If you migration hangs at "less than a minute remaining," maybe ok still

I just wanted to describe my experience using the Migration Assistant app with my new 15" MacBook Pro i7 model.
I had a Core2Duo MacBook (black casing) with about 185GB of data on it. I setup the Migration Assistant process to import the data to my new Macbook Pro, after about 4 hours of importing it hung at the 10 minute remaining point telling me to check my connection (ethernet) for problems. I changed out the ethernet cable and had to click "continue" about 3 times before it started working again.
Then at the "less than one minute remaining" point, which was an hour of waiting for me, I called Apple Support and basically we determined it wasn't going to move and just canceled and rebooted.
At first it appeared nothing transferred to the MacBook Pro because I was greeted with the choose language prompts upon first rebooting. However, just go through those as normal, choose NOT to import any data then go to the desktop (you may still have to create a dummy login account) then go to Accounts and choose the one you migrated which hopefully is there, then just delete the dummy account.
Glad I realized this before going through another 4+ hour migration!
Hope this can help someone if it happens to them.

I ran into something similar yesterday while running Migration Assistant.
I solved this riddle myself by turning off the WiFi on both computers. For some reason, with an ethernet connection checked, the Migration Assistant still chose to transfer my data via WiFi with quickest time estimate of over 24 hours.
The only other time I did this with Migration Assistant, it apparently used the ethernet cabling right from the start.
This latest attempt is only going to take about 2 hours. As to why Migration would choose wifi when there was a valid ethernet connection available, I'll leave that to the experts. With AirPort turned off, I transfered about 120GB of data in slightly less than 2 hours.

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Time Machine Migration hanging on "Less than one minute remaining"

I decided to take a risk with my iMac and do an erase and install with Leopard, the version of OS X it's been running for years now. The reinstall went fine migration assistent got me started transferring my information from my Time Machine external USB 2.0 hard drive. It said it was just over 200 GB of information. That proceeded fine until it reached the "Less than one minute remaining" mark. It's been sitting here for over 12 hours in the "transferring files to support applications" process. What should I do? Is it alright for me to manually turn off the computer and re-boot? There is no cancel button or anything. I do get the pleasant clunking sound when I hit enter.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If you have connected both computers with a cable, disconnect and connect that cable again, so migration should continue. If it doesn't work, restart your MacBook Pro and check that all the files have been transferred. If not, open Migration Assistant and transfer your files

Migration stalled with "less than a minute remaining"

This issue was discussed back in April, but no definitive solution was found.
I installed Mountain Lion on an older MacBook Pro and all went well until I got to the Setup Assistant after restart. The migration of my files from a Time Machine backup stalled with "less than a minute remaining" while "transferring files to support applications". Apparently this is a known issue that affects older Macs upgrading from Snow Leopard. I have two questions about this:
1. Can anyone suggest a fix or workaround for this problem? In the earlier thread, some people repeated the file transfer several times with exactly the same results. One person evidently had better luck when he started over and deselected everything but Users on the transfer options screen; but it obviously requires alot of extra work on the user's part to reinstall every application.
2. What is the best way to abort the stalled transfer without risk of damaging the data on my Time Machine backup drive? Mountain Lion refused to install on my startup drive until I erased it, so my Time Machine backup is the only copy I have of my data. Since Setup Assistant is not frozen, I can hit command-Q and Setup Assistant offers to shut down; but is the data on my backup drive at risk if I shut down and start over?
Thanks!

Has your Migration Assistant actually crashed? I am restoring my computer from a hard drive failure and the following dialog has been displayed for the last 12 hours. I clicked on the App in the dock to see if it was displaying as crashed, it doesn't appear to be.
I checked the "Get Info" on the Hard Drive Volume, and it is showing a very slow progression of used bytes. I suspect the transfer is still continuing, just very slow as I have so much data. I think it is a matter of quanity of files rather than "file size".
Should be interesting to see in another day or so to see if it completes. :-)

Migration Assistant 'Less than 1 minute remaining' Solution

Hi all..
I have been reading the problems people have been having regarding Migration Assistant and the dreaded 'Less Than 1 Minute Remaining' screen than never goes away and I found a solution for it so you don't have to go through all that!
I recently upgraded my 24" Late 2008 iMac to a new 27" iMac and wanted to bring all my files over to the new machine as most of it is photos and Final Cut Pro plus related editing software!
I did the whole connecting both macs up on the same network and even connected the ethernet cable for faster transfer but after hours of showing promise, it hung up on 1 minute to go. After leaving it for 4 hours, I gave up but here is the best way to do a hassle free transfer.
Back up all the files on your old machine to a hard drive in Time Machine form. I had 320 gigs to do so it may take 4 hours or so to do the back up.
when this is done, disconnect the drive from the old machine. On the new machine, connect the hard drive, open Migration assistant in Utilities and select BACK UP FROM TIME MACHINE!
Mine took about 1 hr 40 mins to complete and it works like a dream.
Sincerely hope this helps people

Press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly to restart. Test. If the migration wasn't successful, see below.
1. Migration may stall with "Sharing Only" user accounts
2. Back up the old system with Time Machine or Disk Utility and try migrating from the backup.

Migration Assistant says "Less than a minute to go" but this goes on for hours and nothing gets transferred to my new iMac 27"

Am trying to transfer all my data from my old MacBook Pro 10.6.8 , 2.8GHz, 4GB memory to my new iMac 27" 10.9.4, 3.2 GHz, 8GB and after 3 days I still can't get there.
I am using Migration Assistant. Both computers are on wi fi. I have connected them together with an ethernet cable.
I can get the process going but hours later the computers say "less than a minute remaining" . I have left them alone for more hours but nothing moves on. I them quit and of course I find that nothing has been transferred.
I am not very skilled at all this so I hope someone can help me with an easy solution.
Thank-you

Hello again baltwo
The above didn't work so I then tried what you suggested and erased the hard disc, reloaded the OSX software and then tried the Migration Assistant again. Same old problem only now it doesn't get beyond "new mac selecting what to import". When I press continue the screen just goes grey then back to the login page.
However another problem I have is that the free 'bundled apps' ... Pages. Numbers, Keynote, Garageband, iMovie and iPhoto have disappeared! I've been to the App store and into my account but they are not there under 'Purchases".
This is all turning into a nightmare so any help would be very welcome.
Thank-you

Migration Assistant Stuck at "Less than a minute remaining"

Migrating from old G5 single CPU to dual 2.3 G5. Tiger to Tiger. The dual has a clean install from the setup disk, but no software updates -- I just followed the onscreen instructions regarding when and how to do the migration via Firewire target disk mode.
The migration ran for 2 hours, the minutes counting down just fine, but it stopped with "Less than a minute remaining." There it sits, fans blowing, workday slipping away. Any ideas? Is the migration probably finished? Some lonnnng verification occuring?
Thanks,
Paul Otteson

Wait another hour. If it doesn't work, you may have insufficient space to finish the migration, or a bad firewire cable for or interface on the drive in question.
Consider the steps suggested for PowerPC to Intel migration. They are more likely to work:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=0

Migration assistant has halted at "less than a minute remaining"

Im in the process of transferring my MacBook Pro to a new MacBook Pro.
Since I didn't have a Thunderbolt cable and the ethernet cable is not an option on the new MacBook Pro I have done it wirelessly.
At the start is had 29 hrs to complete…I have been extremely patient until now…this is 2 days into the transfer.
It says it has "less than a minute remaining"…would be great if that were true.
Its been stuck on that now for 3 hrs.
I did note the time remaining kept going up and down during the transfer so I'm hoping this is the case and it will eventually finish.
Any suggestions on what to do if it doesn't change anytime soon?

I had this problem migrating from my iMac; a late 2009 24in FW800 with Mavericks, to a late 2013 27inch Thunderbolt. Migration Assistant hung at "lass than a minute" for over an hour and change... My back up drives had two F800 interfaces and a USB. I was abe to plug an additional drive into one of the remaining available ports on the back of my Time Capsule drive. This woke up the Time Capsule drive and finished the migration installation process.
I beleive the setting "put Hard Drives to sleep when possible" must have been on by default on the unused OS without my awareness. The action of plugging in an additional drive to the remaining port on my Time Capusle back up drive woke the Time Capsule drive up and then in completed almost imediately. Hope this helps and that any future readers have a BAck Up drive with more than one port and an extra device or drive they can plug into in (Daisy Chain Style) to get the Capusle drive to complete. Good luck!
Turned Out Flawless for Me.

Migrating assistant freezes at less than one minute remaining os x lion

Hi I recently got a macbook pro 13" os x lion, i5 2.4Hz. And i'm using migrating assistant to move my files over from a pc (45gb). The process was fine until it reaches nearly the end where it says cleaning up "less than a minute remaining" and it has been stuck there for ages. My laptop which is the source computer for some reason turned off by itself when it gets to the end of the process. I didnt know how it happened because i was unattened. However the mac was still running. Is it normal? Should i wait or start over again?

http://www.apple.com/support/mac/app-store/contact.html?form=account

"Less than a minute remaining" for over a few hours with Migration Assistant

Hi everyone,
I am migrating to a MBP Retina running latest 10.7. I am using migration assistant to import a user from my new Time Capsule. It's stuck on "Less than a minute remaining" for over a few hours that I noticed it. What should I do?
(Yes, I am on Wireless N and I do not own a ethernet adapter)
Any help,suggestion, wait/not wait?
Thanks,
Chester

my recommendation stems mostly from what others have replied to similar posts. I personally think it is probably done, and a hard shut down and restart will probably work. but also see this good reply from WZZZ
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5050660

HT4796 transferring information less than a minute remaining hung up

just started up a new iMac and using Migration assistant. seems to be hung up as "less than a minute remaining" for over 2 hours. any ideas?

Same here. Migration assistant pulling from a TimeMachine back up...

Less than a minute remaining...... Forever?

Recently purchased a new computer, and I decided I wanted to keep so old files from my Powerbook G4. I planned on using a portable hardrive, however for some reason or another, my new computer was able to recognize the drive when I plugged it in, and my old one was not. So I used the migration utility instead, and did it over the network, which shockingly has taken 10 hours for 10 GB of information. However now its been telling me that there is less than a minute remaining for over a half hour. So is it going to finish in the near future, or should I press the tiny red button.

"Less than a minute remaining" message when I restored my Macbook Pro drive from an external backup using Time Machine took AT LEAST 30 to 45 minutes. I was doing a complete restore of about 250 GB's. Don't reboot yet! Let it run.... listen for drive activity (lights, etc.). It isn't frozen, just taking forever. Obviously, the message at this point in the restore is not accurate. The blue bar was even all the way to the end and just sat there. The backup finished successfully.

Latest update 7.1.2 stuck with less than one minute remaining

I Couldn't download anymore apps and noticed I needed to update my software to the latest version so thought that this would solve the problem. I started the update at 11pm last night and after waiting 2 hours with it on charge and connected to wifi it still said less than one minute remaining. Searches on internet suggest a hard reboot but will this loose my apps as some I have are no longer available to get? I have backed up photos etc to the cloud so not too worried about those.
any advise please Thanks in advance

iOS: Apple logo with progress bar after updating or restoring from backup
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3681
If you can't download apps, it's probably because you don't have sufficient storage space. You need to increase your Available space.
iPhone, iPad, and iPod: Understanding capacity
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1867
How much space is used by your Other? You may be able to reduce.
How Do I Get Rid Of The “Other” Data Stored On My iPad Or iPhone?
http://tinyurl.com/85w6xwn
How to Remove “Other” Data from iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-remove-other-data-from-iphone/
With an iOS device, the “Other” space in iTunes is used to store things like documents, settings, caches, and a few other important items. If you sync lots of documents to apps like GoodReader, DropCopy, or anything else that reads external files, your storage use can skyrocket. With iOS 5/6/7, you can see exactly which applications are taking up the most space. Just head to Settings > General > Usage, and tap the button labeled Show All Apps. The storage section will show you the app and how much storage space it is taking up. Tap on the app name to get a description of the additional storage space being used by the app’s documents and data. You can remove the storage-hogging application and all of its data directly from this screen, or manually remove the data by opening the app. Some applications, especially those designed by Apple, will allow you to remove stored data by swiping from left to right on the item to reveal a Delete button.
What is “Other” and What Can I Do About It?
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142
iPhone or iPad Ran Out of Storage Space? Here’s How to Make Space Available Quickly
http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/02/iphone-ipad-ran-out-of-available-storage-space-ho w-to-fix-quick/
6 Tips to Free Up Tons of Storage Space on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch
http://osxdaily.com/2012/04/24/6-tips-free-up-storage-space-ipad-iphone-ipod-tou ch/
Also,
How to Clear Message/iMessage Cache on iPhone & iPad And Reclaim Lots of Free Space
http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-clear-message-imessage-cache-on-iphone-ipad/
What is Stored in iCloud and What is Not
https://sites.google.com/site/appleclubfhs/support/advice-and-articles/what-is-s tored-in-icloud
 Cheers, Tom

Mac store downloads stuck at less than a minute remaining... Forever!

So yeah, new to Macs but I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything wrong.
Macbook Pro late 2011 15 inch, Lion 10.7.2.
Got my new mac back home yesterday, very excited, and, very excitedly, opened the app store to buy Logic. Paid, cool, no problem, then I try downloading. Starts off a bit slow (8 hours for 400 something MBs) then changes to days after a minute, then changes to "less than a minute remaining" and then stops downloading. Left it over night to see if it would pick up and to my joy it did, overnight it reached 260 MBs, then left it downloading while I went to work, and it didn't move another inch. Tried downloading a free app or two and the same things would happen. Would hit the dreaded "less than a minute remaining" of death and stop downloading.
This common for macs?
Shouldn't be a internet problem. My windows laptop still downloads speedy as ever.

If you are referring to Logic Pro it's only a 413 MB file... shouldn't take more than several minutes to download.
Try this...
Since your are new to Macs it may be a bit confusing to find files.
Click and hold the Finder icon in the Dock (bottom of the screen on the left) then click New Finder Window.
Now from the menu bar top of your screen click Go > Go to Folder
Type this in ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore/Cache.db
Move the Cache.db file to the Trash.
Restart your Mac. Try re downloading Logic.
Note... If you installed anti virus software or any programs such as LIttle Snitch or Speed Download, alll three can prevent files from downloading from the App Store.

Maverick has been completing the update with less than one minute remaining now for well over an hour. Where do I go from here?

Maverick has been completing the update with less than one minute remaining now for well over an hour. Where do I go from here?

try this
Reboot device by pressing both the home button and sleep/wake (power) buttons at the same time for 10-15 seconds until the apple logo appears on the screen, then let go.
if that doesn't work then connect to a computer and try to open the device in itunes

HT4796 It says "less than a minute remaining" and has said that for 12 hours now.

It says "less than a minute remaining" and has been stuck on that for over 12 hours. I'm transferring information from my PC to Mac - all was going well for the first 8 hours, then it just hung.

Hold down the power button for a few seconds to force a shutdown, then restart. It will probably be OK.

If you migration hangs at "less than a minute remaining," maybe ok still

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