Migration Assistant on Yosemite

Question

Level 1

114 points

Migration Assistant on Yosemite

I have an iMac with Yosemite. Just purchased another iMac (refurb) that has Mavericks installed. I want to install Yosemite on the new Mac and the run Migration Assistant from the old iMac to the new iMac. How can I install Yosemite on the new iMac without entering my Apple ID? Or, can I run Migration Assistant from the Mavericks Mac to pull stuff from the Yosemite Mac?

Or, I was considering just copying my Music, Photos, Video and Documents folders over and the downloading my app.

Advise, please. Thanks, in advance.

Posted on Oct 18, 2014 5:49 PM

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Answer 1

JP Ellery

Level 4

1,557 points

Oct 18, 2014 7:42 PM in response to fincher

Hi, Fincher.

If you have an external HD, you can make a Time Machine backup with the first iMac and use migration assistant to import your backup to the new Mac.

Cheers.

JP

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Answer 2

fincher Author

Level 1

114 points

Oct 18, 2014 7:53 PM in response to JP Ellery

Thanks. I can do that but want all my settings, etc. to migrate. I can clone my hard drive, too. Really want to know how install Yosemite on new Mac that has Mavericks and not enter my Apple ID. Then use Yosemite migration assistant.

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Answer 3

JP Ellery

Level 4

1,557 points

Oct 18, 2014 7:56 PM in response to fincher

If you use Migration Assistant to import a full Time Machine backup, you'll have the option to import all your data and settings.

I've just done myself since I performed a clean install.

When migration assistant is done, you'll feel like home. 🙂 It's going to be like if you were using your old iMac. Same desktop picture, same user account, same dock apps, same everything.

Cheers.

JP

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Answer 4

fincher Author

Level 1

114 points

Oct 18, 2014 8:03 PM in response to JP Ellery

Great. Issue for me is how do I install Yosemite on the new Mac without entering my Apple ID? Or, does it not matter?

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Answer 5

fincher Author

Level 1

114 points

Oct 22, 2014 1:42 PM in response to JP Ellery

I have a Time Machine currently with backups. Can I use Migration Assistant to pull the most recent snapshot of my current iMac? If so, will this work if my new iMac does not have Yosemite installed when it arrives? My current iMac does have Yosemite but I purchased a refurb from Apple and I am guessing that the refurb will have Mavericks.

Thank you, in advance.

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Answer 6

fincher Author

Level 1

114 points

Oct 24, 2014 5:12 AM in response to fincher

Complete Success! I did not use my Time Machine backup. Instead, I put my old iMac in disk mode (press 'T' at startup) and used a FireWire 800 cable with a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter on the new iMac. Took about 2.5 hours to move 246GB using Migration Assistant. Then made new Time Machine backup overnight.

The new Mac came with Mavericks so I installed all updates then updated to Yosemite before using Migration Assistant.

Simply amazing!

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