Data Transfer From Late 2013 iMac (Catalina 10.15.7)

[Jim_Higgins]

I willl be buying a new M-1 24" Silver iMac and doing the data transfer
at home from a full Time Machine Backup of the old Mac to the new one.
Apple Care+.

There are two accessories I was looking at: "Thunderbolt 3 (USB‑C) Cable
(0.8 m)" and "Thunderbolt 3 (USB‑C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter". How
useful would these two be?

Has anyone had any problems doing this or do you have suggestions on how
I should go about this?

Thank you.
--
Thanks, Lord, that the best is yet to come

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 15.01.22 um 14:23 schrieb Jim_Higgins:

Thats exactly how you should not do it. Read this:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350


--
De gustibus non est disputandum

[Jim_Higgins]

That article seems to be the same, what did I miss?

[David Brooks]

Jim

You missed that Apple recommends a diect transfer from one computer to
the other - "place them near each other with Wi-Fi turned on."

Your TimeMachine back-up is irrelevant. No cables are needed!

HTH

--
Kind regards,
David B.

[Jim_Higgins]

I did that once before long ago and it took a LONG time. Is it wrong, or
slower, to use cables? BTW, thank you for the correction.

[nospam]

In article <sruoba$7ip$1...@dont-email.me>, Jim_Higgins

<gordi...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> >>> I willl be buying a new M-1 24" Silver iMac and doing the data
> >>> transfer at home from a full Time Machine Backup of the old Mac to
> >>> the new one. Apple Care+.
> >>>

> >>> There are two accessories I was looking at: "Thunderbolt 3 (USB?C)
> >>> Cable (0.8 m)" and "Thunderbolt 3 (USB?C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter".

> >>> How useful would these two be?
> >>>
> >>> Has anyone had any problems doing this or do you have suggestions on
> >>> how I should go about this?
> >>>
> >>> Thank you.
> >>
> >> That article seems to be the same, what did I miss?
> >
> > Jim
> >
> > You missed that Apple recommends a diect transfer from one computer to
> > the other - "place them near each other with Wi-Fi  turned on."
> >
> > Your TimeMachine back-up is irrelevant. No cables are needed!
> >
> > HTH
> >
>
> I did that once before long ago and it took a LONG time. Is it wrong, or
> slower, to use cables? BTW, thank you for the correction.

do not use wifi for migration, ever.

do not use ethernet either, although that is marginally tolerable.

by far, the fastest method to migrate is from a time machine backup, a
clone backup, or the old mac in target disk mode, whichever is most
convenient and most up to date. get the appropriate cable and enjoy
your new mac.

[David Brooks]

Hold on!

*YOU* are "just some bloke on the Internet" - some say a Troll!

The Apple article is recent - Published Date: January 10, 2022
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

Whyever should Jim do as YOU say as against what Apple recommends?

[nospam]

In article <xrCEJ.55650$Imt7....@fx09.ams1>, David Brooks

it's not against what apple recommends.

you're just far too stupid to understand how it works and lack the
experience in knowing what options are available and which of them work
the best.

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 15.01.22 um 15:30 schrieb David Brooks:

Jim does not understand what the content of the article is.

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 15.01.22 um 16:37 schrieb nospam:

> In article <sruoba$7ip$1...@dont-email.me>, Jim_Higgins
> <gordi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>>>> I willl be buying a new M-1 24" Silver iMac and doing the data
>>>>> transfer at home from a full Time Machine Backup of the old Mac to
>>>>> the new one. Apple Care+.
>>>>>
>>>>> There are two accessories I was looking at: "Thunderbolt 3 (USB?C)
>>>>> Cable (0.8 m)" and "Thunderbolt 3 (USB?C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter".
>>>>> How useful would these two be?
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone had any problems doing this or do you have suggestions on
>>>>> how I should go about this?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you.
>>>>
>>>> That article seems to be the same, what did I miss?
>>>
>>> Jim
>>>
>>> You missed that Apple recommends a diect transfer from one computer to
>>> the other - "place them near each other with Wi-Fi  turned on."
>>>
>>> Your TimeMachine back-up is irrelevant. No cables are needed!
>>>
>>> HTH
>>>
>>
>> I did that once before long ago and it took a LONG time. Is it wrong, or
>> slower, to use cables? BTW, thank you for the correction.
>
> do not use wifi for migration, ever.
>
> do not use ethernet either, although that is marginally tolerable.

You are an anonymous Troll.
Read the article. Worked several times for me in the past. Did you reach
the point where you know better than Apple?

[Jolly Roger]

Others here recommending using a network (WiFi) connection should be
ignored, as that's the least reliable connectivity method and will
definitely be slower than using a Thunderbolt cable.

But you may not even need a Thunderbolt cable to connect the computers
directly. If you have an existing Time Machine backup on an external
drive, you can simply connect that backup drive to the new Mac to
transfer your data to the new Mac. And if the backup drive is connected
with a reasonably fast interface (USB-C, Thunderbolt, etc), the transfer
will be more reliable and faster than using network connectivity.

When you first start up the new Mac, the setup assistant will ask if you
want to transfer your data from another Mac or Time Machine backup
drive. If the backup drive is connected, you can simply select it and
proceed to transfer all of your data over to the new Mac.

Otherwise, using a Thunderbolt cable to connect the two Macs and
selecting "transfer from another Mac" will result in a transfer that is
indeed very fast and problem-free, without involving your backup drive
at all.

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[Jolly Roger]

On 2022-01-15, Jim_Higgins <gordi...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> On 1/15/22 9:30 AM, David Brooks wrote:
>>
>> You missed that Apple recommends a diect transfer from one computer
>> to the other - "place them near each other with Wi-Fi  turned on."
>>
>> Your TimeMachine back-up is irrelevant. No cables are needed!
>

> I did that once before long ago and it took a LONG time. Is it wrong,
> or slower, to use cables? BTW, thank you for the correction.

You are right to question David and others who are suggesting using a
network connection. It is indeed not only the slowest method, but also
the most problematic, because network connectivity can easily be
degraded and/or interrupted during the transfer process much more easily
than with a Thunderbolt or other cable connection.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2022-01-15, nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>
> do not use wifi for migration, ever.
>
> do not use ethernet either, although that is marginally tolerable.

This is good advice.

> by far, the fastest method to migrate is from a time machine backup, a
> clone backup, or the old mac in target disk mode, whichever is most
> convenient and most up to date. get the appropriate cable and enjoy
> your new mac.

This has been my experience as well. Typically, I just plug the backup
drive into the new machine and let setup assistant transfer my data from
the backup drive.

If you have a Thunderbolt cable handy, a direct connection between the
two Macs works well too, and can potentially be even faster when the
startup drive of either/both Macs is an SSD.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2022-01-15, David Brooks <Da...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 15/01/2022 15:37, nospam wrote:
>>
>> by far, the fastest method to migrate is from a time machine backup,
>> a clone backup, or the old mac in target disk mode, whichever is most
>> convenient and most up to date. get the appropriate cable and enjoy
>> your new mac.
>
> Hold on!
>
> *YOU* are "just some bloke on the Internet" - some say a Troll!

Some say the same about you. And they are correct.

> The Apple article is recent - Published Date: January 10, 2022
> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350
>
> Whyever should Jim do as YOU say as against what Apple recommends?

It's not against what Apple recommends.

There are multiple methods you can use to transfer information from one
Mac to another.

The reason Apple mentions WiFi on their website is because it's simpler
to use an existing WiFi network than it is to use a Thunderbolt cable
that users may not have.

Another method is transferring the information over a wired
(Thunderbolt) connection from one Mac directly to another Mac. This is
typically the fastest way to do it, but requires that you actually have
(a) a Thunderbolt cable, and (b) Thunderbolt-capable ports on each Mac
in question - two things a lot of people don't have at their disposal.

Another method is transferring the information from a Time Machine
backup drive (or a clone of the old Mac) to the new Mac over the backup
drive interface cable. This is the method I use most, simply because I
already happen to have the backup drive handy when I am setting up a new
Mac, and it's more accessible than digging out a Thunderbolt cable for a
direct Mac-to-Mac connection.

[Your Name]

My personal recommendation is never transfer anything in this sense.
You've got a brand new computer with a freshly installed MacOS.
Transferring all the old stuff across will give you a load of garbage
that you almost certainly never use and some of may not work at all
(old 32-bit apps for example).

The best option is to simply use the new computer, install fresh copies
(perferably the latest version) of the apps you want, and then
*manually* transfer anything you find *really* need. If you selling or
trashing / recycling the old computer, then make a backup copy first so
you can still access those old items should you need to.

This is especially true when moving from an old hard drive based Mac to
a new SSD based Mac, where you can often have a lot less storage space
on the system drive.

Between the same two devices, a cabled connection will usually be
faster than a wireless one.


As an example, I recently set-up a new computer for someone.
Transferring their email Conatcts list would have been a complete waste
of time - they had over 700, many of which were very outdated (their
mail host no longer even exists!).

[Jolly Roger]

On 2022-01-15, Joerg Lorenz <hugy...@gmx.ch> wrote:
> Am 15.01.22 um 16:37 schrieb nospam:
>>

>> do not use wifi for migration, ever.
>>
>> do not use ethernet either, although that is marginally tolerable.
>
> You are an anonymous Troll.

Ad hominem attacks are trolling.

> Read the article.

Read these articles, both of which indicate that WiFi is *not* the only
method you can use to transfer data between two Macs:

<https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203981>

---
Restore your Mac from a backup

Use Migration Assistant to transfer files from your Time Machine backup
to your Mac.

If you made a Time Machine backup of your Mac, Migration Assistant can
use that backup to restore your personal files, including apps and
everything in your user account.
---

<https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/transfer-files-mac-computers-target-disk-mode-mchlp1443/mac>

---
Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode

If you have two Mac computers with USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt ports, you
can connect them so that one of them appears as an external hard disk on
the other. This is called target disk mode.
---

> Worked several times for me in the past.

"Worked several times" does not equate to "best method of transferring
data between two computers". Network transfers are the least reliable
and typically the slowest method.

> Did you reach the point where you know better than Apple?

Nothing he said goes against Apple's recommendations.

[nospam]

In article <srv8go$b4p$1...@gioia.aioe.org>, Your Name

<Your...@YourISP.com> wrote:

>
> My personal recommendation is never transfer anything in this sense.

bad suggestion.

> You've got a brand new computer with a freshly installed MacOS.
> Transferring all the old stuff across will give you a load of garbage

it does not.

> that you almost certainly never use and some of may not work at all
> (old 32-bit apps for example).

unused apps and ancillary files do not cause problems.

> The best option is to simply use the new computer, install fresh copies
> (perferably the latest version) of the apps you want, and then
> *manually* transfer anything you find *really* need. If you selling or
> trashing / recycling the old computer, then make a backup copy first so
> you can still access those old items should you need to.

that option is the most amount of effort, for no benefit

> This is especially true when moving from an old hard drive based Mac to
> a new SSD based Mac, where you can often have a lot less storage space
> on the system drive.

new computers are likely to have more space than an older one,
regardless of ssd.

> Between the same two devices, a cabled connection will usually be
> faster than a wireless one.

that is correct.

> As an example, I recently set-up a new computer for someone.
> Transferring their email Conatcts list would have been a complete waste
> of time - they had over 700, many of which were very outdated (their
> mail host no longer even exists!).

a waste of a couple of seconds. oh no.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2022-01-15, Your Name <Your...@YourISP.com> wrote:
> On 2022-01-15 13:23:27 +0000, Jim_Higgins said:
>>
>> I willl be buying a new M-1 24" Silver iMac and doing the data
>> transfer at home from a full Time Machine Backup of the old Mac to
>> the new one. Apple Care+.
>>
>> There are two accessories I was looking at: "Thunderbolt 3

>> (USB‑C) Cable (0.8 m)" and "Thunderbolt 3 (USB‑C) to

>> Thunderbolt 2 Adapter". How useful would these two be?
>>
>> Has anyone had any problems doing this or do you have suggestions on
>> how I should go about this?
>>
>> Thank you.
>
> My personal recommendation is never transfer anything in this sense.

That's horrible advice that will result in you manually setting up user
accounts, network connectivity, system settings, application installs,
application settings, and so on. You will spend a *lot* more time
setting up your computer as a result, with a high risk forgetting to
copy important data from the old machine to the new one.

> You've got a brand new computer with a freshly installed MacOS.
> Transferring all the old stuff across will give you a load of garbage
> that you almost certainly never use and some of may not work at all
> (old 32-bit apps for example).

Nonsense.

[Chris Ridd]

On 15/01/2022 19:49, Your Name wrote:
> On 2022-01-15 13:23:27 +0000, Jim_Higgins said:
>>
>> I willl be buying a new M-1 24" Silver iMac and doing the data
>> transfer at home from a full Time Machine Backup of the old Mac to the
>> new one. Apple Care+.
>>

>> There are two accessories I was looking at: "Thunderbolt 3 (USB‑C)
>> Cable (0.8 m)" and "Thunderbolt 3 (USB‑C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter".

>> How useful would these two be?
>>
>> Has anyone had any problems doing this or do you have suggestions on
>> how I should go about this?
>>
>> Thank you.
>
> My personal recommendation is never transfer anything in this sense.
> You've got a brand new computer with a freshly installed MacOS.
> Transferring all the old stuff across will give you a load of garbage
> that you almost certainly never use and some of may not work at all (old
> 32-bit apps for example).
>
> The best option is to simply use the new computer, install fresh copies
> (perferably the latest version) of the apps you want, and then
> *manually* transfer anything you find *really* need. If you selling or
> trashing / recycling the old computer, then make a backup copy first so
> you can still access those old items should you need to.

There's certainly an argument for doing this, especially if the machine
you're transferring from doesn't have up-to-date apps. I did this going
from a Core2 Duo machine to an M1 Pro. Yes, the new machine is a bit
faster ;-)

Getting rid of cruft is nice. Very Marie Kondo.

Don't forget Apple's Migration Assistant can be run after you're up and
running.

> As an example, I recently set-up a new computer for someone.
> Transferring their email Conatcts list would have been a complete waste
> of time - they had over 700, many of which were very outdated (their
> mail host no longer even exists!).

That's not a great example. You've saved copying maybe a megabyte tops
of data?

--
Chris

[nospam]

In article <ss2299$1p5$1...@dont-email.me>, Chris Ridd <chri...@mac.com>
wrote:

>
> Don't forget Apple's Migration Assistant can be run after you're up and
> running.

it can, but that's almost always a very bad idea.

[Your Name]

On 2022-01-16 21:21:45 +0000, Chris Ridd said:
> On 15/01/2022 19:49, Your Name wrote:
>> On 2022-01-15 13:23:27 +0000, Jim_Higgins said:
>>>
>>> I willl be buying a new M-1 24" Silver iMac and doing the data transfer
>>> at home from a full Time Machine Backup of the old Mac to the new one.
>>> Apple Care+.
>>>

>>> There are two accessories I was looking at: "Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)
>>> Cable (0.8 m)" and "Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter".

>>> How useful would these two be?
>>>
>>> Has anyone had any problems doing this or do you have suggestions on
>>> how I should go about this?
>>>
>>> Thank you.
>>
>> My personal recommendation is never transfer anything in this sense.
>> You've got a brand new computer with a freshly installed MacOS.
>> Transferring all the old stuff across will give you a load of garbage
>> that you almost certainly never use and some of may not work at all
>> (old 32-bit apps for example).
>>
>> The best option is to simply use the new computer, install fresh copies
>> (perferably the latest version) of the apps you want, and then

>> *manually* transfer anything you find *really* need. If you're selling

>> or trashing / recycling the old computer, then make a backup copy first
>> so you can still access those old items should you need to.
>
> There's certainly an argument for doing this, especially if the machine
> you're transferring from doesn't have up-to-date apps. I did this going
> from a Core2 Duo machine to an M1 Pro. Yes, the new machine is a bit
> faster ;-)
>
> Getting rid of cruft is nice. Very Marie Kondo.
>
> Don't forget Apple's Migration Assistant can be run after you're up and
> running.

Migration Assitant can be run after setting up a new computer, but it's
best to use it *during* the set-up process, if you're going to at all.
Doing it afterwards can cause issues with things like non-matching
account permissions.

The vast majority of stuff most people collect on their drives is
simply never even looked at again, let alone used.

>> As an example, I recently set-up a new computer for someone.
>> Transferring their email Conatcts list would have been a complete waste
>> of time - they had over 700, many of which were very outdated (their
>> mail host no longer even exists!).
>
> That's not a great example. You've saved copying maybe a megabyte tops of data?

It wasn't really a comment on the size of the file, but the fact that
it was a waste of time and effort since 99.9% of those contacts aren't
even used - an example of transferrring useless old cruft. Rather than
bothering to copy it across or even go through deleting unwanted
entries, it is far easier to simply start fresh with a blank contact
list and enter ones they do want as needed. (In that particular example
it would have also meant converting it from MacOS Contacts to Windoze
Outlook address book.)

But the size of the transferred files can also be another reason not to
lazily transfer everything ... especially these days where Apple is now
using internal SSDs instead of hard drives (trying to transfer a 1TB
hard drive to a 256GB SSD is going to be "difficult", even excluding
the actual OS system files).

[nospam]

In article <ss29nh$9j$1...@gioia.aioe.org>, Your Name

<Your...@YourISP.com> wrote:

> But the size of the transferred files can also be another reason not to
> lazily transfer everything ... especially these days where Apple is now
> using internal SSDs instead of hard drives (trying to transfer a 1TB
> hard drive to a 256GB SSD is going to be "difficult", even excluding
> the actual OS system files).

anyone who buys a mac with 256gb ssd when they have 1tb to copy has
only themselves to blame.

the largest capacity is currently 8tb. it's not cheap, but some people
do want that much internal storage.

[Ant]

Why is a very bad idea? I never had issues. I just don't copy everything.
--
I have a dream that we'll no longer have illness, pains, sadness, craziness, sins, etc. in God's house!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

[Ant]

Yeah especially from huge internal HDDs to tiny SSDs. :/

[nospam]

In article <Uv-dnT3OcZR-MHn8...@earthlink.com>, Ant

<a...@zimage.comANT> wrote:

> > > Don't forget Apple's Migration Assistant can be run after you're up and
> > > running.
>
> > it can, but that's almost always a very bad idea.
>
> Why is a very bad idea? I never had issues. I just don't copy everything.

it will create a new account, causing a mismatch in user ids.

[nospam]

In article <Uv-dnTzOcZSTM3n8...@earthlink.com>, Ant

<a...@zimage.comANT> wrote:

> > > But the size of the transferred files can also be another reason not to
> > > lazily transfer everything ... especially these days where Apple is now
> > > using internal SSDs instead of hard drives (trying to transfer a 1TB
> > > hard drive to a 256GB SSD is going to be "difficult", even excluding
> > > the actual OS system files).
>
> > anyone who buys a mac with 256gb ssd when they have 1tb to copy has
> > only themselves to blame.
>
> > the largest capacity is currently 8tb. it's not cheap, but some people
> > do want that much internal storage.
>
> Yeah especially from huge internal HDDs to tiny SSDs. :/

they're not that tiny anymore. macbook pros start at 512gb.

[Ant]

Interesting. I migrated the old non-admin (made a new admin account to
start clean) accounts over and haven't seen any errors? When do the
issues come up?

[Ant]

Still too small IMO. :P

[nospam]

In article <ivudneQSsYLdn3j8...@earthlink.com>, Ant

<a...@zimage.comANT> wrote:

> > > Yeah especially from huge internal HDDs to tiny SSDs. :/
>
> > they're not that tiny anymore. macbook pros start at 512gb.
>
> Still too small IMO. :P

the largest is currently 8tb. it's not cheap.

[Dr Eberhard Lisse]

Jim,

I did something similar, and encountered an issue because the
backups/machines did not have exactly the same MacOs versions. Once
that was done, no drama.

el

On 15/01/2022 15:23, Jim_Higgins wrote:
> I willl be buying a new M-1 24" Silver iMac and doing the data
> transfer at home from a full Time Machine Backup of the old Mac to the
> new one. Apple Care+.
>

> There are two accessories I was looking at: "Thunderbolt 3 (USB‑C)
> Cable (0.8 m)" and "Thunderbolt 3 (USB‑C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter".

> How useful would these two be?
>
> Has anyone had any problems doing this or do you have suggestions on
> how I should go about this?
>
> Thank you.

--
To email me replace 'nospam' with 'el'

[Dr Eberhard Lisse]

The issue can come up when you install your new computer and use the
same user name as on the old one.

So, when setting up the new one I usually create a temporary account and
bang the other stuff from the old one more or less totally.

It may work properly if you only restore some stuff from the old
machine's account, but, see above.

There is absolutely nothing wrong to once in a while install a machine
from scratch and update your handbook (if any :-)-O) while you are doing
it so you keep up with changes. Patience is a virtue :-)-O

greetings, el

On 17/01/2022 07:33, Ant wrote:
> nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>> In article <Uv-dnT3OcZR-MHn8...@earthlink.com>, Ant
>> <a...@zimage.comANT> wrote:
>
>>>>> Don't forget Apple's Migration Assistant can be run after you're
>>>>> up and running.
>>>
>>>> it can, but that's almost always a very bad idea.
>>>
>>> Why is a very bad idea? I never had issues. I just don't copy
>>> everything.
>
>> it will create a new account, causing a mismatch in user ids.
>
> Interesting. I migrated the old non-admin (made a new admin account
> to start clean) accounts over and haven't seen any errors? When do
> the issues come up?
>

--

[Dr Eberhard Lisse]

My M1 Airbook has 2TB which is quite enough for my travels :-)-O

el

On 17/01/2022 07:44, Ant wrote:
> nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote:

[...]

>> they're not that tiny anymore. macbook pros start at 512gb.
>
> Still too small IMO. :P

--