How to Migrate to new MacBook Air which has older OSX

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Level 1

6 points

How to Migrate to new MacBook Air which has older OSX

Hi all,

Any help appreciated.

I have been looking for the answer for hours now, but aside from the fact there is a lot of valuable info avalable, I doesn't seem to be able to find the answer to this one...

Just purchased a new MacBook Air. Would like to use my Time Machine to get everything over. But the new MBA runs OSX 10.6 (Mountain Lion), and my old MBA runs 10.8 (Mavericks).

Now, how to setup up the migration/restore? One of the popups tells me if I have a new MB and use a backup from another source MB, I should use Migration Assistant instead of a full restore.

So I did that, but many apps were not working, just showing a big questionmark (iBooks, iPhoto, Maps, etc), since they were running on Mavericks already on my old MB. So then I updated the Software Update on the new device, requiring a restart, after which I couldn't login my account anymore. Typing the password did re-appear the same login page over and over... Now I ended up reinstalling the 10.6 Mountain Lion again.

Wondering how I should start again from scratch.

Anyone please?

Thank you!

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Time Machine, OS X Lion

Posted on Dec 1, 2013 11:25 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Dec 1, 2013 11:30 AM in response to joelleke

Your information is confusing, because OS X Mountain Lion is 10.8 and Mavericks is 10.9.

Anyway, if your old MacBook is using a newer OS X version than your new MacBook Air, you cannot use Migration Assistant until you upgrade your Mac.

What I recommend you to do is to set up your MacBook Air without migrating your files, and then, open the Mac App Store and download OS X Mavericks. When the download finishes, the OS X Mavericks installer will appear, so follow its steps.

After upgrading, open Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities) in both MacBooks Air and follow the steps on your new MacBook Air to transfer your files. A new user account will be created with the transferred files. See > http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html

Another way would be to make a backup of your files on your old MacBook Air with Time Machine. Then, hold Command and R keys while your new MacBook Air is starting up, connect the external drive with the Time Machine backup, select the option to restore a backup and follow the steps

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Answer 2

joelleke Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 1, 2013 5:04 PM in response to mende1

Hi mende1,

I am sorry, mixed up the numbers... True, it is about how to setup a new MacBook running 10.8 Mountain Lion out of the box using a Time Machine backup coming from my old 10.9 Mavericks source MacBook.

Before I already checked "pondini.org", as you suggested, but he only says "You can't transfer "backwards" from a newer major version...", leaving me in the blind how to do this then.

Sure, I can setup the new MacBook, not yet using Time Machine and sign-in to my icloud account. But what will happen next after that (I still didn't go this far so I have no idea)? Do I need to setup a new computer account (user)? Can I use the same user name as before, or do I need to choose another namen? After that I can upgrade to 10.9 Mavericks, followed by the need to use Migration Assistant to get my data and original user. But this might run me in some problems (dual user accounts and file permissions), as informed by pondini.org, and thus not recommended.

This is why I would prefer your suggested second, alternate way: to startup the new MacBook using Command+R and just fully restore the Time Machine backup. But as this is not recommended in the first Setup Assistant screen of the new MacBook (here it says if you want the MacBook to be setup from another Mac or disk, use the "Migration Assistant" instead).

That's why I am confused. What will be the downside of using full restore: because the new MacBook has another S/N? Because I still didn't register the new MacBook online? Any other downside?

Hope you (or someone else) can enlighten me.

Thank you,

Joel

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Answer 3

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Dec 1, 2013 10:08 PM in response to joelleke

joelleke wrote:

Sure, I can setup the new MacBook, not yet using Time Machine and sign-in to my icloud account. But what will happen next after that (I still didn't go this far so I have no idea)? Do I need to setup a new computer account (user)?

Nothing. You can log in with your iCloud account because it will not cause any problem and you will get your personal information stored in iCloud.

joelleke wrote:

Can I use the same user name as before, or do I need to choose another namen?

You can use the same username, but note that if you use Migration Assistant to restore your files, you will get the same user you have got on your old computer.

joelleke wrote:

This is why I would prefer your suggested second, alternate way: to startup the new MacBook using Command+R and just fully restore the Time Machine backup. But as this is not recommended in the first Setup Assistant screen of the new MacBook (here it says if you want the MacBook to be setup from another Mac or disk, use the "Migration Assistant" instead).

Before doing that, I recommend you to set up your MacBook Air. Then, you can restore the Time Machine backup without any problem.

joelleke wrote:

That's why I am confused. What will be the downside of using full restore: because the new MacBook has another S/N? Because I still didn't register the new MacBook online? Any other downside?

The MacBook will be registered during the initial setup, so first turn on your MacBook Air and follow the Setup Assistant steps. Then, you can restore the backup.

The serial number is in the logic board and it will not affect to the backup restore

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Answer 4

joelleke Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 2, 2013 8:31 PM in response to mende1

A bit delayed, but thanks again Mende1. Those answers seem logical to me.

I just stay confused a bit why the initial setup would be recommended by Apple as supposed to just a full recovery.

Anyway, may I throw in just one more question? To erase the old MacBook (a late-2010 model by the way) running Mavericks, I used CMD-R as well, chose Disk Utility to erase the HD followed by re-install OSX by downloading it. Appearantly the original OSX got downloaded (I think it was Lion), not Mavericks. Then, after restarting it, it seemed to have lost its startup disk showing by a flashing questionmark on a blank screen. Restarting it again with the Option key I believe gave me a new "Internet Recovery" option, but chosing this it ends up with a logo of the world with a explanation mark en an error code, telling me to contact Apple Service... So what now?

Regards

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Answer 5

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Dec 2, 2013 10:32 PM in response to joelleke

joelleke wrote:

I just stay confused a bit why the initial setup would be recommended by Apple as supposed to just a full recovery.

That is because first you have to register your MacBook Air, OS X and iLife apps with Apple, so you can get them for free. If you just restore a backup from OS X Recovery, you will lose the ability to do it.

joelleke wrote:

To erase the old MacBook (a late-2010 model by the way) running Mavericks, I used CMD-R as well, chose Disk Utility to erase the HD followed by re-install OSX by downloading it. Appearantly the original OSX got downloaded (I think it was Lion), not Mavericks. Then, after restarting it, it seemed to have lost its startup disk showing by a flashing questionmark on a blank screen. Restarting it again with the Option key I believe gave me a new "Internet Recovery" option, but chosing this it ends up with a logo of the world with a explanation mark en an error code, telling me to contact Apple Service... So what now?

That MacBook Air came with a USB drive with Snow Leopard. Use it to reinstall Snow Leopard, so then you can upgrade to Mavericks

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