Migration Assistant Continues To Hang On "Transferring Applications Folder"

I'm attempting to use Migration Assistant to transfer my father's old 13" MacBook to a New 15" MacBook Pro. However, it continually hangs when it gets to "Transferring Applications Folder". Any thoughts on what might cause it to hang?

Likely copy protected.
Avoid Migration Assistant if all possible.
Install programs from fresh sources and use a Firewire cable to T boot the old Mac's hard drive to the desktop of the new Mac and simply drag and drop contents of the users folders into the new folders. (example: contents of Pictures, Movies, Documents etc)
Use the same setup name and hard drive name of the old machine, this way when you replace the iTunes folder all the playlists will be correct.

Similar Messages

Will Migration Assistant Continue Where It Left Off?

I'm transferring applications from my MacBook to my new MacBook Air via Migration Assistant over my wireless network. It's been transferring for over 24 hours, and says it will finish in 19 hours. I was wondering if aborting it prematurely (using Command-Q) would damage the applications or hardware, and if I continue the migration later, will it pick up where it left off or start again?

It's a really bad idea to use MA over wi-fi, depending on the amount of data you have it could take up to a week to complete! It's much wiser (and faster) to connect using FW or FW800 if both machines have it. Aborting mid migration will only result in an incomplete migration, in that case it's wise to reinstall OS X onto the new machine and start over this time connecting via FW.

Migration Assistant Continue to crash

Hi,
I'm trying to use migration assistant between my old macbookair and my new macbook pro retina.
It starts correctly and the countdown works till the last step. When it arrives to the screen "less then a minute remaining" it freeze and i cannot go on.
it already happened 5 times.
the two mac are connected with an ethernet cable and i changed the settings of both to have the screen and the memory always on.
I already checked and repaired the two mac without any improvement in the procedure.
what do i have to do? please help!!

Unluckily no Hans, i've already tried 3 times, leaving the process going all night long and it still at the same point

Migration assistant continues to get interrupted.

I recently purchased a Macbook Pro 13" Retina. I tried 4 times to migrate files from my PC to the Macbook. The migration would start, then somehow get interrupted after an hour or two. Both computers are set to "never" go to sleep so that's not what's interrupting the process. It never gets passed the "7 hours remaining" mark. What is going on?

Likely copy protected.
Avoid Migration Assistant if all possible.
Install programs from fresh sources and use a Firewire cable to T boot the old Mac's hard drive to the desktop of the new Mac and simply drag and drop contents of the users folders into the new folders. (example: contents of Pictures, Movies, Documents etc)
Use the same setup name and hard drive name of the old machine, this way when you replace the iTunes folder all the playlists will be correct.

Migration Assistant Continue button does nothing

I needed to backup my entire computer to Time Machine and restore (per a Bootcamp error message), but thats not my major concern right now.
I am getting the same error as this guys:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2269548
Which is, NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:: attempt to insert nil value (key: newLongName)
I made the Time Machine backup, reformatted my drive, and am now trying to restore, but I guess there was some error with the backup? What do I do now?

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Were you getting that error on a full system restore, where you started with your Snow Leopard Install disc?
If so, your best bet is probably to use the Snow Leopard disc to erase your OSX startup volume (select +Disk Utility+ from the menubar instead of +Restore System from Backup).+ Then quit Disk Utility and install OSX.
When your system starts up again, try to use +Setup Assistant+ to transfer everything from your backups. 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 this forum). You may want to omit the +Settings > Machine+ selection, since that seems to be where the problem is.
When your Mac starts up again, be sure to give it a name, per +System Preferences > Sharing.+
Unless your Install disc is 10.6.4, download and install the 10.6.4 "combo" update. That's the cleverly-named combination of all the updates to Snow Leopard since it was first released, so installing it should fix anything that's gone wrong since then, such as with one of the normal "point" updates. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1048 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.
Then run +Software Update+ to catch up on other updates.

Migration assistant stalls on "applications folder"

hi all
i'm having an odd problem upgrading a g4 dual gig desktop system to tiger using the erase and install option, after cloning my drive to an external fw hd. when i finish the install and get to step 3 (transfer your information) the migration assistant stalls on my old "applications" folder - it just sits there with the word "calculating" next to it. i tried leaving it alone for a while to no avail. with the "applications folder" checked (and calculating) the "transfer" button is greyed out. there is also an option for taking files and folders from the drive with the cloned system, and when i uncheck the "applications folder" and check the drive where this folder resides, "transfer" becomes active. i tried doing it this way, but it just copied the files to a folder on the upgraded system, without copying all my library support files, prefs and such. anyone have any idea what's going on? this has always worked flawlessly for me in many other installs. i'm stumped!
thanks
bruce
g4 dual gig "mirror face" Mac OS X (10.4.5)

well, none of that resolved anything. here are a few more details: after installing 10.4 and getting to the "import from another partition/computer" section of the migration assistant the file list shows the applications folder i need to access, but instead of a size it reads "calculating." even if i let it sit for several minutes this doesn't change. i ran the usual disk utility repair permissions and verify disk procedures, and everything comes back fine. if i try to boot from the clone everything seems very slow: boot up takes quite a while, it hangs on "waiting for apple file service" for several minutes and "login window starting" also takes forever. once it gets done i get a blue screen hang. if i boot into the new install of 10.4 and run the migration assistant, it doesn't see the partition with my cloned system at all. the first time i tried migrating the files, when it wouldn't see the applications folder, it did allow me to copy the files into a folder on the new system drive. this didn't help much of course, since it didn't bring the support files over. i'm resigning myself to having to reinstall all my apps manually, a big PITA.
<sigh>
g4 dual gig "mirror face" Mac OS X (10.4.7)
g4 dual gig "mirror face" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Only minimal email transferred via Windows Migration Assistant.

I just completed Windows Migration Assistant. The only email transferred (from Outlook and Win XP) was the Inbox and Trash (not Sent, not all my subfolders). Is this what's supposed to happen or was there a glitch? Documents transferred fine. Thanks!

Follow
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

Migration Assistant stalls every time, even with different backups

I recently had the hard drive replaced on my 2009 intel iMac. I have tried using Migration Assistant to transfer user settings and applications from both the USB backup drive of the iMac as well as my Macbook Pro but in both cases, Migration Assistant stalls at either 1hr 47min ot 1hr 53min and doesn't progress past that point. I've let it continue for hours but it just doens't go any further than that.
I assumed it was coming to a corrupt file but now I'm not so sure as it does the same thing when I try migrating from my Macbook Pro, which is a completely differn't system.
Any suggestions? Next, I'm going to try just transferring applications to see if I have any luck with that.
Any way to transfer applications manually? I have so many, it would take days to re-download and install everything.

It may have completed the migration. Have you logged out and then looked for a new user account to see if your migration was completed?

How to recover Mail and Mail Downloads when you can't use Migration Assistant

I have a MacBook 2.4gHz that had a 750GB HD that crashed yesterday. Disk Utility said "This Hard Drive has failed, recover or backup what you can, then reformat." So, I removed the 750GB HD and replaced the original 160GB HD and reinstalled OS 10.7 on that Drive. I put the 750GB HD in an external case and hooked it up by USB (only available hookup with my external case). I can see all my content and tried to use Migration Assistant, but it hangs up at "preparing content to transfer." So, I decided I would have to drag all the old content onto my new user on the internal HD. I moved Movies, Pictures, Desktop, Documents, Music, and Downloads. However, I can't move any of the parts of the hidden User Library, primarily because I can't find or see it.
My question is how to access the User Library in a non-bootable (although having OS 10.7 installed) External HD. I've tried the ~/Library/ in Go>Go to Folder, but it goes to the running HD User folder, not the external. Can anyone tell me how to crack into this folder? I'd like to retrieve preferences, mailboxes, address book, etc.
I realize it could be lost, but literally everything else is still present. FYI: I plan to hang onto the 750 until the replacement HD arrives, so I can be reminded what Applications I had installed. There isn't room for all of those on the smaller HD.
Thanks,
Ronda

Update: I managed to get Migration Assistant to move something, but it didn't work out as I expected. Because I've already installed the OS and some applications that I need, as well as copying over most of the user files except the library, there wasn't much room left on the smaller disk. I purchased the firewire 9pin to 6pin cable that would allow me to use the firewire port on the external drive and selected the main user. There wasn't enough room to move all of the user, so I selected only the "Other Files" folder (about 2 GB), not all the items I had already copied. I set that to install last night at 9:32pm. At 4:00am it said there was still 10 hrs and 29 minutes to go. My husband checked it at 6:45am and it said 19 more minutes. When he arrived home at 4:30pm, it was finished. When I arrived home and logged out of the administrator and in to the main user, immediately it showed my desktop with all the folders that I had placed in the sidebar of the Finder window and everything looked exactly like it had on Monday before the crash, then the beachball started spinning and when it finally came up for air, all those folders were gone, my dock appearance was gone and everything was back to the bland new user settings that Mac OS starts with.
My mail file did get moved over with its thousands of messages, but not mail uploads nor the desktop appearance settings and it doesn't appear that any other settings have migrated either. It's difficult to tell, since I can't install my applications on the smaller drive.
The replacement drive from WD arrived, but it is a 2TB "upgrade" and it doesn't even fit in my MacBook, so I have to send that back and wait longer.
I'm still trying to recover my appearance, and combine the various users into one. If anyone has suggestions on how to get the mail uploads folder, preferences, etc. I'd love to hear them.

Migration Assistant restore of Time Machine backup is incomplete

Some app, I don't know which one, keeps messing up the disk drive catalog structure, forcing me to wipe the drive and do a complete restore. I just had to do it again today (third time in a year), but this time Time Machine isn't restoring the user accounts, only the applications.
A random check of the user accounts shows they've been fully backed up on the Time Machine drive and they show up in Migration Assistant as accounts that can be transferred, but they're not transferring. I'm getting no errors from Migration Assistant, it just finishes with the applications and says my files have been transferred.
Any ideas?

I had the same problems when migrating from Time Machine (same computer but the hard drive crashed so I replaced one). During the migration, I created a new user account for the TM backup because of the same account name with my new system. I found only the applications are migrated, all other things like user accounts, preferences and settings, documents etc are not transferred; and I'm not allowed to manually open backup documents. How can I deal with it?

Migration Assistant Confusion

I used Migration Assistant today to copy files and applications from my PBG4 to my new MBP. Everything looks like it came over okay but I have inadvertently set up two different accounts, the Administrator and the one that has all of the files I need to access. Is there a way to combine the two? Or can I copy the files over to the Administrator section? To be honest I don't quite understand how the two are set up. Is it like a partition? And if so can I see them side by side? Or do I have to copy them to an external drive and copy of that way?
This seems like a very stupid question but any help you can offer is appreciated.
Thanks,
Scott

Not a good idea to migrate an entire user account from a PPC to an Intel Mac. I suggest you delete the migrated account and follow some of the suggestions here:
A Basic Guide for Migrating to Intel-Macs
If you are migrating a PowerPC system (G3, G4, or G5) to an Intel-Mac be careful what you migrate. Keep in mind that some items that may get transferred will not work on Intel machines and may end up causing your computer's operating system to malfunction.
Rosetta supports "software that runs on the PowerPC G3 or G4 processor that are built for Mac OS X". This excludes the items that are not universal binaries or simply will not work in Rosetta:
Classic Environment, and subsequently any Mac OS 9 or earlier applications
Screensavers written for the PowerPC
System Preference add-ons
All Unsanity Haxies
Browser and other plug-ins
Contextual Menu Items
Applications which specifically require the PowerPC G5
Kernel extensions
Java applications with JNI (PowerPC) libraries
See also What Can Be Translated by Rosetta.
In addition to the above you could also have problems with migrated cache files and/or cache files containing code that is incompatible.
If you migrate a user folder that contains any of these items, you may find that your Intel-Mac is malfunctioning. It would be wise to take care when migrating your systems from a PowerPC platform to an Intel-Mac platform to assure that you do not migrate these incompatible items.
If you have problems with applications not working, then completely uninstall said application and reinstall it from scratch. Take great care with Java applications and Java-based Peer-to-Peer applications. Many Java apps will not work on Intel-Macs as they are currently compiled. As of this time Limewire, Cabos, and Acquisition are available as universal binaries. Do not install browser plug-ins such as Flash or Shockwave from downloaded installers unless they are universal binaries. The version of OS X installed on your Intel-Mac comes with special compatible versions of Flash and Shockwave plug-ins for use with your browser.
The same problem will exist for any hardware drivers such as mouse software unless the drivers have been compiled as universal binaries. For third-party mice the current choices are USB Overdrive or SteerMouse. Contact the developer or manufacturer of your third-party mouse software to find out when a universal binary version will be available.
Also be careful with some backup utilities and third-party disk repair utilities. Disk Warrior 4.1, TechTool Pro 4.6.1, SuperDuper 2.5, and Drive Genius 2.0.2 work properly on Intel-Macs with Leopard. The same caution may apply to the many "maintenance" utilities that have not yet been converted to universal binaries. Leopard Cache Cleaner, Onyx, TinkerTool System, and Cocktail are now compatible with Leopard.
Before migrating or installing software on your Intel-Mac check MacFixit's Rosetta Compatibility Index.
Additional links that will be helpful to new Intel-Mac users:
Intel In Macs
Apple Guide to Universal Applications
MacInTouch List of Compatible Universal Binaries
MacInTouch List of Rosetta Compatible Applications
MacUpdate List of Intel-Compatible Software
Transferring data with Setup Assistant - Migration Assistant FAQ
Because Migration Assistant isn't the ideal way to migrate from PowerPC to Intel Macs, using Target Disk Mode or copying the critical contents to CD and DVD or an external hard drive will work better when moving from PowerPC to Intel Macs.
Basically the instructions you should follow are:
1. Backup your data first. This is vitally important in case you make a mistake or there's some other problem.
2. Connect a Firewire cable between your old Mac and your new Intel Mac.
3. Startup your old Mac in Target Disk Mode.
4. Startup your new Mac for the first time, go through the setup and registration screens, but do NOT migrate data over. Get to your desktop on the new Mac without migrating any new data over.
4. Copy the following items from your old Mac to the new Mac:
In your /Home/ folder: Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites folders.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
Credit goes to another forum user for this information.
If you need to transfer data for other applications please ask the vendor or ask in the Discussions where specific applications store their data.
5. Once you have transferred what you need restart the new Mac and test to make sure the contents are there for each of the applications.
Written by Kappy with additional contributions from a brody.
Revised 3/12/2008

Can't access old backups after reinstalling Lion and restoring with Migration Assistant

Scenario: App Store developed a random, repetitive, failure to update certain apps. After trying two different solutions which only worked for a couple of weeks (including archive uninstall) Apple Support and I decided to go the full hog and do a full Lion reinstall. Did a full final backup with TM and proceded to reinstall from the recovery partition. All went well. I gave my new account the same name as my old original one (and this might be the root of the glitch I will describe). When Lion was working again I used Migration Assistant to recover all the users, applications, and information.
As my new main account and my old one (coming from Mig Assist) had the same name, MigAssist asked if I wanted to merge them. I said "yes". All fine. Everything was apparently there.
Later that day I tried to access my bank and discovered that my 1Password db was an old version. I went to TM to retrieve the one from my pre-reinstall backup. As I had mapped my mac back to the sparsebunddle file in TC it seemed I had access to all my files going back 1.5 years. It showed my oldest backup as Sep 2010 and 700 gb used. All seemed normal.
Unfortunately, the purple bars before the moment of reinstall are all faded and I can't retrieve any information from them. Nothing before that moment is available, not from the Finder or from withing any other application.
My new merged main user appears as "carlos 1" when it should have been just "carlos".
Do you guys have any advice that could help me? Thank you in advance.
My TC is a 1TB 2009 one.

Carlos. wrote:
As my new main account and my old one (coming from Mig Assist) had the same name, MigAssist asked if I wanted to merge them.
No, there is no "merge" option:
You can rename or replace, not merge.
Unfortunately, the purple bars before the moment of reinstall are all faded and I can't retrieve any information from them. Nothing before that moment is available, not from the Finder or from withing any other application.
My new merged main user appears as "carlos 1" when it should have been just "carlos".
You have two separate accounts now.
See Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation of what's happened (the blue and pink boxes) and a possible fix in the tan box -- but that won't work if you've done any backups since using Migration Assistant.
If you have done backups, your best bet is to do a full system restore, selecting the last backup from before you did the Migration. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14.

What is the best method for moving to a new Retina MacBook Pro from an Early 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro using Migration Assistant?

I'd like to transfer all data to the new MacBook as seamless as possible. Don't want to reinstall software. Using Migration Assistant in past was successful, but I always used Firewire or Ethernet.
Apple's Thunderbolt cable is too expensive at $49. Wifi is way too slow. (Transfering my 500GBs was going to take over 100 hours.) Do I need to get a Thunderbolt-to-Gigabit Ethernet adapter and cable? That's about the same price as the Thunderbolt cable. Is transfer over USB 2 possible? Would I be better off restoring from my Carbon Copy Clone on my USB 2 external drive?
I do not use Time Machine.

Stephen Coles wrote:... Do I need to get a Thunderbolt-to-Gigabit Ethernet adapter and cable?
That's what I used, although I already had the ethernet cable. Just directly connected both machines (after turning off Airport on the old one), no router or anything else, and ran Migration Assistant on both ends. Transfered a user account with about 30Gb data, nothing else.

How do I get Migration Assist. onto my iBook to move files to my MacBook?

I just got a new MacBook and want to transfer my files from my old iBook G4 (OS 10.3.9). I followed the set up assistant instructions for the MacBook and inserted the OS X Install DVD and installed the file on the CD called "DVD or CD Sharing SetUp". At that point the MacBook's instructions said I should launch Migration Assistant on my iBook, and that Migration Assistant would be located in the Applications/Utilities folder. The problem is...Migration Assistant isn't there! I've searched the whole computer, but it's not anywhere else either. Is there another way to get Migration Assistant onto my iBook? If not, is there another way to transfer my files from the iBook to my new MacBook? Many thanks, from an excited new owner of a MacBook (who's a bit frustrated by this bump in the road). Steve

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Unfortunately, the Migration Assistant (that's compatible with Wi-Fi or Ethernet and therefore the new aluminum MacBooks) requires Mac OS X 10.4.11. You won't be able to use it with your iBook. You can see the system requirements here. Kappy has some great suggestions for manually migrating specific files in this topic.
-Doug

Migration assistant - oops!

I just used migration assistant to migrate from an internal drive (MacHD). MacHD used to live in my Dual PowerMac G5. The migration took a long time, as the estimated time remaining counted down from 2 hours to "less than a minute left". It sat at "less than a minute left" for about an hour and never finished -- so I quit Migration Assistant and rebooted.
My old applications couldn't be found on my new computer unless I'm logged in as my old persona -- where did they go?
I know they're on my computer because I have about 180GB less space than I did before. I looked through the discussion boards, and now realize that migrating from a PowerPC to an Intel is a bad idea!
What should I do? Is there a way to undo the migration, or should I reinstall from scratch to free up that space again?
Thanks!

igrating from a PowerPC to an Intel is a bad idea!
Not really. However, you should start with this: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1872713
Simplest way back is to restore the machine to its new state using the disks that came with it, get a bootable HD, and put a bootable backup/clone onto the the HD, test it, and then try migrating again.

Migration Assistant Continues To Hang On "Transferring Applications Folder"

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