your numbers indicate that you are using about 250GB of disk space on your 2014 Mac mini. Which will not migrate to the new Mac mini with only a 256GB Storage Drive.

Just keep in mind that for the optimal performance, you need to keep a minimum 60~80GB of free space on the new Mac mini's Storage Drive.

FWIW you can push off your Photos, Music, Movie Libraries off onto the SanDisk in the Satechi Hub.

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support

Move your iMovie for Mac library - Apple Support

But I still recommend configuring or buying the new Mac mini with at least a 512GB Storage Drive.

Keeping the MalwareBytes app is OK. It's the one app that I use also.

I agree wholeheartedly with den.thed on the size of storage on your new Mini. I try to keep a minimum or more of free space for optimal system and application performance. You'll have a hard time getting that unless you unload the the Pictures, Movies and Music folders to an appropriately formatted external drive: APFS for SSDs or OS Extended (journaled) for HDDs.

There is another reason to opt for 512GB internal storage vs. 256GB.

Even if you move all the stuff that has been previously mentioned to an external hard drive, it still may not be enough in the long run to keep a minimal amount of free space. Most all apps store a lot of data in the hidden Library in your user folder. It is not unusual to have 20-50GB or more of application data in that location and generally not anything you can do about it. And with application adopting more and more AI or just simply adding more and more features and complexity that will only get worse.

Old Toad wrote:

Keeping the MalwareBytes app is OK. It's the one app that I use also.

I try to keep a minimum or more of free space for optimal system and application performance.

That should read: I try to keep a minimum of 100 GB or more of free space for optimal system and application performance.