Restoring from time machine back up across different Mac OS's

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Level 1

11 points

Restoring from time machine back up across different Mac OS's

I am now the proud owner of a mid-2015 15" Macbook Pro running OS X Sierra. My previous laptop is a late-2008 13" Macbook running OS X Mountain Lion (I know, I'm behind the times in terms of Mac OS).

My question is this: What is the best way to restore my data from my time machine backups onto the new machine? My current time machine backups are centered around an older OS, so I'd like to lay out a way forward before I actually do anything. For example, should I install Mountain Lion on the new Macbook Pro first, restore via time machine, and then update to Sierra?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Posted on Feb 22, 2017 1:39 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

156,062 points

Feb 22, 2017 1:58 PM in response to SlrGuy

The easiest way is to use Setup Assistant, which is the step in configuring a brand new Mac that asks if you would like to transfer information from another Mac. You can select a Time Machine backup, which is "another Mac" as far as it is concerned. Your User Account data as well as all compatible apps from that backup will be transferred to the new Mac.

If you already set up your new Mac, you have a "second chance" to use Setup Assistant, which is to use the Migration Assistant app in your Mac's Utilities folder. It does exactly, precisely, the same thing as Setup Assistant. The difference is that if you already set up your Mac, it will already have a User Account. Migration Assistant will create another new User Account with a different name. You can fix that, if you want to, either before or after running Migration Assistant.

Once that account information finishes migrating, you can delete the redundant User Account.

For example, should I install Mountain Lion on the new Macbook Pro first, ...

That won't be possible anyway.

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