Migration Assistant Hangs at End?

Same problem here.. stuck on one minute...

Just called AppleCare about failing MigrationAssistant..

Stupidest answer EVER: its a good program when it works.....

big BIG FAIL Apple!!!

Had all the same problems mentioned in this thread. Followed jshneider's advice, bought a thunderbolt cable to transfer from early 2011 27-inch iMac to the new late 2013 27-inch iMac and everything finished to normal completion for the entire computer within 2 hours. Thanks!!!! Everything is working like a champ and it feels like I made a solid investment again.

You don't have to buy any additional Apple products to use Time Machine. You just need a hard drive (internal or external) that you can use to backup you data.

I just did a migration. Macbook 2008 (10.6.8) to MBP 2012 (10.10).

My user profile is 600 GB. Migr Assistant said it'd take about 4 hours (over GB Ethernet).

After 4h and 600 GB transferred it said "one minute remaining" for another 8 hours, then it finished.

I used ssh to log in to the Macbook, so I could use 'top' to keep an eye on things. During the migration, it transferred 3.5 TB worth of information. 😕

Using the Migration tool to transfer 2,2 T from iMac (late 2012) to iMac (Retina, 2015) with Apple's Thunderbolt cable took four days until the remaining "one minute left" message popped up. I let it work for ten more hours, then called Apple Support who thought the migration had completed. They suggested that I turned off the new iMac using the power button, which I did. After booting, nothing had been changed on the new iMac. Not a single file had been transferred. - I started again, but this time I chose to keep the original user account on the new iMac. I will see how this goes... on Tuesday? (Now it's Friday). Hmmmm, is this the best Apple can do?

Are you migrating from an older version of OS X to Yosemite (10.10)? If you are, it may be related to an issue people are having upgrading their Macs to 10.10.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=19397517#post19397517

If you have a large number of files in /usr/local, the upgrade takes a long time:

https://jimlindley.com/blog/yosemite-upgrade-homebrew-tips/

Disk errors on the machine you're upgrading from also add long delays. I'm still troubleshooting my migration because it didn't copy everything and didn't provide me with a list of files that weren't copied.

It's highly likely that it did transfer most of your files, but hid them deep within the hierarchy of system files. To locate your data, download OmniDiskSweeper (a generally useful and free application) from here: http://www.omnigroup.com/more

You should find a very large folder with a crazy name like /private/var/folders/zz/*00/Cleanup\ At\ Startup. There could be applications or user files inside.

IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, drag them where they belong in the Finder. The problem is that they require supporting files and folders such as Library/Frameworks and Application Support. This is risky and only as a last resort. But it worked for me.

Apple needs to fix this. Why buy a new Mac if you can't move your data to it?

I am migrating with identical OS on both iMac's.

All my 250 Gbyte of software is authorized with various kinds og keys, some dependent on files I don't know where are hidden. It's too risky to move these manually. The way pro software is authorized these days make it difficult to move to another Mac. We get punished because we purchase our software legally. - The new migration session is running now, and I cross my fingers that it will work this time. I will not follow the suggestion from Apple Support to force my Mac to restart this time! I will wait until the "one minute remaining" message disappears, even if it takes 48 hours!

The Migration Assistant finally was able to finish the process after two more days - after the "one minute left" message had been on the screen for 36 hours. There was a message that said: "Some documents were not copied", and when logging in to the transferred account, I saw that both the Images folder and Music folder were completely empty. I kept my Aperture files there, with other folders with images, but the Migration had ignored or skipped all the content. Same with my iTunes library - gone! I connected the old iMac in Target mode and transferred the content manually, which so far seemed to work (had to import the Media folder in the iTunes folder manually to get them into the new iTunes).

A lot of my software and AU plugins (music production) need to be reinstalled, since the migration obviously wasn't able to make an identical clone of my old account.

My conclusion is this: Don't use the Migration Assistant if you have a high number of files or copy protected software.

I've been "migrating" for going on three days now. MA has been stuck on "about 12 minutes remaining" since Monday. It's now Wednesday morning. Going to have to go with Cmd-Option-ESC when I get home from work today. Just ridiculous.

I had Apple Support on the phone for an hour when trying to be successful using the Migration Tool. We gave up, and the support person admitted that this tool may work in some cases (probably when you have few files to transfer), but in many cases it's not reliable. Conclusion: Do the installation from your last Time Machine backup, that will work! If you don't have one, you may try the Migration Tool like you do, but do not interrupt it or force it to finish. I did (advice from Apple Support - which proved to be a bad advice) and had to start all over again. - When you finally have your new Mac up and going (probably after a manual transfer and re-installation of some of your software), you should absolutely start using Time Machine to make complete backups of you internal hard drive with your System and software. Remember that you can buy an external USB hard drive for this purpose, which isn't very expensive these days.

So three days is the world record for a successful migration?

I am migrating for 22 hours now, also see my other post. Stuck with 'Transferring Your Information - This Mac' and a blue flowing progress bar. No guesstimate given on the screen for how much longer.

Source is an external USB disk with a Time Machine backup from a MacBook Pro. Destination is a brand new MacBook Air with a 256Gb SSD.

I spent all in all eight days using the Migration Tool. The longest wait for the "last minute" to finish was on my first try when I waited three full days - with no success.

You recommend to use a Time Machine backup from a USB-disk. Which is exactly what I am now doing.