Migration Assistant cant see other computer

I am trying to migrate some data from my Imac to my MacBook, but cant make the two machines connect.
They are failing to connect by WifI
My Macbook - when I click the "From a Mac, Time Machine backup etc" button can find my Imac.
My Imac - when I click the "To another Mac" button can't see my MacBook.
To check if there is a hardware fault, I have tried swapping things over - so that the MacBook is labelled as the machine where the data will be transfered from and the Imac is the destination. In this case the Imac can see the MacBook, but the MacBook can't see the Imac.
Confused!
I have done a google search, and tried some of the tips like switching off firewalls. Hasn't worked.
Both machines have Maverick. Both machines are on the same network. The Macbook is sat right night to the Imac.
Suggestions?

I see this issue frequently. There does't appear to be a solution and I don't know if Apple is addressing it.
I would just forget about Wifi and use a hardwire solution.(ethernet , firewire/thunderbolt).

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Can't get migration assistant to recognize other computer

I am transferring files from an older Macbook to a new Mac Mini using migration assistant over an ethernet cable. During setup of the new mini, I was asked to connect the two computers, and use the DVD to install migration assistant on the host computer (eg, Macbook). However, when I attempted to install, I got the message that a new version of migration assistant was installed (v3). So, I ran that version (without rolling it back). THe computers do not appear to 'see' each other. Is this a function of the version differences?
What should I do? Roll back to the older version of Mig Assistant, or update the (new) mini somehow?

Managed to accomplish this over our company intranet (working 1G Ethernet, so took a few hours). HOWEVER, not many of my personal settings or documents were transferred, including documents, music, etc. Also, all the software is 'virginal' in that I need to set it up (eg, iCal needed all my caldav info again, address book was empty). I managed to populate some of this with Mobile Me, but the rest I need to rebuild from scratch.
ANy thoughts on the matter?

Migration assistant cant see files on time machine backup

Hi all,
I just bought a new 27" iMac, and wanted to transfer files from a time machine backup i have on an external drive, from my old machine.
I dident try this on the first setup, but waitet till i had configured it first, so i use migration assistant.
I startet migration assistant just fine, and it could se my time machine backup(1)
Heres the problem
when i select the backup i want to use and click continue, all i get is a little white box under the imac icon(2).
It whont show me a list of things to transfer. Please help.
Bonus info
I tride to use disk utility to repair my disk, but no luck there.
when i select the drive, it whont let me repair disk permissions, no matter what disk i choose.(3)
I am able to access and mount the time machine image, browes the backup and copy files manually.

No, both the backup and the new system are OSX10.6.
I'm afraid your solution doesn't work. If I go through finder and open up the folders on the backup, and try, for example, to open my "Movies" folder (which is one I dearly hope to recover), I get a message that:
"The folder "Movies" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents."
I have tried Repair Permissions, but this doesn't help. All of the important folders have a little red stop sign on them.
Thanks though.

"Upgrading" from leopard to tiger.. Migration Assistant cant see 10.5

10.5 runs like a pig on my 12" G4. I re-installed 10.4 onto a new volume and it runs just like it used to. For comparison I had also tried a clean 10.5 and it ran just as slow.
So anyway, what I wanted to do was use the migration assistant to pull my data from 10.5 over to 10.4 but when I point to the 10.5 volume MA doesnt see anything. I suspect maybe this is by design and such a "downgrade" isnt supported.
Has anyone tried this?
My other option is to create a backup of the 10.5 volume then just try an archive+install of 10.4 over the top.
Lets hope 10.6 runs better!

WEll, it;s not that easy Darrin,
Leopard puts things in different places than Tiger did.
Hopefully one of the people that recently posted on how to do it will drop in, because I can't find it!
suspect maybe this is by design and such a "downgrade" isnt supported.
Nope... how would they know what Leopard would do with files when they made Tiger?
My other option is to create a backup of the 10.5 volume then just try an archive+install of 10.4 over the top.
Lots of stuff you have now won't be in the right places.

HT1338 What do I do if the Mac I am trying to import files into is telling me that the Migration Assistant on my other computer (Mac OS X 10.4.11), need to be updated - but I already checked for Software Updates and it said they were up to date?

I am mainly concerned with trying to import my iTune Library into my new MacBook Pro.
I don't want to lose all my tunes!

Assuming you have an optical drive in or connected to your MBP, the easiest way to go is to do a backup of your existing iTunes library to DVDs (you may need several) . In iTunes 9, this is done with selecting File->Library->Back Up to Disc... and following the directions. I do not see that capability in the current iTunes, though, but if one is using Tiger, one is limited to iTunes 9.
When the discs are burned, mounting any of the discs on the MBP should cause iTunes (you may need to have it up) to ask if you want to import the files. It goes pretty smoothly, or at least it has for me in Mt. Lion and Win-7. It's a little involved but it does work.

Migration Assistant cant find external hard drive Best Buy backed up for me when laptop crashed.

My mac's hard drive somehow failed and I took it to Best Buy where i bought it from and they backed it up to an external I had to buy and now when I go to the migration assistant it cant find it. What can I do?

Migration assistant will only work with drives that are a) contain original Mac systems, b) are exact clones of such drives, or c) Time Machine destination drives. For example, with a clone, you would see an Applications folder, a Library folder, System and Users at the top of the hard drive. If Best Buy just copied files onto the external, you can't use it in Migration Assistant. However, once you complete setup of the new system (without migrating) you can manually copy user files (not most applications though) from wherever they are on the external to the proper places on your new drive.
Matt

Migration Assistant on the Source computer can't find the target on my WiFi network

I am trying copy stuff from an old MacBook Air to a new one.
Both computers are running OSX 10.9.4 and Migration Assistant v5 (08/24/2013)
I can ping both computers.
But, when after step 4 of "OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks" the source computer never finds the target. It just sits there "looking for other computers".
For what it's worth the if I hit continue on target computer it does see the source.
Help

Back up the old system with Time Machine or Disk Utility and try migrating from the backup.

Migration Assistant not recognizing other Mac via FireWire

I am trying to transfer files from my G4 Mirror Doors Power Mac to my new Intel iMac via the instructions that come up on the new iMac. I am running the latest version of 10.4 on the G4.
I have the two machines connected via FireWire. I restarted the G4 holding the "T" key down and sure enough, the floating "FireWire" icon comes up but shortly after that, the new iMac says, "There are no versions of OS X on the older machine" which is obviously not true.
I tried the Ethernet route and loaded the Install Disk from the iMac into the G4 as instructed but that disk did not recognize either of my 2 internal drives as valid for installation.
Any suggestions?

FWIW, I have had no problems using Migration Assistant or understanding its prompts, at least when using the version included in the recent Migration and DVD and CD Sharing Update. In this version or later, every option has both a title & descriptive info below it & there are no places I can see in which everything is called a document. You may want to check your MA version number & make sure it is version 1.2.3 or later, as described in About the Migration and DVD/CD Sharing Update. This may help avoid any confusion you have had.
However, keep in mind that MA is designed to migrate files from one backup or startup disk at a time. It will transfer items from one home folder on a connected drive to the corresponding one on the new drive but these items must be enclosed in a home folder (in /Users/) on that drive. If you have elected to store these items on a non-startup drive lacking that hierarchy, you must import them using some other method & decide where to put them on the new drive. MA cannot make that decision for you.
Moreover, if you tell MA to import only your "Documents" folder, it will not import such items as your Movies, Music, Pictures, or other home folders, so for example your ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library file will not be imported, nor will be your ~/Music/iTunes folder (which contains your iTunes database files, even if the iTunes Music folder containing all your music files is stored elsewhere).
Without knowing exactly how you have 'piecemealed' other files & folders into your new drive, I do not know what to tell you to do to best complete the migration process. If you can supply more info about that, & about where exactly the original files & folders are stored on the older Mac, perhaps I or someone else can give you more useful info about doing that.

How long should migration assistant take to inspect computer for files to transfer

just purchased a mac book pro. I'm attempting to migrate my pc files to the mac. I've successfully installed migration assistant on my pc.
Migration assistant on the mac has been " inspecting your computer" for over 12 hours. Is this normal? I'm hesitant to turn it off in case it will finish eventually

If you mean it's been fifteen minutes and nothing has happened then most likely it's stuck. What are you migrating from and to?
How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac

Migration Assistant: Searching for other computers...

I got a new iMac 24" running Mac OS 10.5.6 (No new software updates available)
I want to transfer all my data from my old iMac, i.e.
iMac 17" running Mac OS 10.4.11 (No new software updates available).
The firewalls on both computers are disabled and they are on the same network.
I followed the instructions:
1. Opened Migration Assistant on the new machine
2. Chose 'From another Mac' - Use Network - it gave me a passcode and "Looking for other computers..."
3. I opened MA on the old machine
4. Chose 'To another Mac'
5. It found the new machine and asked for the passcode which I entered.
6. It said that all application will quit if I press continue, which I did.
7. It gave a 'Preparing information' message, BUT then again said that it found my new machine and asked for the passcode again - I entered it again.
8. It then gives me a 'Searching for other computers...' message...
And that is where stays... and stays...
please...

So you are migrating from Intel to Intel.
On the 17" iMac... how much free space is there on the drive? Not enough disk space and that could be what's holding that up. Not certain, just could be.
Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon on your Desktop, then click: Get Info. In the Get Info window, click the discovery triangle so it's facing down. You will see; Capacity and Available Make sure you have 10% available disk space, 15% is better. Not enough available drive space can cause issues like you are experiencing.
In my opinion, the Migration Assistant can be more trouble than it's worth. I use Firewire Target Disk Mode between Macs to transfer files. It's so much easier.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Carolyn

Migration assistant now seeing my User file only back ups on my time machine, nor am I able to drag the entire user folder to my new desktop.

I cannot recover my system on a clean install when I try to either use migration assistant or drag and drop of my backed up user profile. I did not back up anything else. I can see the file on my external drive but migration assitant does not see it as a restore and when I drag and drop the file to my desktop, the system informs me I do not have permissions to transfer all of the files.
What can I do?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Persol

persol19 wrote:
Yes, there were no system files included. Soley the items that are incopassed within the user file.
Rats. It's awful that Apple doesn't warn folks about that.
Since I am not able to use them as backups, what is the best way to restore all of my previous preferences, calenders, notes, adressbook, etc.?
Would it be best to replace each file in the library of the new machine with the coresponding folders of the new machine?
That's going to be difficult, but is about your only option (assuming you have no other backups).
Part of the hassle is, you have to do it "piecemeal" -- you can't just delete the old home folder, or any of the "default" sub-folders (Desktop, Documents, etc.), and drag in the one from your backups -- you'll get a message about it being a required folder, so you can't delete it.
So you'll have to do it with the contents of the sub-folders.
Make a large pot of coffee.
For future reference, many long-time users consider a good backup plan to start with a minimum of two full backups, via two different apps, on two different pieces of hardware. These should be updated regularly.
For "primary" backups, Time Machine (built in to OSX) is quite good. You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
#27 in the FAQ link has some suggestions for "secondary" backups.

Migration Assistant "Looking for other computers ..."

After a new installation of Lion, I can´t restore my users from a Time Machine Backup with the Migration Assistant. In the Time Machine disk I have only the users backup, not the complete MacBook Pro. The back is from the same machine with Lion.
See the image attach.

Pondini wrote:
DrSam wrote:
One other caveat, which I learned in my search... Apparently if you are restoring via Migration Assistant, you can't restore to a user account that you are currently on, and you can't restore to a user account with the same name as the one you are restoring, without replacing the former.
Yes, other than using Setup Assistant when your Mac first starts up, that's the only workaround.
See option #4 in Problems after using Migration Assistant
And unbelievable that this would be the way Apple intended the process to go. I still am not sure how I could have gotten this to work from the start within Setup Assistant, which obviously you're supposed to be able to do,
That's not how it's supposed to work. Setup Assistant should have found the sparsebundle and shown it in the Select the Source window. Usually it does.
It's possible the backups were slightly damaged. It's also possible clicking Continue on that window might have, uh, kick-started it, as it did for a couple of other folks.
I agree that Setup Assistant "should" have found it, but it didn't... That was what my last sentence was referring to as well.
For what it's worth, I had tried clicking on the grayed-out continue button like people here suggested. For me at least, it acted like every other grayed-out button has, and did not respond.
You may be right that my backup .sparsebundle was damaged or something, but I'm not really sure why that would be or how one might know, or even what to do about it if you did suspect that to be the case. (It checks out on Disk Utility, and Finder has no problem with it. Heck, even Time Machine recognizes it as an "Other Disk" backup and lets me browse it. I just couldn't get the Setup & Migration Assistants to recognize it.)
I figured now that I got it to work I'd document my experience here for the benefit of the next poor guy who has to spend his Christmas eve Googling for this thread...

Migration Assistant not seeing OS X Server time machine backups

Hello,
I use my OS X Server box as a time machine server, to which my other computers back up, just like you would to a time capsule. However, I now want to use one of those backups to restore to a new computer. When I try to use migration assistant to do this, it sees my server machine, but it says there are no backups on it. I noticed on the hard drive the server uses to back up the clients, the sparse bundles are saved under a "Shared Items" folder, unlike what happens if you do time machine backups connected directly to an external disc with USB, where the backups directory is at the top level directory.
Any ideas what could be going on here? As it is it looks like no time machine backups managed by my server machine are usable by migration assistant.

In the sidebar of a Finder window on the client, select the icon representing the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) At the top level of the volume are folders with these names, among others:
Applications
Library
System
Enter Time Machine and select the most recent snapshot, which is behind the frontmost window. Are those folders present in the snapshot?

Why is Migration Assistant not seeing Time Machine backup?

Had year old iMac with Snow Leopard and recently was lucky enough to have it replaced with a brand new model with Lion. Had the previous iMac backed up on external drive with Time Machine.
I know I can't restore from that Time Machine backup since I am now on Lion but shouldn't I be able to migrate my old user account from the Snow Leopard Time Machine backup to the new Lion system? The Lion Migration Assistant will not recogize or show the drive or backup from Time Machine though even though it is mounted in the Finder in Lion.
Any ideas?

I just had a similar problem to this. I have a MacBook Pro (Lion) that has been backed up to an attached USB Time Machine disk that was formatted on this same machine. I had a major crash, and had to reinstall Lion, and my Time Machine backup drive did not show up in the list. I do see several drives on my network, but not the locally attached USB drive. I rebooted and tried several time, no joy.
The backup drive passes all disk tests, and shows up when plugged in to other machines, and even shows up in the boot menu (but will not boot) when the MacBook Pro starts. And it has the secret flag file (if you do not know, the drive MUST have a zero length file titled ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" (note the leading .) at the root of the drive or the drive will not be recognized) and it should just work. It did backup to it just fine, but I cannot restore.
I finally made this work (I think) by actually getting another external USB drive, formatting it, and then using another machine to copy the Time Machine backup from the old drive to the new drive. I added the myster flag file to the new drive (see above) and connected it to the MacBook Pro. This time, it did recognize it.
I am trying to do a restore now, and looks like it should work just fine. What a pain in the butt.
I would love to hear from Apple what causes this. There must be an easier solution than to spend 6 hours copying a full back from one 2 TB drive to another! SIgh!
UPDATE: OK, it showed up as a restore disk in the "restore utility" in the energency partition, but I need to install a new OS (there was some curruption) and after installing a New OS, and getting to the migration screen, once again, this new drive does not show up. ARGHHHHhhhhhhh
Message was edited by: orubin after thinking it was working.

Migration assistant cannot see time machine backup

I have used internet backup to reinstall Lion on my early 2011 MBP, having installed a SSD drive.
I now want to recover all of my data, which is stored on a time machine backup on a USB external drive.
I ran migration assistant, but I just get the spinning logo and it does not see any data; the time machine backups drive is mounted and I can open the volume in finder.
What is the best way to get my data back? I want to selectively recover certain folders- I dont need to restore applications or the system (I purposely wanted to perform a clean install).
Thanks
Charles

I have used internet backup to reinstall Lion on my early 2011 MBP, having installed a SSD drive.
I now want to recover all of my data, which is stored on a time machine backup on a USB external drive.
I ran migration assistant, but I just get the spinning logo and it does not see any data; the time machine backups drive is mounted and I can open the volume in finder.
What is the best way to get my data back? I want to selectively recover certain folders- I dont need to restore applications or the system (I purposely wanted to perform a clean install).
Thanks
Charles

Migration Assistant cant see other computer

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