Alvin Fong
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Do both iMacs need to be running same MacOS?

I will be buying a new iMac with El Capitan installed.  My old iMac is still running the most recent version of Yosemite.  Will I have to upgrade the old iMac to El Capitan before migrating the information to the new iMac using Migration Assistant?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo

Posted on Dec 1, 2015 7:24 PM

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Alvin Fong

Q: Do both iMacs need to be running same MacOS?

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  • by Ferd II,

    Ferd II Ferd II Dec 1, 2015 8:26 PM in response to Alvin Fong
    Level 7 (28,591 points)
    Applications
    Dec 1, 2015 8:26 PM in response to Alvin Fong

    Alvin,

     

    There is no requirement to upgrade the old iMac to El Capitan. It can be used for migration even though it is still running Yosemite.

    SmallWings.png

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Dec 1, 2015 8:58 PM in response to Ferd II
    Level 7 (24,100 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 1, 2015 8:58 PM in response to Ferd II

    Meant to reply to the OP

      Alvin Fong Dec 1, 2015 7:24 PM

    I will be buying a new iMac with El Capitan installed.  My old iMac is still running the most recent version of Yosemite.  Will I have to upgrade the old iMac to El Capitan before migrating the information to the new iMac using Migration Assistant

      

    No that  would makes no sense.

     

    Use the setup assistant  (one first boot) or migration Assistant (Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistent.app) to move all your user to the new machine

     

    Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

     

     

    HT4796_Mac_MB-001-en-2.png

     

    The Setup Assistant on the initial boot of the new Machine is the most trouble free way to go.


    It used to be you could only jump two OS X to upgrade and migrate, however today you can go as far back as OS X 10.6.8