Migration Assistant stuck on "Looking for source..."

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Level 1

11 points

Migration Assistant stuck on "Looking for source..."

I just bought a new iMac today and I am trying to use Migration Assistant to move all my info on my Mac Pro to my new machine. The problem is that the Migration Assistant is getting stuck at the "Looking for source" step, trying to find my old Mac with no success.

Yes, I've searched for other posts about this issue and I've looked at a number of support.apple.com articles about this. The discussions closest to my problem all have some issue that isn't present for me. Here's a bit of information that may or may not be pertinent to what's going on:

One support article said that the source Mac had to be running at least OS X 10.6.8. My old mac is running 10.7.5.
Neither Mac is running with the firewall turned on.
I did not use Time Machine with my old Mac, and it is turned off on both Macs.
I have run Software Update on both Macs and everything is up-to-date.

I also tried setting up a wireless computer-to-computer connection. I created the network on my old Mac, and was able to connect just fine through Finder on my new iMac. Running Migration Assistant, however, I could not see my old Mac's network and, as for clicking on "Other Server" button in the Assistant, I can say I would know how to specify that network's address given the format afp://Server/ShareName/. For the sake of argument, let's say the network's name was "oldMac". I did try entering "oldMac" for "Other Server" and then "afp://oldMac" and neither of those worked.

One other thing. I do have an Apple TV. I don't see why this should interfere, but I am able to view and play my music and movies on my TV, so apparently the Apple TV can see the old Mac fine as well. And no, the Apple TV was not on while trying to migrate my data.

TIA,

bob

Posted on Feb 27, 2014 6:16 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

stavros.

Level 1

8 points

Mar 24, 2014 5:17 PM in response to Bob Boyle

Hi guys.

Similar problem here.

Setup Assistant or Migration Assistan can not see my external drive used for time machine backups.

The facts.

Downloaded Mavericks upgrade from App Store and made a bootable usb.

Booted from the usb and erased macintosh hd to make a clean install of the OS.

Made the fresh installation and when setup assistant appears my external drive on which i previously did all backups with time machine will not appear at all. Instead I get "looking for sources" with no success on seeing the external HD.

Same happens with Migration Assistant once logged in to the fresh OS.

The external HD is not recognised and won't come up.

I 've also tried the Restore Time Machine Backup option by booting from the bootable USB.

When I choose my external HD which now appears I get the message that no OS X system backups are available.

Meanwhile I can see and open the drive once logged into the OS and the backups on the drive seem ok. However I can't spot the applications folder. Only users folders.

Are my backups corrupted? How can I restore the files from the external HD

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Answer 2

Bob Boyle Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 28, 2014 4:41 AM in response to travisstraub

And the winning answer is: use Time Machine to create a back-up to an external drive.

Pulling the backup HD from my old Mac Pro, putting it in a USB 3.0 external enclosure, and hooking the enclosure up to my new iMac is working fine. I really wish I would have done this first, lol. I thought hooking up an Ethernet cable and leaving the backup drive in the Mac Pro shouldn't be all that different, particularly because I eventually wound up being able to access that backup volume in Migration Assistant, but that was clearly (in the end) not the case.

It leaves me wondering what it was about the Mac Pro that prevented things from working. It *is* rather ancient for a Mac Pro -- one of the first, dual duo-core models -- and though Lion was supported on it, Mavericks wasn't. That was the last straw that got me to buy the new iMac. Maybe that lack of support for the hardware was enough to bollocks up the works even though the version of the OS on the Mac Pro should have been fine.

Thanks again, Travis ... and anyone else who finds this thread while searching for an answer to the question I posed, I'd go directly for

using Time Machine to make a back-up to an external hard drive, then
connecting the back-up drive to your target machine

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Answer 3

Mar 24, 2015 5:37 AM in response to Paulitahuerta

Thanks, Paulitahuerta.

The GUI was horribly unintuitive. Clicking the drive icon was the secret to success.

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Answer 4

Feb 28, 2014 6:40 AM in response to Bob Boyle

I'm glad that worked Bob. I've always been a fan of the Time Machine migration, simply because it's much less finicky when setting up, and it leaves my other computer from while I wait haha. Anyways, enjoy your new iMac!

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Answer 5

Jan 15, 2015 12:06 PM in response to Bob Boyle

Yup. Even though the screen says "Looking for source..." and the spinner is rotating, your Mac is actually waiting for you to choose a Time Capsule (even though there is probably only one choice). Just click on the Time Capsule image then click Continue! (I spent a good hour trying various solutions before I came across this trivial solution.)

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Answer 6

Bob Boyle Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 27, 2014 6:37 PM in response to Bob Boyle

Make that "I cannot say I would know how..." re: the afp address.

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Answer 7

Feb 27, 2014 7:16 PM in response to Bob Boyle

Hey Bob,

This isn't a fix, but a workaround if you're down to the wire. You can make a Time Machine backup of the old computer, and use Migration Assistant to migrate your user from that. Also try to run an Ethernet cable directly between the computers and try again. Good luck Bob!

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Answer 8

Bob Boyle Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 27, 2014 9:18 PM in response to travisstraub

Thanks for the ideas. Not sure I have an external drive that will work with my old mac, but it's worth a look.

I had thought I had thrown out all my ethernet cables, but I finally found one in an old laptop bag. Network settings show these two as connected and can use "Connect to server" under the Go menu and see each machine fine, but again I'm hanging at the Looking for source step.

Is there some obvious setting I am forgetting here? File sharing is turned on for both, as well as just about every other type of sharing in the Sharing settings....

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Answer 9

Bob Boyle Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 28, 2014 3:30 AM in response to Bob Boyle

Ok, more updates.

In my old Mac (Pro) I have several hard drives installed. I was able to create a Time Machine back-up to a non-system HD. I plan on removing this volume and putting it in an external enclosure as soon as I can find the right cables for that enclosure. Meanwhile....

I saw on one support doc an instruction to open Sharing on the source Mac (my old one, in this case) and make sure the machine had a name specified. I already had done that, but noticed that a specific name based on that was mentioned for other computers to contact it. For example, if my source machine is named "myOldMac", other computers could address is at "myOldMac.local".

I connected the two computers directly via an Ethernet cable and I ran Migration Assistant again. When I got to the "Looking for source" screen, I clicked the button for "Other Server" and entered "afp://myOldMac.local". This actually found my old Mac. I was prompted to enter the password for the account "root". I changed the name to my account's short name -- "raboyle" not "Robert Boyle" -- and entered the correct password and I actually got a list of volumes to access. In the list were: the hard drives (by volume name), the home folders of the user accounts, and the Public Folders for each user account.

I tried accessing both my boot volume and the home folder for my primary account, and proceeded to a screen with the following text: "Choose which backup to transfer information from:". The list provided, however, was empty. On the chance that it was looking specifically for a Time Machine backup, I then specifically chose the HD volume with the backup I had just created. Again, the list to choose where to grab my data from was empty.

So, at least I'm advancing a little bit beyond the "Looking for source" screen ... but then again, since I hit yet another roadblock I can't say whether I've taken one step forward or two steps back.

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Answer 10

Bob Boyle Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 28, 2014 7:45 AM in response to travisstraub

I will, I will ... as soon as I get done merging my multiple accounts!

(Thank goodness I saw a suggestion about deleting the new account on the new machine and sticking with your original, migrated account as admin for the new Mac ... I probably would have just tried to move 99% of what I have to the new account I created yesterday 😝)

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Answer 11

stavros.

Level 1

8 points

Mar 24, 2014 5:22 PM in response to Bob Boyle

Hi guys.

Similar problem here.

Setup Assistant or Migration Assistan can not see my external drive used for time machine backups.

The facts.

Downloaded Mavericks upgrade from App Store and made a bootable usb.

Booted from the usb and erased macintosh hd to make a clean install of the OS.

Made the fresh installation and when setup assistant appears my external drive on which i previously did all backups with time machine will not appear at all. Instead I get "looking for sources" with no success on seeing the external HD.

Same happens with Migration Assistant once logged in to the fresh OS.

The external HD is not recognised and won't come up.

I 've also tried the Restore Time Machine Backup option by booting from the bootable USB.

When I choose my external HD which now appears I get the message that no OS X system backups are available.

Meanwhile I can see and open the drive once logged into the OS and the backups on the drive seem ok. However I can't spot the applications folder. Only users folders.

Are my backups corrupted? How can I restore the files from the external HD

Reply

Answer 12

Aug 27, 2014 3:29 AM in response to stavros.

Guys.... I had the same problem yesterday and I was going nuts ... till i discover the nonsense it was.

I was using an external hard drive with my back up. So when the window appears and gets stuck in "Looking for other sources" all I had to do was to click where the external hard drive icon appears like to CHOOSE IT... and then you can continue... just very simple!!

Try it and lets see if you are lucky!!!
cheers

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Answer 13

gbaci

Level 1

0 points

Aug 27, 2014 10:53 AM in response to Paulitahuerta

This is the best answer!!! After trying every forum, it was that crazy simple but hidden clic k🙂

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Answer 14

Jul 28, 2015 7:15 AM in response to B Tashchuk

Paulitahuerta receives NO "This helped me" clicks - towards a higher 'level' , until I visit 4 months later.
The previous Migration Assistant version for Snow Leopard doesn't include that button for "Other Server", so I'm just sitting with the spinning wheel "Looking for other computers...". with the two directly connected via Ethernet.
I can connect to the source mac independent of Migration Assistant, and just transfer files as I please while that wheel spins forever.

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Answer 15

May 24, 2016 5:54 PM in response to Paulitahuerta

Thanks for this- -I agree w/the other post(er) that said this is not intuitive at all.

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