Help locating files after migrate assist.

I have just successfully moved files from my PC to my new MacBook Air. I couldn't find the files at first, but then read some other message boards and realized they were copied to a different user. So I logged into that user account. Still can't find my files. I got to Finder and there is nothing... no music, no photos, no documents. iTunes has updated... all my files and playlists are there, but I can't find anything else.
Another message board said I could type the file name into the Spotlight... I did this and there everything is! But how do I access it without typing in a file name? I am not going to remember the name of every single file. I just want to go to a folder somewhere and find my files. HELP!!! I love my new Mac, but this is soooo frustrating!
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
And once I find these files, if you would like to tell me how to transfer them all to my Admin user account, I will love you forever.
P.S. I have even tried turning on the Shared folder, but it doesn't show up in Finder. Ugh!

Open a Finder window and select
View ▹ Show Path Bar
from the menu bar, if it's not already selected. Select All My Files in the sidebar and locate one of the files. The path to the file will appear in the path bar at the bottom of the window. Click the enclosing folder to open it.

Similar Messages

Finder can't locate files after Migration Assistant

So I did Migration Assistant from my old 2008 Macbook to my latest Macbook Pro.
I had it so it's all under a new User Login which is the same as my 2008 User Login.
I always sign in to that User on the new Macbook Pro.
I know all my files are in there I just can't do a search on Finder. I type it in Finder but no result.
How do I fix this?

Click on the Finder icon in the dock.
Click on the Go menu in the top menu bar: Crafty illustration below.
 Finder File Edit View Go Window Help
^^^
Click Macintosh HD.
Double-Click the Users folder.
You should have a home folder for your first account that you set up during the setup assistant on the newer computer, and another for the home folder that was migrated.
Most of the information you transferred should be in there.

Problem locating files after migration from PC to Mac

I have just migrated files from my PC to my Mac. I have logged into the new user account but I finder is telling me there are no files located in the new user.
It also doesnt appear that a "user" folder has been created for the new user which may be the problem.
Thanks

Depending on how you migrated the files, your 'old' Windows account should have been created on your MBP.
How did you migrate the files? Using Migration Assitant? Mac or PC version?
Clinton

Why did I wind up with two identities after transfer of files by Migration Assistant? How can I fix that?

At first I could not find my files after Migration Assistant completed a 45 hours transfer of files from my Macbook to my new iMac. Then I realized that I had two identities on my new iMac. What is the best way to correct this? Do I have to start over and wait another 2 days for the migration?

I originally wanted to reinstall my info from the MacBook using Time Machine. The iMac would not recognize the backups on my external hard drive.
I decided to use Migration Assistant to move from my MacBook to my new iMac. After migration I tried to backup (bu) with Time Machine using the external disk I used for the MacBook. The Time Machine said the bu (over 450 Gb) was too large for the disk. I found this odd. There seemed to be a much higher amount of data on my iMac than existed on my MacBook. I bought a new 2Tb external. I originally hooked it up to my Airport Extreme with a USB cable. Time Machine said the bu would take over 36 hours. This seemed rediculous. I hooked up through USB directly to the iMac. It said the bu would take over 18 hours. Still rediculous.
After looking through things I discovered that Migration Assistant actually double copied all the data from my MacBook to my iMac. There were two copies of every folder. I deleted all the copies. Now I am trying to deal with my sons old ID and getting Time machine to work properly. It appears there were some disk permission issues. That my also relate to my sons ID. I cannot find his ID anywhere on the iMac but App Store keeps asking my to log on using his ID.

After Migration Assistant, Time Machine refuses to use old backups

I've got to say I'm pretty disappointed with Time Machine.
I just dropped $2,000 on my second-ever Mac, a 15" MBP (Core i7 2GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB 5200rpm hard drive, the stock low-end 15" config). From what I'd heard about Migration Assistant, I believed it would easily move my stuff over to my new Mac. For the most part it did, but a few things didn't transfer. Other posts on the topic detail them accurately - Desktop icon layouts, some settings, Growl, etc.
I told Migration Assistant to use my Time Machine backups, which have been happening without incident for a long time. My oldest backup is December 2010.
Now that my new MBP is about 99% set up like my old MBP, I am having a problem with Time Machine.
I get the error "Time Machine could not complete the backup. This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 355.61 GB but only 176.44 GB are available."
Looking at the Time Machine drive in Finder, I found that Time Machine is trying to create a new folder for backups and do a full backup. Where there was once one folder, "[My Name]'s MacBook Pro," there is now an additional folder, "[My Name]'s MacBook Pro 2." Time Machine is trying to back up into that second directory.
Now, I get it that this is a different computer. But really, if I use Migration Assistant to restore my Time Machine backup, I think it would be safe for OSX to assume that I want to continue using those backups. What is especially disappointing for me is, there were things that Migration Assistant did not restore properly. I probably haven't found them all. That makes it CRUCIAL that I have my Time Machine backups, but it seems that Apple thinks it's perfectly normal for me to want to FORMAT my Time Machine drive after Migration Assistant did a half-*** job of migrating my data. I need those backups now more than ever.
I do also have an online backup, but I still don't feel very comfortable destroying six months of local backups just to make Time Machine work again. Both MBPs were running the same (latest) version of Snow Leopard, so it stands to reason all that needs to happen is a very small incremental backup.
I have been Googling for hours. All I've found is a procedure for 10.5 that doesn't work in 10.6 where I get down into the Terminal and change a MAC address in a file on the Time Machine volume. But that's it. In fact it seems like there's no answer.
Come on Apple, you do everything else better than the competition. Why do I have to nuke six months of backups or buy a new 2TB external drive to make Time Machine work again? I assure you I want to continue making incremental backups against my old Time Machine backups, and promise to hold you not responsible should I screw something up by grabbing an old system file or something from February.
Would appreciate any help anyone could offer.

Did you use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first started up, or skip that, create a user account, then use the Migration Assistant app in your Applications/Utilties folder?
If you used Setup Assistant, when you started your first backup you should have gotten the message in #B5 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It sounds like you didn't (or chose Start New Backup). And no, the Leopard procedure doesn't work on Snow Leopard. That's what #B5 is for.
Usually, if you use Setup Assistant, Time Machine will still say it's going to do a full backup, and make room for it, but actually do an incremental backup (very, very slowly).
Either way, it usually deletes a lot of old backups. We're hoping that will be fixed in Lion.
Once it's decide to make a new backup, there's no known way to prevent it.

Login invalid on new MacBook after Migration Assistant

Migration Assistant problem
New computer: 15" MacBook Pro with Retina display (probably OS X Lion
Old computer: 15"Macbook Pro running Mountain lion.
My regular login password is invalid on the new computer after migration assistant - Not sure what to do.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

I managed to find a solution
Here is the link:
http://osxdaily.com/2010/08/10/forgot-mac-password-how-to-reset-mac-password/
There are instructions to reset the mac password without a CD. You set up a new admin account then you can reset the password to your original account.
It solved the problem.

How do i merge my user accounts after migration assistant

Hello,
How do I merge my user accounts after migration assistant from a time machine back up?

I wonder how to plan what account and rights to have where?
I had my old original account on my iMac, and then I "migrated" the data to a user account, in order to have some advantages with that setup. So everything worked approximately ok in this setup.
And yesterday, I tried migrating to a new Mac, and suddenly I get aware of the fact that the rights on these two earlier accounts were important.
And especially, after doing the migration to the new machine twice, until I got the Mail working, I am now totaly bewildered what solution to aim for? How to merge the two migrated admin accounts - keeping the original admin account is also important, since my file system har special rights for that one.
Could anyone give me more ideas about how to proceed? I think I have working Mail on one of the two migrated account (with 100 000 mails or so, it seems so...). The other account is the one I would like to have.
Also I think I want to use a normal user account, not an admin account for my daily use. And I have to see if things still work if I turn off the admin rights...
Thankful for any advice!
/groundliner

Limited file access after migration assistant

After migrating files from a TM to a new HD for my MBP, I needed help from the Apple Community just the find the things tucked away in a new user folder. Now I need help getting them to open. Many folders have this little minus sign on them and say "You have no access" when I see their info. These are the most significant items and what I thought was the purpose of a backup. (Music, Pictures, Movies, Downloads, Deskstop, and my fav. "Silver Briefcase"), I have found the files on TM, so they do exist, but I am hesitant to click "Restore", as the files may already be on here somewhere. Please help make this "just work".

geologyjoel wrote:
Before getting this, I took it to a Mac-helper store. They had me make a new account and delete the two incomplete accounts so I could do a full restore and have only one account. They recommended restoring while in TM from that one account, shut down the computer, restart, open the restored account, and deleting this dumby-starter account. That didn't work: I got a "cannot complete this process. Error -8003".
That should work if, instead of using Time Machine to restore the account in question, you use Migration Assistant to transfer it instead. Restoring or copying the home folder from your backups won't work.
Trying your method: Pressing Command (the apple) - R resutls in a "No" sign as in "No smoking", and then my computer shuts off.
Do that after powering down.
Your profile says you're running Tiger (10.4.11). We know that's outdated, since Time Machine doesn't work on Tiger, but we don't know what you are running:
• If you're running Leopard (10.5.x) or Snow Leopard (10.6.x), you need to insert the the OSX Install disc (per section (b) of #14 and hold the "C" key while starting up.
• If you're running Lion (10.7.x) or Mountain Lion (10.8.x), you need to start from your Recovery HD, per section (a) of #14. Hold Cmd and the "R" keys while starting up (the Cmd keys are next to the spacebar on most keyboards).
If that doesn't work, hold the Alt/Option key while starting up. That will show all possible startup sources, something like this:
If you're on Lion or Mountain Lion, you should see either "Recovery HD" or "Recovery 10-8" (the red arrow).
If you're on 10.7.2 or later, your Time Machine drive may have a copy of the Recovery HD (the green arrow).
If there's an Install disc in your SuperDrive, it will be shown.
Select the one you want (the gray arrow should move), then click the drive icon to start from it.
EDIT: please tell us what version of OSX your Mac is running.
It would also be a good idea to update your profile, by clicking "Your Stuff" at the top of this page, selecting "Profile," and editing the "My Products" section.
Message was edited by: Pondini

HT204350 Files missing after migration assistance transfer

I used migration assistant to transfer files from my old to new mac mini. After the transfer was complete, the files I transferred to my new mac disappeared from my new mac, including my hard drive icon. But it shows that the hard drive space is taken up. What happened and where are my files?

Look for a new user account

Help - Can't access moved files after migration. How do I do this?

I moved everything on my old iMac running 10.5.8 to my new MacBook Pro running 10.6.8 using Migration Assistant and a firewire. Cannot access anything through iPhoto or iTunes programs. Files and folders are stored under user name in another location on the MacBook Pro. I can bring up the photos in this other folder, but all of the keywords, file names, etc. have disappeared.
Can I move these folders somewhere so that I can access through the programs? Which folders do I move? Where do I move them to?
Thanks!!

Check the date and time in the clock on your computer: (double) click the clock icon on the Windows Taskbar.
Check out why the site is untrusted and click "Technical Details to expand this section.<br>If the certificate is not trusted because no issuer chain was provided (sec_error_unknown_issuer) then see if you can install this intermediate certificate from another source.
You can retrieve the certificate and check details like who issued certificates and expiration dates of certificates.
*Click the link at the bottom of the error page: "I Understand the Risks"
Let Firefox retrieve the certificate: "Add Exception" -> "Get Certificate".
*Click the "View..." button and inspect the certificate and check who is the issuer of the certificate.
You can see more Details like intermediate certificates that are used in the Details pane.
If "I Understand the Risks" is missing then this page may be opened in an (i)frame and in that case try the right-click context menu and use "This Frame: Open Frame in New Tab".
Note that some firewalls monitor (secure) connections and that programs like Sendori or FiddlerRoot can intercept connections and send their own certificate instead of the website's certificate.

Too many files and space used after Migration Assistant

After running migration assistant to transfer my 2006 MacBook Pro (core duo) to my new 2010 MacBook Pro (i7), I noticed the amount of space used went from 87 gb to 144 gb. The number of files went from 816,834 to 981,311. Was this to be expected? That many new files and space used?
One thing that happened on the first run was about an hour and half into the transfer it thinks it had lost the connection between the systems and would not restart. I had to quit the migration on the old system and reboot(power off and on) the new one. The re-run finished ok. It did think that the users on the old system were already on the new so I had it replace them. There were a few folders that indicated they were from the old mac and I deleted them.
Also there were a lot of Disk Permission errors when I ran a Verify Disk Permissions which cleared up when I ran Repair Disk Permissions.
Any thoughts/ideas on the disk space issue?
running 10.6.3

Solved.
On the restart of the Migration Assistant, it duplicated my user directories and put them in a deleted users directory in /Users.
I deleted that directory to free up the disk space.

Where are the files from my PC after migration assistant?

I just completed the migration assistant from my Dell Laptop to my Macbook Pro. Now I cannot find the files. Where did they get stored on my Mac?

In a new user account, created by the Migration. Log off. When you log back on, you should have a prompt to create a password for the new account.
See the last few lines in OS X Lion: About Windows Migration Assistant.

Help! Macbook Pro stuck with the spinning wheel after Migration Assistant froze.

I have a Macbook Pro and a Mac Mini both running OSX (latest version). I was trying to the do the Migration Assistant and it froze on the Macbook Pro and I can't even shut off my laptop. Any tips would be wonderful!!

If it was purchased brand new then it's running a version of Lion, so to reinstall Lion:
Reinstalling Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.

Time Machine after Migration Assistant restore

During vacation, my MacBook pro’s hard disk suffered directory corruption so bad that neither Disk Utility nor DiskWarrior could repair it. I knew I had a recent Time Machine backup at the office, so I just reformatted my hard disk, reinstalled, and was up in running again in a few hours.
When I returned from my holidays, I used Migration Assistant to restore everything from the Time Machine backup, including users, applications, preferences, and other data.
I experienced several problems:
1. The Mac is bound to an Active Directory domain. After restoring users using Migration Assistant, domain users could no longer log in. I had to unbind and re-bind the Mac to the domain before domain logins worked again.
2. The newly re-installed and restored Mac no longer recognized the Time Machine backup as being a backup of itself. This caused additional problems because when I enabled Time Machine again, it tried to make a full backup, saw that there wasn’t enough space on the disk, and deleted all but the most recent backup from the Time Machine volume.
3. Migration Assistant failed to restore several very important files, including:
a. Finder preferences and desktop layout
b. Mail preferences, including accounts and signatures
c. Keychains, including passwords to WiFi access points and web sites
d. VPN settings
e. The Stickies database
f. Some Address Book contacts
g. The iTerm.plist file (from ~/Library/Preferences)
h. Lotus Notes Data (from ~/Library/Application Support)
i. Other application preferences & data
I was able to locate some of these files in the single remaining backup on my Time Machine volume. However, some were simply gone. The iTerm.plist file, for example, was nowhere to be found. This file contained several dozen customized iTerm commands that I will have to reconstruct from scratch.
4. Ever since restoring from backup, Mail has exhibited a problem wherein it sometimes displays the wrong message. It doesn’t do this with all messages; only some. For example, if I select the most recent message in my inbox right now, a message received in June is displayed in the preview pane instead.
Has anyone else observed problems like these? Is there any hope of recovering the backups that Time Machine saw fit to delete?

Pondini wrote:
Michael Lowry wrote:
2. Time Machine does not recognize old backups as being from the same computer if the Migration Assistant method was used to restore the computer.
Not exactly, but the result is nearly the same. When you erased the internal HD, it got a new UUID, so to OSX it's a different drive, and everything put back on it was considered as new, and Time Machine backed it up.
Ah, ok. So if I understand correctly, it was the fact that I reformatted the drive, and not the particular method I used to restore, that led to Time Machine deleting most of the backups. Is that right? I still find it very odd that right after restoring from a backup, the system doesn’t recognize that very same backup.
I suppose if I had investigated the matter more carefully and spent a few hours reading on the web, I might have learned about some properties file inside the backupdb where I could have manually tweaked the UUID after reformatting. But honestly, how would I have known this? I thought I did things according the proper procedure. When Disk Utility was unable to repair the drive, it displayed specific instructions to back up my files (done), reformat, reinstall, and then restore from backup. When I followed these instructions provided by Disk Utility, my Time Machine backup was rendered unrecognizable, and most of my backups were deleted without warning.
Moreover, I wonder again: how would a less knowledgeable user experience this?
I gotta say, this process could be made more user-friendly and the instructions & warnings clearer.
The iTunes Library was not restored.
Was it in the default location (the +<your home folder>/Music+ folder)?
I found the original iTunes Library on the backup disk; I restored these files manually and that fixed iTunes. All of the music had already been restored successfully. And yes, my library was in the ~Music directory.
Once I’d made iTunes happy, I was able to sync my iPhone. This brought back the missing Address Book contacts, because they were on the phone.
The Mail database appears to be irretrievably corrupted. I have no confidence any more that clicking on an item in the list will actually display that item.
Have you tried +Mailbox > Rebuild+ from the Mail menubar?
I hadn’t seen that option. That fixed it. Thanks!
This was my first time relying on my Time Machine backup, and I must say I am not satisfied. I work in IT and consider myself a power user; I hate to think how a less expert user would experience this situation. So much for “it just works.”
Ordinarily it does; this is quite unusual.
I'm a retired IT guy, and learned many years ago that all hardware fails, sooner or later, and no backup app is perfect, so I always recommend keeping (at least) secondary backups. It's not any help now, of course, but you might want to check out #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for some suggestions.
I’m not sure I will continue using Time Machine. I like the advantages (multiple versions, integration into some apps, nice UI); but I don’t know if they’re worth much if the backup is not reliable as a system backup. I wonder if an incremental Carbon Copy Cloner backup wouldn’t be better for my needs. A CCC backup would also give me one additional benefit: it would be bootable, virtually eliminating downtime and facilitating quick repair and restoration.
Thanks again for your suggestions. They have been informative and helpful.

Migrated user not showing up after migration assistant.

I had to reformat my hardrive on iMac. When I did I installed Mountain Lion instead of Lion which was on it previously. I migrated all files/user id from Time Machine using the Migration Assistant. But now I can't see my old user at login or in User's and Groups. The files are there but I can't access them without being able to login or at least give my new user permission.
How can I get to the old user?
I enabled Root User and there seems to be an "unknown user". After this an option to log into "other" user came up at log in, but my attempts at a password and name to log in failed. This "other" user and the "unknown user" are NOT showing in Users and Groups.
Please help!

We don't recommend to use Migration Assistant because it sometimes fails, like in this case.
If you don't want problems, go with the long way: erase the drive, reinstall OS X and restore the backup during Setup Assistant:
1. Hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting to start up into Recovery, and open Disk Utility.
2. Select Macintosh HD in the sidebar (or your OS X partition), go to Erase tab and erase the drive.
3. Close Disk Utility and reinstall OS X.
4. When the installation finishes, Setup Assistant will show up, so follow its steps. It will ask you to restore data from a backup or another backup, so plug your Time Machine backup to the Mac (or a Mac) and follow the steps. The only user will contain the transferred data.
If you want more information about Setup Assistant > http://pondini.org/OSX/SetupLion.html

Help locating files after migrate assist.

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