Since I am heading south like a snow bird and new Macs are probably right around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to talk about how you can easily move your life from one computer to another or migrate.
Fortunately, Apple makes it easy with Migration Assistant. Migration Assistant copies all your files from one Mac to another or from a PC to a Mac so you do not have to do that manually. If you are migrating from a PC or to a new MacBook some of the steps are a bit different and we will talk about those, too.
Upgrade Your OS
The first step is to make sure that both Macs have the current operating system and have installed any available updates. Your old Mac will need Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or later.
Does your Mac have a name? Go to System Preference ->Sharing and make sure your Mac has a name. If it doesn’t, take a few hours to debate the appropriate name and enter it.
It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway – make sure both Macs are plugged in with their power adapters.
Make your Macs talk to each other
There are basically three ways to make sure that your Macs are able to talk to each other:
- Connect both computers to the same local Wi-Fi or Ethernet network.
- Connect both computers directly using a Thunderbolt, FireWire, or Ethernet cable.
- Connect your new Mac to a Time Capsule or external drive that has a Time Machine backup of your old Mac.
My preference in terms of speed and reliability is the last. If you have a Time Capsule or external drive with your Time Machine back-up on it this is the fastest and best way to migrate your data.
Use Migration Assistant
If you are connecting by cable (this is the “old” way) you need to connect by FireWire or Thunderbolt cable and put the old Mac into target disk mode. To start up in target disk mode, turn off your old Mac and restart while holding down the “T” key.
If you are not using a cable to connect, i.e. using Wi-Fi, Time Capsule or external drive, just start up the old Mac as usual.
On your new Mac you need to launch Migration Assistant which is in the Utilities folder of the Applications folder. Once you launch Migration Assistant you will be asked how you want to transfer the data. Your choices are:
- From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or start-up disk
- From a Windows PC
- To another Mac
If you are migrating from Time Machine or a backup drive or are connected by cable in target disk mode you are all set to start. But for others, you will need to open Migration Assistant on the old Mac, click continue and choose “To another Mac” from the Migration Assistant window.
On your new Mac you will be asked to choose select a Time Machine backup or start-up disk. Click continue. At this point you might see a security code. Keep that handy to enter onto your old Mac if requested.
Now you are ready to actually migrate. On you new Mac, if you are migrating from a Time Machine backup (you all have that, right?!) you will see a list of backups organized by date. Choose the one you want (usually the latest).
Select the information to transfer and click Continue and get a cup of coffee, take a long walk, take a nap because this might take awhile.
Once the migration is complete, before you give your old Mac to your niece, check to see that all your files are there one your new Mac and then you can wipe the old Mac.
If you are a “switcher” there are some special instructions. I won’t go into all the details here but complete instructions can be found here
You will need to download either Windows Migration Assistant for Mac OS Sierra or Windows Migration Assistant for Mac OS X El Capitan or earlier. Running that on your PC will allow the Mac to scan the drives on your PC to build a list of files to migrate. From there you select the files you want to move to your Mac and hit Continue.
Email, contacts, calendar information will be moved as well as bookmarks, iTunes content, Pictures and other files.
If you have a new MacBook it is just a little different. The best way to do this would be to have a USB-C adapter that will allow you to connect your Time Capsule or back-up drive to your MacBook. If you want to do this over Wi-Fi you have to make sure that both your old Mac and the new MacBook are on the same network. Open Migration Assistant on both Macs and follow the instructions.
You can also do this with an ethernet cable but that requires adapters on both Macs in all likelihood and you can do it with a USB-C to USB-C cable if you are migrating between two MacBooks.
I clearly remember the days when changing Macs was a long process that never fully worked. Migration Assistant has simplified this process and in my experience it is rock-solid. Now if Apple would just release some new Macs so I can do some migration!