HT4889 Migration assistant It created a whole new user.

I was going through the steps of setting up my new imac and went ahead with migration from my other computer. It created a new user. Now I have 2 users.
What is the best way to get all my files, music, photos applications ect to the new user?
Or can I ditch the new user and go about it differently to have it import all my old computer to the main user?
thanks!

The easiest option may be to erase the disk, reinstall OS X, and start over.
This time elect to transfer information from the other computer, before creating a user account.
Read Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its Backups, or a PC
As he says:
Usually, the best way to do that is with Setup Assistant, when your new Mac first starts up. The alternative, Migration Assistant, can be used later, but there are some downsides to waiting.
One downside is creation of the second User account, as you now know.

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Migration Assistant and permissions issues with new Mac Pro

Hi There,
I've not had any significant issues with Migration Assistant in the past but I can't create a reliable system with my new Mac Pro.
After using Migration Assistant during the initial setup, my user account wasn't even transferred. I tried restarting but in the end, I followed these instructions to reset and run the assitant again: http://stationinthemetro.com/2013/11/10/make-mavericks-re-run-the-setup-assistan t
I've just finished running it for a second time, and while the user account is now on my new system, there are so many permissions issues that the system is unusable (I can't even run Safari). Creative cloud, 1Password, safari, Dropbox are all apps that give me Disk i/o or permissions errors.
If I look in the user folder, many directories within it have a red minus icon. I've tried fixing permissions using Disk Utility but something is not right.
In the past, the new system just boots like the old one but this time round, it asked me to create an account after Migration Assistant had finished - is this normal? I used the same username and password as before but I'm not sure Migration Assistantis working properly.
Does anyone know a full-proof way of fixing and transferring my account without having to spend hours downloading OSX for a full erase and install?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Ben

Thanks for the reply,
I didn't understand exactly what to put into AppleScript sorry (never used it before) - so I just ran the following from the Terminal:
$ echo $UID
$ sudo chown -R 503 ~
And restarted - everything works now - thanks heaps.
What had happened and is this something I did or did Migration Assistant just get confused?
I have 3 new Mc Pros to setup on Monday so just want to ensure those are hassle free.
Cheers
Ben

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can I add just cells in numbers without creating a whole new row?

Thanks to Jerrold Green1 for the answer to this back in Dec. 09. Numbers is so logical, it worked perfectly.

HT4889 Migration Assistant to update my new Mountain Lion iMac from an external USB hard disk drive, it is constantly saying that it is "looking for other computers". It doesn't find the external drive. Why is it looking for other computers?

I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to update my new Mountain Lion iMac from an external USB hard disk drive. I told it to look for a drive, yet it is constantly saying that it is "looking for other computers". It doesn't find the external drive ... it just endlessly looks for other computers. Why is it looking for other computers at all, when I told it not to?

Wow, the wording in Migration Assistant is misleading. I've never used it before, so I thought I would try to copy my files from the external drive ... my old iMac died, but I managed to get everything I need off it, using the 'cp' command in single-user mode. So I guess I'll just have to manually copy the files from the external drive to the new machine. I was hoping that Migration Assistant might help somehow, but obviously not.
Thanks for the quick reply!

HT4889 Migration Assistant unable to transfer from OS 10.4.11 to Mountain Lion

I am following the instructions here
How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_USto migrate from OS 10.4.11 to Mountain Lion, but Migration Assistant gets stuck looking for my old computer. This occurs after I select "From a Time Machine backup or other disk".
My old computer is in Target Disk mode and visible in the new Macbook's Finder, so the Firewire cable is OK.
I also tried migrating from a 120 GB hard-drive backup through the USB port. Still no luck.
I am running Tiger on my old Powerbook G4, and Mountain Lion on a MacBook Pro.
Any ideas?
Any good guides to transferring the files manually?
Thanks
Seth

It is not a good idea to wholesale restore your entire home directory from Tiger to Mountain Lion. If Migration Assistant had worked, you would have a nightmare on your hands with incompatibilities in the home library folder.
Here is what I would do:
Use Target Disk Mode to mount the old Tiger Mac on the new Mountain Lion Machine installation.
Ensure that the original files have the same user id and group ownership between both machines.
Get the Tiger home directory files to the ML home directory
Do not drag and drop folders from Tiger, that already exist on ML. Drag the contents between folders. The reason is that folders created by ML, may have different permissions and lower level access control list settings than their Tiger counterparts.
Do not move the contents of the home Library folder on Tiger at all. You are asking for mayhem if you splatter this over its counterpart on ML.
You can drag and drop any folders that you created on the Tiger home directory to your new home directory on ML.
Do not drag any Tiger applications to the new Mountain Lion installation. They are incompatible, and you need current revisions with confirmed ML support.
Unmount Firewire Target disk mode.
Start using ML.

HT4889 Migration assistant doesn't see my 3TB Time machine it just keeps looking for other computers

I just did a clean install of Mountain Lion on my iMac and Migration Assistant doesn't seem to see my 3TB Time Machine. It continuously looks for other computers, and nothing else. I know the files work because I loaded it on my other MBP and it sees them just fine? am I just inpatient or is something wrong?

This happened to me after hard drive replacement under the Seagate Drive Recall at the local Apple Store. Here's what I learned from the process:
I Wagged the Mac home, fired it up (with naked OS installed at the Apple Store), and it wouldn't see my Time Machine drive with Setup Assistant - not on firewire 800 nor USB. Just a grey spinner that lasts forever. When I try just continuing anyway, it offers me something that looks plausible, but then puts up a dialog about duplicate user name, and no matter what I enter, it always says "that user already exists". So I think - maybe Migration Assistant. Complete the setup, create an account, watch the nice welcome movie. BAM - there's my Time Machine drive on the desktop. OK - it has to work . . . but no. Same behavior in Migration Assistant, plus the new OS offers to start making backups on my Time Machine disk - it's not recognizing it at all.
So - back to the Apple Store - let the genius figure it out. It turns out there are multiple problems. First, the "genius" who imaged my new machine picked 10.7.2 but my machine had 10.7.5 - turns out, it's not enough just to have right cat. Even a point release older OS may not recognize a newer Time Machine drive. The guy at the desk said "We have images of everything but the 10.7.2 has free iLife in it, so they like to use that one". What the heck? They don't image what you had originally as a matter of sane process?
Having figured that out, we re-image 10.7.5 at the store thinking we've fixed it. But no - Setup Assistant still won't see the Time Machine drive. Not on USB, not on Firewire. Not in a box, not with a fox.
So here's the second trick - newer machines have a recovery partion. see: http://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/ Boot with the option key held down, pick that partition, then you'll get a "system restore" option, to restore your whole system from a Time Machine backup. My drive was recognized by the recovery partition restore process when neither Setup nor Migration Assistant would. Obviously, there's something broken in Setup/Migration Assistant.
Takeaway:
- if you're getting a drive replaced by Apple, make sure they image *exactly* the same OS
- if Setup Assistant fails, use the recovery partition for system restore
- Use Recovery Disk Assistant http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 NOW to make yourself a recovery thumb drive just in case. With Apple's new "no media" approach to the OS, you're hosed without it.

How to use migration assistant without creating dual user accounts

I want to use migration assistant to transfer apps, software & files on my macbook pro to my new macbook air. How can I do this without creating two user accounts for myself on the m-book air -- my account from the m-book pro & the one that the air makes me create as soon as I do start-up? Can I just use the same name & password for both? or will that make things go badly awry?
Thanks!

If you have not booted the MBA for the first time and gone through the Setup Assistant, then I would use the Setup Assistant to make the transfer before you even create another user account. However, if you've already created the new user account on the MBA, then create a new admine one with a different username than the account you will migrate. Log into this new account, delete the first account you made, then use Migration Assistant to transfer your account from the MBP.

Using Migration Assistant to move to a new MacBook Pro generated 80 GB of additional data that cannot be traced on the HD

I used Migration Assistant to setup my new MacBook Pro (Retina) and to transfer my user account from my 1-year old MacBook Pro. Both computers have the same harddisk (500 GB SSD), but the new one now only has 85 GB of free HD space, whereas the old one still has 168 GB free space.
The space seems to be from files that show up as "Others" on the HD, but the large folders (music, movies, photos, documents, system, library etc.) are the same size on both computers.
Does anyone have any idea where the extra data could come from? I assume that languages would be stored in the System or Library folders, so even if I had deleted all unused languages from my old computer (which I may have done a year ago, I am not sure), this should not result in a more than 80 GB difference in free space, should it?
I would be glad if anyone had an idea where all the data may come from or how to get rid of it. Thanks a lot.

baltwo wrote:
I'd get an external, bootable FireWire enclosure, put the new HD into it, ensure it runs the MBP, and then swap.
One thing to consider going forward: the new MacBooks (annoyingly!) do not have a Firewire port, so it might be a good idea to consider dual Firewire & USB 2 external drives/enclosures for future purchases. It won't matter for this swap but it will help avoid buying something that can't be used with any new Macs that don't have Firewire.
An low cost alternative for those that just need a temporary way to mount an external drive for uses involving only Intel Macs are the newish bare-bones USB drive adaptors, such as the NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter. The advantage to these gizmos, besides low cost, is that they work with both ATA & SATA drives. Some, like the NewerTech model, also support other devices, like some optical drives.

Can't update migration assistant to transfer data to new mac

Just bought a new MacBook Pro and want to use Migration Assistant to transfer data from my Macbook OS X 10.4.11 The new MacBook Pro says i need to update Migration Assistant on the source computer, but when i run software update on the source computer it says there is nothing that needs updating. Any ideas on how to get this done?

Right, there is no update for 10.4.11, only 110.5.8 & up.
If the old MacBook has Firewire you can put it in FireWire target disk mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
So you only need MA on the newer one.
If no FW on the old one you'll need to clobe the old one to an externak drive tahat can be moved to the new one.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

Migration Assistant from old iMac to new iMac

I have just purchased a new iMac and on startup the setup assistant allows me to move all my data and setup from my old iMac to my new iMac. However when I start although both iMacs seem to acknowledge each other the transfer does not occur.
I new iMac asks me to install sharing software which I have done successfully.
The new iMac gives me a number to enter onto the old iMac via Migration Assistant. The old iMac finds the new iMac and asks for the number. Upon entry the new iMac moves from 'Searching for computers' to 'Preparing information' but then after about 10 minutes says 'Error connecting to network'.
The new iMac is connected to my router via an ethernet cable, my old iMac is connected to the network via wireless. I don't have a firewire cable to use.
Any help appreciated.
Message was edited by: Guy Emerson

FireWire cables are dirt cheap and that's how you should be doing the migration. You might have to start over, wiping the new machine's HD, and restoring the software as described in the Everything Mac manual that came with it. See Best Practices and Setup new Mac for more details.

Migration Assistant screwed up my brand new iMac

So my brand new iMac (MC812LL/A) was delivered today. Upon opening, I decided to use the Migration Assistant to bring over userids from my older intel iMac. I was shocked to see the time needed to be over 10 hours for a 175kb transfer. Anyway, I let it go and came back after half an hour and seemed like the transfer wasnt successful. Pressed the continue button and now the display is stuck on my wife's userid and its not taking her password. The userid also shows the picture.
I checked the box and there is no recovery discs in it. Called Apple and they are closed. What can I do in this situation?

Do you got the iMac Manual on hand? if not, refer to this link : http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/imac_mid2011_ug.pdf
On page 54, it tells how to reset your OS to factory setting. But you have to re-install all the apps...

HT4889 Migration Assistant taking too long

I am trying to Migrate from my old MacBook Pro to my new MacBook Air using a Thunderbolt cable but the Migration Assistant is telling me this will take 642 hours. How can this be?

Welcome to Apple Suppport Communities
You should see that time decreases quickly. Note that sometimes Migration Assistant may give a wrong remaining time. If you see that Migration Assistant doesn't progress or it keeps saying that it will take 642 hours, unplug and plug your Thunderbolt cable again. If nothing works, restart the Mac that is receiving the files from the other computer and try again. Make sure that Migration Assistant isn't transferring the data through Wi-Fi turning off Wi-Fi on the menu bar

Migration Assistant from Tiger Mac to new Leopard MBP can't see disk

Hi,
I just bought a new MacBook Pro and am trying to migrate from my Tiger-based (10.4.10) dual 1 GHz Mac (mirrored-drive door) desktop machine. The boot drive on the Tiger machine is actually partitioned into an emergency boot drive of a few GB and my main working drive ("Macintosh HD"). When I run Migration Assistant (MA) on my MBP (after connecting the 6-pin Firewire cable and restarting the Tiger Mac in target disk mode), the MBP sees only the emergency boot-up partition and not the main working partition from which I want to migrate.
I tried MA on my MBP connected to a different Mac with no HD partitions, and it sees "Macintosh HD" just fine, so I think all the new hardware is okay as well as the Firewire cable.
Any ideas?
-Eric

Thanks for the info. I do know something about this (being a HW engineer), but I would have thought that the IDE master/slave jumpers would affect all the partitions on the disk. Since my emergency-boot partition is visible, I take that to mean that the IDE master/slave jumper issue is a non-issue for me.
I don't know if this helps, but here's what Disk Utility reports about the disk (not the volumes residing on it):
Name : ST380021A
Type : Disk
Disk Identifier : disk1
Media Name : ST380021A Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : ATA
Connection Type : Internal
Connection ID : Device 0
Partition Type : Applepartitionscheme
Device Tree : pci2/ata-6@D/@0:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : No
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : Yes
Location : Internal
Total Capacity : 74.5 GB (80,026,361,856 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Verified
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 0
Now, onto the partitions which I know less about.
Here's what Disk Utility says about the Macintosh HD partition:
Name : Macintosh HD
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk1s10
Mount Point : /
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : ATA
Partition Type : Apple_HFS
Device Tree : pci2/ata-6@D/@0:10
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : E6E9B335-60D0-3F06-97F9-2A9BAC522106
Capacity : 68.4 GB (73,411,137,536 Bytes)
Free Space : 819.5 MB (859,291,648 Bytes)
Used : 67.6 GB (72,546,123,776 Bytes)
Number of Files : 367,638
Number of Folders : 74,198
Owners Enabled : Yes
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Repair Permissions : Yes
Can Be Verified : Yes
Can Be Repaired : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Verified
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 10
Here's what Disk Utility says about my emergency-boot partition:
Name : Clean Boot
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk1s12
Mount Point : /Volumes/Clean Boot
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : ATA
Partition Type : Apple_HFS
Device Tree : pci2/ata-6@D/@0:12
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : 4A704075-200F-3CCB-B8ED-E7FEEDB655EC
Capacity : 5.9 GB (6,345,846,784 Bytes)
Free Space : 3.8 GB (4,133,232,640 Bytes)
Used : 2.1 GB (2,212,093,952 Bytes)
Number of Files : 76,846
Number of Folders : 19,664
Owners Enabled : Yes
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Repair Permissions : Yes
Can Be Verified : Yes
Can Be Repaired : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Verified
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 12
I don't know how to determine from the above what the "first" partition would be. I don't know how to post an attachment here otherwise I'd show a screen shot, but when I got into Disk Utility's partition tab, the emergency-boot partition (called Clean Boot) shows up at the bottom of the space indicating all of the HD's space, and Macintosh HD shows above Clean Boot.
So what are my options? Can I repartition w/o loosing Macintosh HD (I'm willing to loose the other partition Clean Boot)? Any way to change the partition numbers?
I was thinking of cloning Macintosh HD to another HD and then migrating from that. Any experience with that?
Thanks, Eric

HT4889 Migration assistant is showing user folder sizes much larger than in finder

I am migrating my system from a HD to a 256 GB SSD on a mac Pro.
The move is all internal from Bay 1 to Bay 4.
I did a fresh install of Mountain Lion on the SSD.
I now have about 199 Gb free on the SSD.
When I went to use the Migration assistant to move users it shows the user folders to be >300 GB, even though they read as being less than 30 GB when I look at then in the finder.
I already store my iTunes, videos etc in separate folders outside the user folders.
What is going on?
How to I address this?

Probably Time Machine local snapshots. Even if your TM disk isn't connected, local snapshots are created.

Migration assistant from Old Mac to New(but used) Mac, email recovery.

Recently used Migration assistant (using external as a back-up) to move from an old Mac using Snow Leopard to a new mac using Lion. Lost the use of my entourage with the new Lion OS and I'm swithing to use Apple Mail, but I'm not being successful is transfering my previous mailbox and past emails.
Tried to "import mailbox" from entourage, but I get "Unable to locate Microsoft Entourage mailboxes to import."
Ideas?

FireWire cables are dirt cheap and that's how you should be doing the migration. You might have to start over, wiping the new machine's HD, and restoring the software as described in the Everything Mac manual that came with it. See Best Practices and Setup new Mac for more details.

HT4889 Migration assistant It created a whole new user.

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