Finding Files Transferred with Migration Assistant

Hi there,
I used the Migration Assistant to move my settings, documents, programs, etc. from my iBook to my MBP. The assistant moved most everything from my iBook over, as I couldn't pick and choose which particular applications, documents, etc. that I wanted to migrate.
I'd like to go through my new laptop's drive and clean out the items that I didn't want transfered but were since I couldn't specify the files and apps I actually wanted to transfer.
Does the Migration Assistant group the files that it tranferred in 1 easy place? The only thing I saw was the System Folder (from Old Mac) directory. If there is not, is there a way to find those files and applications easily (ie some general flag that files that were transferred from Migration Assistan share that I could search for via Spotlight)?
Many thanks,
sarah

The moved documents, applications etc. are but in the same general place (directory, folder etc.) as the original. If images are moved from the User's Picture folder, they are put in the new User's Picture folder. The same is true for music, applications, documents etc.

Similar Messages

Why can't I access files transferred through Migration assistant

Hi all
I have tried to use the migration assistant to transfer files from my pc which is about to expire (Hard drive is on its way out). Ive had the Macbook for about 8 months and as I had never had a Mac before I wanted to get to grips with things before transferring everything over.
So after spending about 2 hours transferring files I now find I cannot access anything. It has put everything into a separate account, which I understand and have read other threads about this so I know it is normal. The problem is I cant get into that account as it asks for a password and none of my passwords work. I was never asked to give a password for the new account so if its not a new one or one of my original ones how do I get in. Also even if I do get into this new account can I transfer the files to my normal one?
Im beginning to think I should have just copied everything over by flash drive. Anyone have any suggestions.
Thanks in advance.

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What is transferred with Migration Assistant?

I'm getting a new Mac, and am planning to use Migration Assistant to transfer my files. But I'm not to sure what transfers during this process. Since my current Mac has two users, can I choose to transfer from one of the users? Do all files transfer, or are there limitations? Does my Windows transfer?
Thank you in advance.
P/S: Sorry if I have any mistakes, English is not my first language.

It transfers one user account, it does not transfer Windows, the new Mac should not have any accounts on it when you start the migration.
Windows can be cloned using Winclone and restored later (read the Winclone instructions)
I would not use MA at all for this, I would use Winclone to clone Windows to the OSX partition and then delete the Windows partition, then I would use CCC to clone the OSX partition from the old Mac to the new Mac and restore Winclone.

HT4796 Help needed with Migration Assistant, can't find files?

I've just purchased my first Mac (macbook Pro 15in) so please be kind, I'm so clueless it's ridiculous! Using migration assistant I've transfered aprox 100GB of files from my PC which seemed to take about 2seconds, but have no idea where they are or how to access them. The files were mostly music but when I opened itunes there is nothing in my library. The rest of the stuff was pics, docs, email accounts but none of that seems to be there either.. From the few articles I've read I seem to have somehow created another user account which is labeled Guest User/Sharing only, but I can't seem to log in as that user to find the files.. What have I done?! HELP!!

Congratulations!
... Using migration assistant I've transfered aprox 100GB of files from my PC which seemed to take about 2seconds, but have no idea where they are or how to access them.
It sounds as though Migration Assistant did not do a thing. With Migration Assistant, 100 GB will take time, no matter how the two computers communicate it will be at least an hour. Probably more. I recommend you connect them both to a wired network and make sure the PC is really using it. Wireless will take a lot longer.
I suggest you read the following step by step. On your Windows PC, you will need to download Migration Assistant. That link and everything else you need to know is in this document: OS X Lion: About Windows Migration Assistant. Follow its instructions to the letter.
The "guest" user is a feature of OS X and will not contain your files. Don't concern yourself with it.

What's the fastest way to transfer files with Migration Assistant?

I am trying to transfer everything from an iMac 21.5 over Ethernet with Migration Assistant and it is 20+ Hours estimated transfer time. Once I strt can I switch to Thunderbolt? Everything I've read states this is the fastest means.
Thanks!

Thanks. Through further investigation my old iMac does not have a Thunderbolt port so that's out of the question. I think it was going over wifi instead of Ethernet so I disabled my router and am now migrating from Time Machine via USB 2.0. Estimated around 3+ hours now.
Any idea how to get my old iMac out of migration mode?

I am having problems with migration assistant (windows pc to Mac 2011) When I get to the 'Quit other applications' box and click continue, nothing happens. There are no other apps running - any ideas, please?

I am having probems with migration assistant. Trying to transfer data from a windows laptop to iMac 2011. It was working fine when I did the set-up yesterday, but it was going to take hours to transfer some videos so I quit the process with the intention of doing it again at a later stage. However today I find that everytime I get to the 'Quit other applications' box on the Mac and click 'continue', nothing happens. Have checked mission control and confirmed no other apps running. Tried several times with the same result every time. Migration Assistant running on my laptop with the 'Waiting for mac to connect' box displayed. Mac is connected to wi-fi OK as able to use Safari and access internet. Any ideas, please?

Thanks for your suggestions. Have managed to get Migration Assistant working but now have a new problem, i.e. where does it save the transferred files?!! Searched a few forums and it seems it saves it under your old username, or suchlike. Anyway I tried logging on as a new user using my old user name but there were only a handful of files there, couldn't locate the majority of stuff from my old laptop. Anyway I don't intend to go through any more hoops with MA - will just save the important stuff to an external drive and transfer it that way. Not impressed with MA at all. I thought it was supposed to be a user-friendly tool to simplify the transfer from pc to Mac - not my experience, I'm afraid!

Transfer emails with migration assistant.

My boss asked me to transfer all his old email from old macpro to his new one. Do i have to set up his email account on iMal first before i transfer them with migration assistant? Or will that set up autmatically while transfering?

On the old Mac. User/Library/Mail. Copy the folder to the new Mac to the desktop. Then on the new Mac from the Finder menu hold down the option key and click on Go. Select Library. Drag the Mail folder from the Library to the trash (don't empty). drag the Mail folder from the old Mac into the Library. Now launch Mail and check to see that all the email is there. If all is well empty the trash.

Insufficient space for importing TM backup with migration assistant

First of all this is not for my main Mountain Lion installation on my Mac Pro, it is on a VM Ware Fusion virtual Mountain Lion installation that is running on my Mac Pro also running Mountain Lion. So this is really more a question dealing with VM Ware Fusion (or Parallels since I have the same issue with that as well) vs. a problem with Mountain Lion. Confused yet? I sure am....
I am trying to import a time machine backup of my previous Snow Leopard drive into my virtual machine. I did not want to import this into my new drive because I am starting fresh and trying to clean up and Snow Leopard had 10 years worth of crus I am trying to get rid of, but I would still like to have my old SL drive running within VM Ware to help with the transition. I have a Mac Pro with a dual monitor set up so I want it to run in my second monitor and very slowly over the next few weeks get all the files I want and need instead of just importing a bunch of useless crap.
Anyway, here is the problem I am having and cannot seem to get past this hurdle. When I open migration assistant inside VM Ware ML and choose my time machine backup of snow leopard everything works fine until it finishes calculating the size. I deselected all the files and folder I possibly can which leaves 209GB. Even with every single folder deselcted it still give an insufficient storage error I have already resized the VMware drive to 400GB which is more than enough. In my real machine under Finder>Get Info it shows it as 400GB, but within the virtual machine it is only showing the Mac HD to be 40GB which won't allow migration assistant to import the backup due to insuffient storage.
I have a Mac Pro with tons of disk space so I have plenty of free space to allocate but I have tried everything I can think of but came up blank. Sorry if my explanation was overly verbose or confusing but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. Haven't really fiddled with the settings in VM Ware in a while so I must be missing something.
So, how do you import files showing as larger than 40GB from a time machine backup with migration assistant without getting an error that there is not enough remaining space? And again, I have already resized the disk to 400GB that shows as 400GB on my real machine but only as 40GB inside the VM Ware Mac HD. I also have Parallels if that is easier to do what I am trying to accomplish.

I just solved the problem! And this is actually a pretty big deal because experts at the VM Ware Fusion website and many other forums told me it was impossible.
So here is the guide to running Mountain Lion in VM Ware Fusion or Parallels with a partition larger than 40GB and allows you to import an old user account from Tiger, Snow Leopard, Lion, etc..
1) Make sure to shut down Mountain Lion in VM
2) Under VM settings expand hard drive to whatever size you like
3) You will need either a disk image or an actual DVD of mountain lion, mount that in your VM and choose it as start up. After rebooting open disk utility and partition Mac HD. Instead of only showing the 40GB limit it shold now show the size you created from step 2. Close disk utility and install Mountain Lion as normal. Reboot and unmount disk image.
4) You now have a virtual Mountain Lion with whatever hard disk size you chose.
5) Open migration assistant and do your time machine back up as normal from previous systems.
The reason you might want to do this are many. In my case I wanted to have my old Snow Leopard user account open and running on my second monitor since I just did a fresh install on my Mac Pro. It is easy to import audio, photos, videos but there was a lot of other things I want to take my time bringinging over. There are also many cases where I needed to open up an app and view settings. Now I have my old machine essentially running at the same time as my new install side by side which is fantastic.

Backup will not restore with migration assistant.

This is long and complicated but here goes. Had a 10.5 machine PPC that was backing up to a time capsule. IMac blew out PS so was toast. Took it home and took another iMac 10.5 machine that had a bad HD. Put new HD into that machine and installed 10.6 and then ran migration assistandt from the old iMac HD drive from the unit with the bad PS. The restored iMac with the new HD was a perfect close of the older iMac and everything was perfect. Took to customer site and they were happy. Time machine started backing up again to the same time capsule as before. It created a new backup image on the time capsule with the EXACT SAME NAME as the older iMac had. I did not know that until a year later when the new hard drive in the rebuilt iMac failed. I took a newer iMac of the Intel variety with 10.7 on it to the customer site. I told migration assistant to restore from the time capsule users and data file. I di not want it to restgore programs since I knew the ones on the newer iMac where newer versions and probably not compatible. Restore seemed to go just fine. Users were all there and desktop looked the same as the older iMac with the dead hard drive. I had to install a printer driver but all appeared okay. Customer called the day later and said all files for pages and numbers and address book appeared a year old at the newest. See where this is going.
I went to the site and started looking at the backup files on the time capsule drive. Taht is when I noticed that two exact backup named files existed. So I started drilling down through them ( Not using time machine casues it only had 1 day history on it ) and looked at the dates of the files. Sure enough, one of the backup images had files that had all ended a year ago when the original iMac blew out the PS and the other backup file with an identical name had files much more current in the current month and year. Simple I said to myself. I just happended to pick the older file to restore from. So I renamed the older file so I could not get them confused. Double checked that the one with the current files was named correctly. Went to migration assistant again and ran it again. Completed just fine but sill no file less than a year old. NOw I am really puzzled so I tried a test of one simple file to see if I was wrong in my assumptions. The address book file was one of the files that was a year old. I went to the time caplsule and drilled down to the exact file that address book makes. I had already thrown the corresponding file away on the new machine so I copied the file from the exact same location on the time capslue back up to the same location on the new machine. I then fired up address book on the new machine and the address book worked perfectly with the new and updated and current records.
So now I am sure that the drive image that I have been playing with on the time capsule has the up to date backups. But migtration assistant will not move them to the new machine. It will take a very long time to move every pages and numbers files scattered around in various folders to do this manually. What is wrong with migration assistant that it will not work correctly.

I am not asking if there is anything on the card. I'm not worried about the backup or recovering all of my information. I'm asking if setting up the replacement phone as NEW will change anything at all when I use the OLD sim card.

Best way to transfer files without using migration assistant

upgrading from snow leopard to mavericks goes ok, but migrating files hangs with "less than a minute to go". What is the best way to transfer user files without using migration assistant?

I keep backups of essential documents in Dropbox, and then the files can sync when I reinstall Dropbox.
For larger collections of files, for example, my Documents folder, or iTunes or iPhoto libraries, I transfer them from a Time Machine Backup- just by going into the backup manually and restoring the folders.
If you have files that can fit on a flash drive, then you can use that, which is very fast.

Pb with migration assistant

Hello,
I try to install a new Macbook Pro with Migration Assistant.
I connect the Ethernet cable between macbook pro Lion (Source) and macbook pro Lion (Target) and i start.
When i arrived on the screen Transfer Information to this Mac, i select "From another Mac" and i launch Migration assistant in the source.
The target view the source but source can't view target.
I have always "looking for another computer" and nothing.
Thanks for your help.

Hi,
Sorry for my mistake with Pb, I'm frenchman and it's the first time I write a post..And sorry if my english is not correct... If you understand me...it's perfect
So, in the Pondini's Setup New Mac,(thank you very munch for that) he wrote :
Usually, the best way is to use Setup Assistant, when you first start up your new Mac. It will set the new Mac up just like the old one: all configuration, settings, users and data, and all applications (except newer versions already installed).
I make that, but nothing.
So I select "Do not transfer the know", and when I created the user, I do not choose the same as the source, otherwise there are a problem with migration assistant. and after, I used Migration Assistant to install all applications, configurations...But I think it isn't normal.
Today, i will try to install a new Mac with Time Machine.
Thanks for your help

I can not find migrated user, apps, files...after restore with migration assistant

Hi, I have a MacPro, with mavericks. I have to change the hard disk because it failed, and now I want to restore my system.
I have a copy in another disk, made with time machine. I used the migration assistant, the system recognized the copy;
I'm interested in restore all the system, the users, the applications, and all the information, then I selected all and the migration apparently
works because there are not error messages or nothing wrong, the only issue is that the current user has the same name of the user in the backup,
then the assistant asked if I want both users, I choose to keep only the one in the backup, after a while (1-2 hours). I logout, and with surprise there are not any users created.
I have to login as single user, reset the password for root, to be able to login into the computer again, and I can´t find the migrated user, or the applications, or the files.
I am looking in the forums, and help pages, but I can´t find the solution. Thanks in advance

Thanks Eric, the migration of applications, worked (by choosing only this item ), I created a new user, try using time machine to restore the user, but appeared the message file ".journal" already exists, and didn't work; so I decided to transfer the data manually. Now I hope the things will work out.

How do I get access to files that I transfered from migration assistant

Help? I had to do an erase and reloaded the software on my 2008 imac, and did a file transfer from my time capsule using the migration assistant. I see where the files are, but have no access...can anyone help me ? how do I now get access to the files that I transfered?

maedi wrote:
I realize it is not good to get time-machine created files back by going through finder, but that seems like that is my only option.
Were you trying to access it via either Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant? If those don't work, you still may be able to use the "Star Wars" display to see and restore some data. It all depends on just what and where the damage is.
If you can get into the display, you may be able to restore the iPhoto Library; start with the most recent backup, and work back in time.
the problem now is the folder is locked with a big red no go sign, and command-i cannot change it (not even when i do it on the computer on which the file was created).
Correct; Time Machine protects it's backups with very restrictive ACLs, basically "nobody can do anything," so us mere mortals won't damage them.
If you use the same user account on the same Mac that did the backup, via the Finder, you should have read rights, and you may be able to copy from the backups.
if i succeed, am i going to see my iphoto library file in that folder?
Yes. Each of those date-stamped backup folders should contain a set of "hard links" to the backup copies of everything that was on your system at the time of that backup, no matter when each item was actually backed-up. If you can copy the most recent one successfully, that will get everything.
The iPhoto Library looks like a file; but it's actually a special kind of folder called a "package." If you can't copy it, right-click it and select Show Package Contents to see inside it, but don't copy individual items except as a last resort -- at best, you'll recover raw photos, with no organization or data, and probably no editing, either.

Transfering Settings with Migration Assistant

Can anyone tell me what "settings" are transferred when using migration assistant to set up a MacBook Pro (by either migrating from another MacBook Pro or from a time machine backup)? It always asks if you want to transfer 1) applications, 2) documents, 3) settings
Here is the background:
1) Applications: I am setting up a new machine (OS 10.6.6) from an almost identical machine that I barely finished setting up (also OS 10.6.6). I had only a few programs installed but because of known transfer problems due to licensing issues (Office 2011, Adobe CS5) was advised by colleagues just to install my applications fresh on the new machine, which I did.
2) Documents: I would like to use migration assistant to copy all my documents, I don't see a problem with that and I was planning to do that next.
3) Settings: What I don't know is whether I should restore/migrate "settings". Are these things like my folder display preferences or power settings (which may have taken some time to get just the way I like and would like to replicate)? Are these settings that pertain to my applications, which may not link up with the newly installed (un-migrated) applications and then cause problems? Or are these things like internet settings, which I've already gotten in place and working for the new machine?
So the big question is: what "settings" are these and will they overwrite or interfere with anything that I already have set up on the new machine?

what "settings" are these and will they overwrite or interfere with anything that I already have set up on the new machine?
Using Migration Assistant, all of your settings will be transferred: system settings, application settings, even .ds_store files: your windows will all be in the same place as they are on your other machine; your custom icons will still be there, your file structures, your desktop picture, your passwords, pretty much everything.
If you use Migration Assistant on the initial setup, the account you transfer from your old machine will be the main admin account on the new machine. If you wait and use Migration Assistant after the initial setup, a new account will be created to contain the migrated data.

Transferring files, apps using Migration Assistant

I bought a new Intel based iMac and instead of using the set up assistant to help me transfer my files from my old Mac (1.5 GHz Powerbook G4, OS X 10.4.11) to my new one I delayed the process and am now trying to do it using Migration Assistant. The problem is my 2 Macs aren't reading each other and yes I do have Migration Assistant up on both of them. I'm connecting firewire and that's not working and I tried networking them and that's not working. It just continues to say that it's searching for other computers. It's especially weird when I use the network feature because I have 2 other Macs that are also on the network and it's not reading them either. Is there any reason for this? Is it possible that it's not working because I'm using OS X 10.5.6 on my new iMac? Am I doing something wrong? I'm stumped to why it's doing this.

You can connect the two Macs together with an Ethernet cable directly and do the same thing, but there is nothing else on the "network" to confuse them.
From Mac Help in the Finder Help Menu;
*To connect two computers using Ethernet:*
1. Connect a standard Ethernet cable from the Ethernet port on one computer to the Ethernet port on the other. You don’t need to use an Ethernet crossover cable.
2. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences on both computers, and click Sharing. Note the computer name for the computers.
3. In the Finder on one of the computers, choose Go > “Connect to Server,” and then click Browse.
4. Double-click the other computer in the window and enter your password, if necessary.
Once you have established the sharing connection you should be able to use MA in Network mode.

Finding Files Transferred with Migration Assistant

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