Migration Assistant: no estimated time

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Level 1

8 points

Migration Assistant: no estimated time

I hooked up my source iMac to my new destination iMac via firewire/thunderbolt. Both are running the most recent OS, Mavericks. Everything seemed to be running smoothly until I got to the last screen where it says "Continue." The first time, I waited for the "estimated time" to load, but it never loaded and disconnected from the source iMac. The second time, I didn't wait for the estimated time to load and just clicked Continue on both iMacs. The migration seemed to begin on the destination iMac though there is no estimated time for completion displayed. The source iMac logged back in and is just sitting there. The new iMac does say, "Information from XXXXX's iMac" is being transferred to this Mac." But again, no estimated time.

Is anything actually happening? Is the migration hanging? I can't tell if something is or isn't happening. How can I tell without just waiting until the morning to see if the transfer completed??? Surely less than 200 GB won't take all night?

Anyone have any insight? 🙂

Posted on Jan 15, 2014 3:27 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 15, 2014 3:40 PM in response to BlueMeanie

This can vary greatly , when I done mine it took 4 1/2 hours.

So depending on the size of the drive you are transfering from it could take from 2 to 5 hours.

Let it complete the operation and do not interrupt.

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Answer 2

BlueMeanie Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 15, 2014 3:42 PM in response to Donald Morgan

So you think it is doing something even though there's no estimated time for completion?

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Answer 3

Jan 15, 2014 4:16 PM in response to BlueMeanie

It would really help all who read your post if you would click on your name and fill everything out so we know exactly what you have and it tells us what we have to work with when answering.It will let you know when it's complete.

Did you connect both machines with Ethernet and did you download Migration Assistant on the computer you are transfering from?

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Answer 4

BlueMeanie Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 15, 2014 4:37 PM in response to Donald Morgan

I did say that I'm using two iMacs on the same OS (Mavericks). I don't mean to sound snarky, but it's in the post, and they're not mine, so listing them on my profile didn't occur to me. If it'll help somehow, the source iMac is a Late 2009 model and the new one is the newest iMac available.

It may let me know when it's complete, but from my searches online, most people have had a progress bar or some kind of time estimation. I've got a progress bar that continually displays the (how do I describe this?) candy stripes? They're moving, but no indication of how much data has been moved or how much data is left.

As I said above, I connected the iMacs using Firewire/Thunderbolt. It's Firewire 800 with a Thunderbolt adaptor for the newer iMac. Migration assistant was already on both iMacs. I ran software update on both so they were both matching.

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Answer 5

BlueMeanie Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 16, 2014 8:16 AM in response to BlueMeanie

For anyone paying attention, I left this overnight and nothing happened. It just hung all night. Canceled the migration and put the source iMac into Target mode. The migration took 30 seconds and it didn't bring over my network settings.... and yeah, that didn't work either.

I give up and I'm calling AppleCare at this point. :-\

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Answer 6

Jan 16, 2014 8:55 AM in response to BlueMeanie

I know that you have seemed to have issues with your Migration. Please take the time and read this link carefully and I am sure you will see that a mistake has been made, or you were unaware of the proper steps that were needed.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4413

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Answer 7

BlueMeanie Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 16, 2014 12:32 PM in response to Donald Morgan

Thank you for the link. Thankfully I already tried everything listed there and with various cables (in case one of mine was faulty).

I ended up spending a great deal of time with Apple Care who also could not get the migration to work. They tried everything I tried and then added everything but with the source in Safe Mode. Still did not work.

At this point, my only option is to backup to Time Machine, and then restore from the backup on the new iMac. Kind of a bummer.

Also, I've never had anything but A+ service from apple care reps, and indeed the first guy was awesome. But the second guy (who was meant to walk me through something complicated) couldn't have been more flippant, rude, and snarky. It made an already frustrating experience worse. Rather disappointing.

Ah well. Here's to hoping this backup from Time Machine goes smoothly 🙂

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Answer 8

Jan 16, 2014 12:38 PM in response to BlueMeanie

Sorry to hear that you had issues with the Apple tech. Hopefully the time machine transfer works out for you.

Good Luck.

Don

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Answer 9

L-S

Level 1

0 points

Apr 9, 2014 2:19 PM in response to BlueMeanie

Hi

I am having exactly the same problem (old iMac to new retina MacBook Pro) via thunderbolt adaptor to FireWire 800. It shows no estimated time. Can't tell if it is working or not. Did you end up solving it? Thanks.

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Answer 10

BlueMeanie Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 9, 2014 4:00 PM in response to L-S

Hi!

Sorry to hear you're having issues as well. In the end, I had to do a Time Machine backup on the old machine. On the new machine, using migration assistant, used the time machine backup. That went smoothly and no problems at all. None of the cables ended up working.

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