I’m migrating from an MBP 2014 running Big Sur to an MBA M2 connected via Thunderbolt (via Apple’s T3-T2 adapter and Apple’s Thunderbolt cable), but Migration Assistant is using Wi-Fi. How do I force MA to use the Thunderbolt connection?

we’re just migrating my wife’s MacBook Pro to a new one, both most recent macOS versions via a TimeMachine backup. In the process all files are selected, Migration Assistenten on the new mac runs through smoothly without any errors. Except that it’s a lot faster than expected, and faster than it first estimates to be. We’re roughly talking about 200 Gb of data, it first estimates to take around 1:30 (h:min), but then finishes after just a couple of minutes. After rebooting the Pictures and Music folder for example are empty, haven’t fully explored, what else might be missing. The missing data definitely is on the time machine backup. Any ideas on what might have gone wrong here? Might try skipping the time machine backup and using Migration assistant directly Mac to Mac. One more thought: old Mac used case-sensitive Apple File System, new Mac doesn’t - might that be the source of the „error“? Thanks for your help! Sascha

I am trying to restore my Safari history and saved passwords from a Time Machine backup on Mojave. The history.db file, according to Apple's website, is supposed to be at ~Library/Safari. However, that directory is not there. Where is it hiding? Edit: I wonder if I did a complete restore from Time Machine (through Migration Assistant?) if everything would be restored.

I've tried transfers from MacBook Pro (2021) to MacBook Air (2025) and nothing works. Time Machine failed (supposedly not enough space, which doesn't seem right.) Wi-Fi was too slow. USB-C took nine hours and then got stuck on a single file. Thunderbolt took twenty minutes before it too got stuck — a little further along, but still near the end — and then stayed there for over an hour. (It's odd to me that iPhone transfers are so seamless by comparison, but I digress.) Any idea what might be wrong? Thanks.

I migrated from a 2015 MacBookPro to a new 2022 MacBook Pro with M1. The MacOS was updated as part of the Migration process to 12.5.1. Finder and Outlook Search worked fine on the 2015 laptop. Finder Search will work if I am searching "This Mac" but will not find anything if I search in a specific folder. Here is an example. First image shows the Downloads folder with file AB-CD-EF.png in it. The Second image shows the search with "This Mac", and it recognizes (at the bottom) that the file is in the Downloads folder. The third image is with selecting the Downloads folder for the search. It finds nothing. I have tried searching in multiple folders with multiple file types, and the problem occurs. I am sure it is related that when searching in Microsoft Outlook, every search ends up blank, no matter what the search criteria is. Note that everything can be found in Spotlight - all files and emails. However, I did try looking at the Spotlight settings and all categories are checked on and there are no locations listed in the privacy area that restrict Spotlight. I once had this happen a few weeks ago, but the next day there was a MacOS update, and that resolved it. Unfortunately, I don't have an OS update to perform this time. Anyone have ideas?

I recently used *Migration Assistant* to transfer my data to a new Mac. During the process, there was a message indicating that a few files didn’t transfer (which I don’t need). I was prompted to set a password for the account on the new Mac, but after completing the 12-hour transfer (I have a large amount of data), I’m unable to log in with the password I set, I even tried my old password, after few tries, I've got my computer locked. Is there a way to resolve this login issue without having to redo the entire migration process? I’d appreciate any guidance you can provide. Thank you! REF: [Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support (SG)](https://support.apple.com/en-sg/102613)

Running Migration Assistant to transfer my files to new mac. Going from M1 Max (macOS 12.6) to M4 Max. Both Finder (size and size on disk) and du -sh of the home directory reports around 500GB, which is exactly what I have left after transferring applications and other files. I also made sure to move sparse files, like Parallels, OneDrive, UTM directory to a temporary user directory since these had caused problems in the past. However, it still shows a total of 1.04TB for Library/ when is under 200GB, other files and folders have relatively accurate size. What might be going on? Currently I've just manually copied over some application preferences / data / licenses, and some keychain items (but not all - I had to enter the password for each item and I have about 200) which works but is painfully slow. What can I try next?

I need to setup another macbook as quickly as possible, so I'm planning to use Migration Assistant with thunderbolt 4, which should take about 30 minutes from what I've heard. However, I cannot close apps on my old macbook for certain reasons. Is there a way to force Migration Assistant to run without closing other apps?

I recently transferred the profile I use from my old Mac to a new one. Thanks to *Migration Assistant* and Thunderbolt everything went smoothly and fast. That is until I realised all the "garbage" that went along. When I checked through terminal what the root folder (that is ~/) contained with (ls -la), I saw that all the hidden files went along. That is probably expected. And I don't seem to have the choice to transfer just the data that is contained in the folders/directories of ~/ (that is, the content of Desktop, Documents, etc.), but not the content of ~/Library and other stuff I might not be aware of. Therefore I decided to erase the profile and do the transfer manually, but I soon had 2 main issues: 1. I can manage to transfer some data, but not other (i.e., Photos Library.photoslibrary, no matter what I did even following this Apple KB ) 2. Some serious "garbage" was transferred too that I could not locate after the deletion of the profile no matter what I did (see this SE thread for that issue and what I ended up doing). I guess that the issue resulting from point 1. comes from the fact that although the profile names are the same in one computer and the other, their IDs or fingerprint, or whatever does not match and therefore prohibits the transfer (it can also be because I obviously lack some knowledge). Therefore, my questions are: - Does *Migration Assistant* allow, in one way or another, to choose what data is transferred from a User profile? - If this is not possible, is there another way to transfer the data without getting blocked (like what happened with Photos Library.photoslibrary)? ---- *Systems used* - "Old" computer: macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, 2.8 GHz, Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM - "New" computer: macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Apple M3 Max, 128 GB RAM ---- P.S.: Transferring the User Profiles with Thunderbolt the nearly 2 TB of data from the "old" computer took 2-3 hours with Migration Assistant. Transferring <100 GB of data from one profile to another by dragging and dropping took also 2-3 hours. The difference is striking!

I just got a new iPhone SE 3rd generation to replace my iPhone SE 2nd generation. I just when through the automated migration process of transferring over all info while holding the phones close. Seemed to have worked well. But I was surprised to find that the *Items* tab of the *Find My* app knows none of my AirTags. 👉 Is there a way to bring over those AirTag registrations? Or must I re-register AirTags with the new phone from scratch? If re-registering is required, is the proper route that is described in Apple Support page, *How to reset your AirTag* , where you remove, replace, and press the battery inside the AirTag five times?

I'm trying to move my files, applications, and system preferences from a Early 2015 Macbook Pro to a 2019 MBP. Here are the steps I followed: 1. Got an external hard drive and used it for Time Machine backup of my old Mac. The total backup was close to 105 GB. 2. Booted up the new Mac, created my user account on it with the same name. 3. Connected the drive to new Mac, Opened "Migration Assistant" on it, and selected Time Machine Backup as the option. 4. On the screen where it asks select the data you want to transfer, All the checkboxes were selected by default, so I did not wait for "Estimating File Size", and just clicked on Next. 5. I chose to replace the existing user on the New Mac, whilst not keeping any files from it. 6. Hit Continue and let the process start. I first got a few screens such as "Preparing to transfer user accounts", and then said "Looking for applications and documents to transfer (n items processed)" 7. I left it idle for some time, and when I checked next, it had gone to "Transferring documents" screen, with an ETA of 18 hours 45 minutes. However, with every passing second, the ETA is increasing. It has been an hour since I recorded 18 hours, and it is now at "57 hours 42 minutes remaining" (and counting). Also, the progress bar has not moved significantly. I can barely make out any movement. Is this by any means normal? Should I leave it overnight, knowing that the ETA is not coming down, rather climbing? Or should I cancel it while I can? I read in a few places that choosing to overwrite existing user account causes this, and advised to create a new user. But there was not enough validation on that post.

Just yesterday, I've migrated from a Macbook Air from 2015 (with Intel-based processor) to a Macbook Air with M1. I've used the migration assistant for this and was pretty surprised that everything, including applications and settings, was properly migrated. Most of the applications were installed using brew, and running brew upgrade on the M1 Macbook caused an error first. After having installed Rosetta through softwareupdate --install-rosetta, brew was running perfectly. But I wonder how the best procedure for my applications might look like. Would later versions of them be upgraded from Intel-based applications to ARM-based when running brew upgrade, or do I need to change any configuration manually?

I want to move to a new Macbook. However, I have a POP3 email account on Mac Mail with some old emails that I would like to migrate to a new Macbook which are no longer on the mail server. Would Apple Migrate Assistant allow me to move these emails to the new Macbook? Or is there an alternative method that would allow me to achieve this?

I have two M1 MacBook Pros running 14.2.1. I am trying to transfer the data from one computer to the other using **Migration Assistant**. I have tried connecting via the wireless network. I have tried using a 10GB USB-C cable and no matter what order I try to do this in neither one of the computers recognizes the other and I am not able to transfer the data. I have also tried doing Target Disk mode, with hopes I could just copy the files over and it does not work. I hold down the T key and boot up. It simply goes to the login screen. I am not sure what I am missing but I know that I am not succeeding. I welcome guidance. **Updated:** One thing that does work is if I connect a Time Machine. That is recognized and allows me to move forward.

I have 2 old macs with data that needs to be moved to 1 new mac. Can I simply run migration assistant twice, moving the data into the same user account on the new mac?

I recently migrated to a new Mac running Ventura, and it looks like it migrated three user groups. I've figured out what the first two are and am going to delete them, but I can't figure out what the last one is. Is _messagebus something I need? Can I delete it? No user account got migrated as being in that group (or any other group, for that matter). Thanks!

I just bought a new Mac Mini to replace my old one. I have a user account I'd like to migrate, but there isn't space on the new Mac Mini's internal hard drive. Can I migrate that user so that their home directory is on an external drive? Thanks!

I just erased an MBP 2014 that had been running the latest Big Sur to factory settings in preparation for migrating from another MPB running Big Sur, following the instructions provided by Apple . But the process has installed Mavericks and provides no way to install Big Sur. How do I install Big Sur on a Mavericks machine? Can I just run Migration Assistant on the Big Sur (source) - Mavericks (destination) combo and end up with Big Sur on the destination? Is there some way to download a disk image to the Mavericks Mac that will work as an installer there?

I have a 2017 Macbook Pro and a 2018 Macbook Pro. The target machine has a bigger SSD than the source, so I know it's not a space issue. I ran Migration Assistant on both machines and the process completely relatively quickly. After it completed I received about 2 dozen files that could not be transferred. The machine than boots into macOS and I start receiving repeated authorizations requests to repair files. I also receive notice that the keychain needs to be replaced with default. Should I attempt to boot the source into target disk mode and transfer via thunderbolt?

My son was using an old Mac Mini running El Capitan. Parental Controls were enabled on this machine. Recently I bought him a newer Mac Mini. It's running Ventura. I migrated all his data from his old machine to the new one using the macOS Migration Assistant. This seemed to work really well; he was even still logged in to his Google accounts in Google Chrome. I activated Screen Time via iCloud (or it was active already -- I don't remember -- since it was configured to work across devices via iCloud), but it didn't seem to work properly: When I was trying to configure the machine late one evening it kept on logging out (doing the turning animation to the login screen), and immediately again when I entered the password. Also the machine would start using 100% CPU and basically completely lock up; the mouse would move but nothing else would work. So the next day I disabled Screen Time via iCloud completely, on all his devices. I reactivated Screen Time on his iPhone and iPad without iCloud. Screen Time is still off on the Mac Mini. Since then the machine has been rock stable with no 100% CPU problems. Yet -- remembering that Screen Time is off -- every day at 15mins before 20:30 (the previously configured "end time" under Parental Controls) the warning pops up that the time is almost up. So the previously defined Parental Controls are still active. How can I turn them off?