swestland

Q: migration assistant

So disappointed with migration assistant. I have a brand new mac book pro. Cannot use it. It's just sitting in the box waiting and my excitement at getting a shiny new machine is dissipating.

 

I have an old Mac book pro (mid 2010) and lots of content. Having bought software (Office, Logic Pro etc.) for this machine I don't want to have to buy it all again. Migration Assistant will sort me out, so I thought.

 

So I ran migration assistant on both machines (with both machines connected to the same wi-fi network) and it seemed ok. The new machine saw the old one and though it said it would take 5-6 hours that didn't bother me. Sadly, after about 4 hours I came back and the connection had been lost. Who knows why.

 

So I decided to connect them using an ethernet cable. Quicker and more robust. The new macbook does not have an ethernet port so I looked into this and realised I needed a usb-ethernet adaptor. At the Apple store I had one in my hand but the helpful chap there said I would be better off with a thunderbolt cable. So I got one of those.

 

However, when I ran migration assistant on both machines the new one did not find the old one. Looking into this, I found that with thunderbolt connection you have to boot the old machine up in target disk mode (by holding down T when it starts). I did this and ran migration assistant on the new machine but it did not find the old machine or the disk. Depressed.

 

I tried to get some online support. I got a window saying that my chat session would start soon. But it never would.

 

The question here is: how do I best do this? Have I wasted my money on the Thunderbolt cable or if I buy an ethernet adaptor will I have the same problem (with the new machine not recognising the old one)? Is migration assistant the only way to do this?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. At present I have my new mac book just sitting there, looking sad. I don't really want to start using it until I get this resolved and, indeed, there would be not point - without the software I need to do things. Why should this be so difficult?  

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Aug 15, 2016 10:34 AM

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Q: migration assistant

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  • by selliscfi,Solvedanswer

    selliscfi selliscfi Aug 17, 2016 1:05 PM in response to swestland
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 17, 2016 1:05 PM in response to swestland

    Just went through the same thing! I followed the instructions and updated my old MBP before starting, mistake #1, after the update all of my files in documents had vanished and relocated all over! Many of my photo logs are lost and only show the descriptions, no photos! After a full day of trying to transfer everything, I eventually used my "passport for mac" backup and manually transferred the files and tried to re-assemble all of my document folders. Prior to migrating and updating, back up or store your old mac files on an external drive, not time machine or cloud, that way you still have all of your original documents.

  • by Courcoul,

    Courcoul Aug 15, 2016 11:07 AM in response to swestland
    Level 6 (14,193 points)
    Aug 15, 2016 11:07 AM in response to swestland

    The problem is one is too old and the other too new. Ideally, putting the old Mac in Target Disk Mode should cause two icons to show on the screen: the Thunderbolt and the FireWire symbols. If TB does not show up, it means the firmware precludes that interface from being used, and yes, the TB cable will have been a bad buy. The alternative (if possible) would be to return the cable in exchange for a TB to FW dongle AND an appropriate cable for that. The dongle has FireWire 800, what does your old Mac have? (my old Late 2011 has FW800, so it's a straightforward 800 to 800 cable, else you might have FW400 so you'd need a 400 to 800 conversion cable). Ethernet usually works, but you'd need an Ethernet to TB dongle for the new Mac, just use a good Cat6 or Cat7 Gbit Ethernet patch cord.

     

    Another alternative is to take the drive out of the old Mac, stuff it into an USB3 external enclosure, plug it in and let'er rip.

     

    You WANT to make sure the new Mac is in an absolutely virgin state to do the transfer. Never have been set up or anything, so EVERYTHING (apps, licenses, documents, settings) get transferred over. This is using the migration part of the Setup Assistant. Been there, done that. 4 times already. No issues. Every time.

     

    BTW, selliscfi's woes is because he ran Migration Assistant AFTER having started the Mac up and setting up an account that was identical to that on the old Mac.

  • by swestland,

    swestland swestland Aug 17, 2016 1:11 PM in response to Courcoul
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 17, 2016 1:11 PM in response to Courcoul

    Thanks - at least I know it is not just me.

     

    I remain really disappointed in Apple. One of the reasons why I moved to Apple products quite a few years ago is that they simply work - easily and intuitively. Migration Assistant does not work. It is neither easy nor intuitive.

     

    I think I also had some problems because I had carried out minimal set up before running Migration Assistant and then Migration Assistant kept complaining about duplicate accounts etc. In the end I gave up. I managed to at least transfer my applications using Migration Transfer. Not without problems though. My Microsoft office no longer works (it is asking for a product activation key I no longer have).

     

    I write apps and I just know that it is going to be a nightmare when I try to update any of them (there will be files in the wrong place etc.).

     

    Since I bought the Mac book pro I have just had 5 days of misery and frustration It shouldn't be like this and I am so disappointed that Apple has not thought this through better. After all, how common must it be that people want to migrate from an old mac book to a new one.

  • by cbaz,

    cbaz cbaz Sep 28, 2016 4:47 AM in response to swestland
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 4:47 AM in response to swestland

    I am having similar problems - and I agree with your comments about Migration Assistant.


    I have asked for help, but none of the solutions have worked so far