HT4889 Migration Assistant not quite working

Hi;
I tried following the instructions on: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4889.
When I launch MA on the target computer it intructs me to also start MA on the source computer which is different than the instructions noted on the webpage cited above. In those instructions I'm supposed to start my source compter as a target drive.
I tried both ways but in either method, the computers cannot find each other. Both are running MacOS 10.8.2.
Actually, should the computers "see" each other in the Finder when connected via a Thunderbolt cable? They don't. Is that the problem?
Chris

It has nothing to do with file sharing. You should only have to boot your old Mac in Target Disk and if you have Finder Preferences > General > Show these disks > hard drives and external checkmarked it should be on your Desktop, if not then target mode isn't functioning for some reason I don't understand. Do you have a clone or a Time Machine backup ypu can migrate from.
Note that if you've left Setup Assistant and already created an account, migration (even if you can accomplish it) will create another account for your migrated items.

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Migration Assistant not working between 2009 and 2013 iMacs

Hi,
I'm trying to use Migration assistant to move my stuff from iMac 2009 to my new iMac 2013, but Migration Assistant isn't working.
The two computers are linked. I can open the network (Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server) and browse the old iMac from the new and vice versa. When I start migration assistant the new iMac finds the old iMac straightaway but the old iMac only say, "Looking for other computers" and "make sure your other Mac is connected to this mac or to the same network".
Both computers are open to Migration Assistant.
The share settings are exactly the same on both computers.
They are connected via an Ethernet connection (Wireless didn't work, either).
What can I do?
Thanks,
Both computers are updated with the latest versions of Maverick.

Apple has never built a 2013 Mac mini. The latest version is the Late 2012 Mac mini. I mention that because references to a non-existent model can cause confusion and misunderstanding.
However the TB firewire adaptor is the fastest and easiest way to transfer your accounts and data from one Mac to another. Alternatives include attaching the Time Machine drive from your old computer to the new and use Migration Assistant to restore from the old computer -- it will not overwrite the newer OS if you use Migration Assistant. If you do not have a Time Machine backup, you can clone your old system to an external HD using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper then attach that to the new computer and again use Migration Assistant to effect the actual transfer to the new machine. However, unless you have an external HD of sufficient capacity the $30 TB Firewire adaptor is a lot less expensive.

HT4796 link to migration assistant doesn't work. Where can I find it?

link to migration assistant doesn't work. Where can I find it?

Do you mean the link in the article to Apple Support Downloads? It works for me, now, and should take you here:
If not, try this one: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1557
Sometimes an Apple server won't find the article you want immediately.

Stumped! Migration Assistant won't work - need to setup new mac asap!

OK, I've been trying to transfer files from my iMac to my Macbook for three days - no luck.
I did a wipe and install on the macbook first. But then Migration Assistant wouldn't work b/c it said the machine i was transferring do had an older OS than the iMac. SO, I reinstalled Leopard on the iMac - but now All my files are in the "Previous Systems" Folder - so when I try to use Migration Assistant - it calculates my transfer files at 0 KB.
Same thing happens when I try it from my latest Time Machine Back up.
I've tried migration assistant with firewire, ethernet and Time Machine. etc, but no luck.
Now, I'm just copying all my files over - but I NEED to have all my mail msgs and applications transferred!
Any suggestions I feel like I've tried everything - I've read many many articles here but I'm getting frustrated and tired.
thanks in advance!
http://discussions.apple.com/profile.jspa?userID=262360

scarchord wrote:
OK, I've been trying to transfer files from my iMac to my Macbook for three days - no luck.
I did a wipe and install on the macbook first. But then Migration Assistant wouldn't work b/c it said the machine i was transferring do had an older OS than the iMac. SO, I reinstalled Leopard on the iMac - but now All my files are in the "Previous Systems" Folder - so when I try to use Migration Assistant - it calculates my transfer files at 0 KB.
Same thing happens when I try it from my latest Time Machine Back up.
What version of OSX is that backup?
And what version is on your MacBook?
It sounds like the iMac and/or backups are on Snow Leopard, and the MacBook is on Leopard. If so, you can't transfer from a newer "major" version of OSX to an older one (but you can transfer from, say, 10.6.6 to 10.6.4, although some Apple apps may not be happy with older versions of their data files).
If the backups are Snow Leopard, update the MacBook to Snow Leopard and do the transfer from the backups, either via +Setup Assistant+ or +Migration Assistant.+ See [Setting up a new Mac from an old one or its backups|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Setup.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Snow Leopard > Installation and Setup+ forum).
The other article is for transferring from a PPC Mac to Leopard or early versions of Snow Leopard.

HT4889 Am I wrong or does Migration Assistant not work in Mountain Lion (10.8.2) when migrating from a PowerPC running Tiger (10.4.11)? Apple really needs to get on the ball or face losing people buying their new desktop products.

The title alone speaks to my frustration about this issue.
Used the process that was recommended by Apple to migrate from my "Lampshade" iMac (PPC running 10.4.11) to the new iMac (Intel running 10.8.2) and I got bupkiss...
Just a spinning wheel (not beachball) and no drive recognized using Migration Assistant for both nor when using Target Mode on the iMac running 10.4.11 and Migration Assistant on the iMac running 10.8.2. Which is ironic, or more accurately oxymoronic, since the iMac in Target Mode (10.4.11) is recognized on the desktop of the iMac running 10.8.2 but not in the Migration Assistant. And before you can misdiagnose..it is not the Thunderbolt connection since I have the Apple recommended Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter and also used the Firewire 400 to 800 cable to expedite the transfer.
On a personal note...
I'm not bashing Apple for this...they are "head and shoulders" above the competition in what they do but I've been burned a few times so I feel I can share a small bit of loyal customer advice...I understand your iOS and mobile products hold huge sway in company focus and market-share but I find it a tad unwise to slack on the desktop applications. I don't recall any app for the iPhone/iPad family being made on the iPhone/iPad...only from desktop applications if I recall correctly. And how can I clearly "Move my Mac even further ahead" as your marketing states when I can't even migrate my files from my old Mac to my new one in a simple fashion as per your instructions?
I thank anyone in advance with an answer or even a workaround for this issue and please have a great day.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4889
Migration from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger to OS X Lion
Migration from Mac OS X v10.4 computers to OS X Lion over your Wi-Fi or a wired network is not supported. However, if both Macs are equipped with a FireWire port, you can use Target Disk Mode to transfer your data:
Verify that both Macs are equipped with a FireWire port. Note that different model Macs may have different FireWire connectors, which will require an appropriate cable, such as FireWire 400 to FireWire 800.
On the Mac you want to transfer data from, Restart, and immediately hold the T key.
Wait for the FireWire logo to appear on the screen. If it does not, restart and try again.
Connect both Macs via the FireWire cable.
On the Mac you want to transfer data to, Open the Migration Assistant application.
Select the option "From another Mac, PC, Time Machine backup, or other disk" and click Continue.
Select the option "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" and click Continue.
Select your other Mac's volume, such as "Macintosh HD", from the list, and click Cont
EDIT: Actually I realize you did follow these directions and if your drive is seen on the new Mac it should work. You're entitled to free Apple support with the new purchase, I'd give them a call.

Migration Assistant not working with OS X Lion via Wireless Network?

Anybody know how to assist me here?
Basically, I have two iMacs on seperate floors of my home. They are newer models (both purchased last year) and I have upgraded both of them to Lion and just ran a system update on both of them to ensure they are both running the exact same OS with updates and all.
When I attempt to use the migration assistant over my network, it just says its attempting to find the other computer but never moves past that step, as if they aren't connecting or even finding each other at all.
I'm relatively new to the mac family and am very happy I've finally made the switch last year and am still learning the in's and outs and am simply stuck here and not sure what to do to get this to work.
Thank You

Try running software update to install 10.7.1. This update reportedly fixes your issue. Check out http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1437 for more information.
Good luck

Migration assistant not working. Source can't find other computer.

I was recently given a Macbook Pro using OSX 10.8.5 and have been trying to use Migration Assistant to transfer everything from my old Macbook using 10.5.8. The MBP can find the MB but the MB can't find the MBP. I'm trying to migrate using an ethernet cable and don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

My 2 Firewire drives are connected to my desktop Mac Pro. My laptop sees the desktop and one of the firewire drives but not the other one. Actually it's rather important that it finds the other external drive. Both drives are mounted okay on my desktop. I don't understand why the laptop when it's networked with the desktop can't see the 2nd firewire drive.
Personal web sharing is checked on both computers. I can't find any checkbox under Sidebar that says Show Network on/off. That's on my Mac Pro with 10.5.2. The Laptop has 10.4.11 and I can't find any Sidebar there under System Prefs. Actually I don't know what Sidebar is. Could someone explain?

Migration assistant not working (10.5.8 Macbook to new Lion iMac)

Just bought a new iMac and had the Apple store update it to Lion. I fire up migration assistant on both and new iMac tells me to update software on the macbook - but there are no software updates available, I'm totally up to date.
I've tried ethernet, wireless, enabling cd sharing on both, restarting, initiating from either. Doesn't seem to be any info on this exact case online... I don't want to restore the system to get to the setup assistant because i'll lose my lion download.
Can anyone help?
For something that the Apple store said would be dead simple this sure is a pain in the a$$

CEOofTNFYA wrote:
This is absurd. I would like to take a minute to thank Apple for making sure that:
Nothing on their own website indicates that a transfer from a 10.5.8 to Lion is currently impossible.
Are you sure you've read everything on this page?
If I can read it right, it says on step 2:
"Step 2:
Make sure you have the latest version of Snow Leopard."
I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but for me, that means "yon can't install Lion from any other system version than 10.6.8"
I don't think it's fair either. Leopard owners will have to buy 2 systems, but advertised, it definetely was.
Yours.
JP

Migration assistant not working on iMac retina 5 K

Hi I just got the new iMac retina 5 K I need to set up the migration assistant to an Mc Pro 2009 , I got the thunderbolt converter to firewire 800, to connect both computers through a firewire 800 cable,. I can't get it them connected. Please can anybody tell me how to get this working?
Thanks
O

You are still under warranty, call AppleCare. Let them deal w/it.

Migration assistant not working with iBook - macBook

I have used migration assistant many, many times before. I just purchased a MacBook and my iBook is having trouble in firewire mode. It seems that the iBook will boot up in firewire mode, the migration will begin, but after 5 minutes the iBook freezes, and the dancing firewire icon stops moving. This is VERY frustrating as one might imagine. Any suggestions? I have shocked the pram on the iBook, I have restarted the process 10 times now. PLEASE HELP!!!!
-i

Did you reset PRAM on macbook as well?
Also try to repair disk and repair permission on iBook.
Good Luck.

HT4796 Migration assistant not working?

My mac is stil "inspecting your computer" and migration assistant is still "searching my documents" after ONE HOUR!!! Is this normal?!

It would probably much more difficult figuring out why than booting into the recovery hd and resetting the password.
Once in the Recovery HD, open Terminal from the Utilities menu and type: resetpassword. That will open the account password reset utility.

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.

Migration Assistant Not Enough Space

Hey all,
I'm having a problem with Migration Assistant that's driving me crazy. I just bought a new Macbook Pro with a 256GB internal drive, and I have a backup of my old computer from last year that is about 350GB in size. What I am trying to do is individually take over some items from the Time Machine so that I don't fill up the HD. Here is what I have done so far:
I took over 100GB of an iTunes library as well as other system settings and documents. I had left something like 50GB on my internal hard drive. Not enough for my 109GB photo library.
So, I purchased a large SD card (128GB) to be the permanent home for my photo library. However, I had to maneuver some things around to get this to work, which has been a HUGE pain.
What I ended up doing was copying my whole iTunes library, which was about 98GB to the SD card. I juggled some other things around beforehand, and even though my photo file on the backup is only 109GB, it kept telling me I didn't have space. So I did the whole iTunes library instead of parts of it...
I now have 150GB free. Migration Assistant still tells me I don't have enough space for the transfer. How is that possible!? That's an extra 41GB of data.
Anyone have any suggestions? I've already verified the HD on the macbook is fine via Disk Utility, not sure what else to do.

Well yeah, I could always buy a bigger external. I was thinking about exchanging the 128GB SD card for a 256GB, but I've been able to make it work in the meantime. I freed up another 10GB of data on the hard drive, and that allowed the photo library to come off the time machine back up. Then I cut down my iPhoto to 97GB instead of 111GB, and am in the process of transferring that to the SD card. I put the iTunes off on a 2nd computer in the meantime, and once I have iPhoto off this computer, I can make sure all my documents are on here, then erase the old time machine backup, and re-partition the drive to have half time machine back and half storage space for another iPhoto back up and miscellaneous items.
Thanks for the advice!

Migration Assistant not connecting

I am setting up a new Mac Mini (running Lion, I presume) and trying to migrate files from an older Mini (running OS 10.5.8) during set up. I have them connected with an ethernet cable, but the old Mini doesn't "see" the new one and I can't get them to connect. I've tried it with the airport off (on the old one) and with the airport on, with cable and without. No luck. I'm fully updated on all software. Suggestions?
Let me give another piece of background that might be helpful. I tried this setup/migration on Friday and I got the computers connected, no problem. Migration ran for about half an hour, no problem, until it got the to the place where it was "transferring applications". Then, instead of the time remaining deminishing, it started increasing, going from 4 minutes remaining to about 2.5 hours remaining, before I decided to abort the migration and try again. I tried again, everything went exactly the same way, though I aborted shortly after the time remaining started to increase again. I shut everything down. Returned today and am having this new problem.
Would appreciate any advice you've got.
Thanks.

Thanks. I ended up just setting up the new machine and then migrating the files manually. Not ideal, but it worked fine. I appreciate the advice and will certainly keep it in mind should I run into this problem in future.
FWIW: I don't think the problem in the original migration problem was with the timer - it only took 40 minutes to migrate all the files from a similarly configured and loaded mini to a new mini that same day (with no time adding to the estimated time remaining). I waited over 3 hours for the second migration to complete and it never did finish up. Judging from other posts out there, the estimated time addition seems to be a symptom of the larger failure of the migration assistant.

Migration Assistant not transferring files in Mac OS X 10.5

I was trying to use Migration Assistant to move files from a PowerPC G4 running 10.4 to a Powerbook G4 running 10.5. They didn't get along, so I did some research and found that they both need to be running 10.5 to work correctly. I upgraded the PPC to 10.5. Now the "Transfer to another Mac" option in Migration Assistant has been replaced with the "Time Machine" option. The PPC will not boot in Target mode, I think because of a dead PRAM battery. I do not have a Firewire hard drive big enough for the migration. How can I get the "To another Mac" option back in Migration Assistant?

it wasn't necessary to upgrade the Powermac to 10.5 to use migration assistant.
Migration assistant in 10.5 offers 3 choices: migrate from another mac, migrate from a TM backup and migrate to another mac. that option is the last of the 3 and should be there already. you'll need an ethernet cable to use it.

HT4889 Migration Assistant not quite working

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