Problem with Migration Assistant: transfer interrupted. Message (on the source mac): This Mac is attempting to reconnect to your other Mac.

Many thanks to Ken for this.

Are the great Apple really not following these Migration Assistant threads ? As another contributor says, what happened to "it just works?"

I am migrating a 2011 MacBook Air to a brand new MacBook Pro, both running Mavericks, using a Thunderbolt cable, had the same problem, and wasted far too much time sorting it out. Opening Migration Assistant on the source machine before the target machine solved the problem.

Very poor instructions from Apple on this in OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks.

Nowhere does it say that Migration Assistant should be running on both machines (this might seem obvious but should be noted for the benefit of less technical users), nor in what order the two Migration Assistants should be started (surely Apple could code this so that it didn't matter).

A very poor experience from an otherwise first class brand.

Apple, are you listening ? These complaints go back years...

I am having the same exact issue. Yours do display the number on both Macs then you press continue right?

Does the TO MAC goes to sign on screen while the FROM MAC displays 'Attempting to Reconnect to Other Mac?

Thanks for the update. I read somewhere that WIFI works so I removed firewire and ethernet connections and it found the files to transfer so I click continue. Right as I'm typing the destination mac still has the banner 'Transferring Your Information' and shows the blue/gray stripe progress bar spinning as in progress. Its been 3 hours.

I found it odd that the source Mac went back to signon screens and is not locked from use.

Did yours do the same?

Also, I have 267GB of info to transfer but the progress bar does not tell me estimated time to complete and I've read some folks stating some hours to complete.

What does the screen in your destination mac displays? Does it show hours to complete or just the blue gray spinning bar like mine and did your source mac become available to use?

Many thanks - this surely is not something APPLE can say 'IT SIMPLY WORKS' cause it doesn't.

Thanks for the info. I find this so frustrating and brings me flashbacks of Windows where notes are vague and nothing really works as it should. Apple should provide users better information rather than rely on user forums to fix their own mess. They should be sending out QA checks to those who assist other mac users on their own time.

I've even deleted the user I created on the newer Mac Mini and created a new user without my apple id thinking it was something with that. Nope.

You would think Apple would really make this functionality work seamlessly if they want users to upgrade their systems geese!!! 😠

I'm very mellow but spending 5 hours troubleshooting a utility whose instructions I've followed perfectly and still does not work really ticks me off. Anyways, thanks for advising and listening and let me know if yours complete.

Just wanted to second the advice as i had the SAME problem.

Open Migration assitant on the SOURCE (old) computer FIRST.

THEN open it on the Target (NEW) computer.

I tried everything, and the FIRST time I did it in this fashion, it popped right up as it is supposed to.

So do the opposite of the instructions, and you are golden 🙂

Transferring now.

I'm assuming everyone here has a job. I just turned 60 and am frantatically looking after 30 years in Silicon Valley with a number of the "Big" players as a Sales Engineer. Now, looking to be a postal clerk -- in Wyoming!

Now, you an tell how little time I have for broken software. (I used to write it) What is up with Apple? The once great, "Fire and Forget."

I have a MBP 2009 (summer) and a 5 month old Mac Mini that I (stupidly) began using prior to just swapping the boot disk (SSD). My directories are all on external and can swap between systems. There were a couple of apps I put on the mini thtat I thought I could keep via Mig. ***. Both systems are at the same rev of Mavericks (I won't EVER go into that rat's nest).

Every combination you all stated, I have tried. The MBP has no Thunderbolt circuit so I use Firewire 800. The symptoms in every case are: a brief delay giving me that false hope like a blind date, then no matter which system I initiate the transfer I receive, "This Mac a attempting to reconnect to your other Mac." Only option is to chose "Cancel Transfer." Believe it or not, when I hit "Cancel Transfer" it shows a screen that says, "Migration Complete. Now Restart." Added insult to injury == nothing transferred.

Guest I'll settle for one Mac and resurrect my pc.

Any proven solution would be greatly appreciated, a your favorite bottle of wine will be shipped from Cupertino.

Best,

Marty

pgiorgio61,

Thank you. I agree with you 100% and thank you for your reply. It's ok, I couldn't have afforded the wine anyway 😟

Ultimately, you were the winning solution, as did whatever I could to save items from my mac mini off "to the side" then making sure both the MBP and Mini were synchronized in terms of updates, ran diskutil for permissioins and verification/fix (booting from an external image), and with having my Pre-Flight Checklist completed, used SuperDuper to image the MBP (I believe in frequent Image Copies, rather than Time Machine).

With only the O/S on the mini on an SSD, I went for it -- applied the booted O/S from the external copy (SuperDuper image) IOW, Restored, and waited for Armegedon.

It worked. No fan-fare, it just worked. I thank all of you (especially pgiorgio61), I thank the Academy 🙂 and I thank Shirtpocket. I won't get into the jehad about SuperDuper vs. CC. They are both fine products. BTW, thanks to the folks that solved the Mac Mail issue as well (removing the plist file, a different thread).

Editorial

Now, if anyone from Apple happens to be "listening," like many others here my first Mac was not the Lisa, or Sarah, but the 1984 vintage little "Aquarium" as many people have turned them into, then a Mac IIci (25 MHz processor). ALL I CAN SAY IS ... something I can't.

Has anyone noticed that software these days stinks? I helped write Interlink for WFB and it works everytime. SWIFT, it better work, everytime -- and I was 26 years old living in Stinson Beach partying between lines of code. When we were 21 my best friend and I had (as usual) a contest between ourselves re: who could write a primitive editor in the least amount of code (in MUMPS). He won with just 1 line of code, verily it took me 2.

The point being that this industry used to be fun. When Apple took the word "Computer" out of their name, we adults became relegated to toys. Who still makes *real* computers? IBM, yes. HP, for a while yet, they still own my alma mater TANDEM. If I purchased a $20 toaster and it didn't work, I'd return it, but people are perfectly willing to pay millions of dollars for software they know darn well is broken to varying degrees.

Think I'll go make a piece of toast.

Thanks,

Marty

www.linkedin.com/in/martyosten

needs to work...

Same problem here. All of them are on last x.9

with a new 27" iMac, the first transfer from my old 2007 iMac worked well, but when I want to transfers my wife data from her 21", it didn't work. I tried with 3 different time machine backup on hard drive and time capsule, and I tried direct connection as well. I've got the grey screen and account screen and the TO Mac...

i Will try target mode now and feed you back

target mode doesn't work neither, it looks like 10second after the account or timemachine backup selection, the iMac crashes and goes back to the home screen..

yerkk, I don't want to transfer all the stuff manually

Has anyone figured this out yet? Same issue with Yosemite. I'm directly connected via Ethernet and WiFi is off, it gets to About a minute remaining and then gets stuck... Now it is stuck on This Mac is attempting to reconnect to your other Mac. But both Mac's are connected vie Ethernet and it was doing just fine until this point.

I solved this problem by ignoring Apple's instructions and restarting my old mac in Target Disk mode. (System Preferences /Startup Disk). Then I connected my old Mac to my new Mac with a Thunderbolt cable (I hope it is the same with an Ethernet cable) and waited until the HD of my old Mac appeared in the desktop. Then I started Migration Assistant on my new Mac and selected to do the migration from the HD of my old Mac. Using 10.10.5 on both Macs.