Migration Assistant Not Working

I have a 2012 Mac mini and recently bought a 2014 iMac 27-inch with a 3 TB Fusion drive. The iMac had been erased and set up to an "out of box" setup screen. I set up a user and updated it to Yosemite without a problem. I then tried to run Migration Assistant from the mini to the iMac over a wired ethernet connection directly from one computer to the other. Everything was going OK, then it stalled with the dreaded "one minute" left message while transferring applications.

After more than 24 hours I hit Command Q and bailed out of the backup. I repaired permissions on both systems using Disc Utility and verified both discs as well. I erased the iMac and got it back to the setup screen. This time I attempted to run Migration Assistant without first setting up a user. It ran OK for hours, then stalled at the "one minute remaining" screen while transferring documents. I let it run for about 14 hours before bailing on this backup.

I've read on these forums that Migration Assistant may work better from a Time Machine backup. I'm now going to try to use Migration Assistant from a Time Capsule backup. If that doesn't work I'll erase a redundant backup USB hard drive and create a "fresh" Time Machine backup.

Any other suggestions? I've used Migration Assistant in the past and the only problem encountered was when I tried to transfer data from a computer running Mountain Lion to a new one running Mavericks - I quickly learned they need to be on the same OS.

I've read some old threads on these support forums about this same issue, so it seems to be widespread and have been a problem for years. This is too critical a utility for Apple to ignore it. I've sent feedback.