Migration Assistant downgraded my OS to Lion

I just got a new MacBook Air. I powered it on for the first time. I had hooked up the Time Machine backup disk from my MacBook Pro running Lion. I told it to transfer files from Time Machine. It calculated the sizes. I unselected some of the users. It listed the usual stuff, Users, Applications, Systems settings. Then I told it to proceed.
When the files were transferred and I rebooted the MacBook Air, it is running Lion! What happened to Mountain Lion? This wasn't a restore from Time Machine, it was simply to transfer files. I've been through this before with other Macs I've run.
Are you telling me that this brand new Air from the local Apple Store came running Lion? I doubt that.
What happened?
Then, I couldn't login to Communities here using my Apple ID but had to create a new one. I've seen other postings about that problem. What's with Apple? This is terribly frustrating. I dumped my MacBook Pro because I was so frustrated with Lion. After a few months, I decided to return to Apple Now this...
==Leonard

Thanks for your reply.
I looked on the bottom of the box and this 2.0GHz i7 11" MBA has a copyright date of 2011. I thought these were new Ivy Bridge MBAs, released recently. But, it's an A1465, released mid-2012. Mountain Lion was released in early 2012. It really could have Lion on it?
(I was wrong about that. Mountain Lion was announced early 2012, released in July.)
I've requested the upgrade, but I might just go to the Apple Store and have them do it.
Thanks again.

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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 password woes w/ Mountain Lion

Having a bag of hurt trying to migrate from an old iMac to a new Retina Display MacBook Pro.
Using Carbon Copy CLoner, I cloned my iMac's drive to a USB external, to simplify/automate migrating the data to the MBP. The transfer went normally, but the MBP is refusing to recognize my password when I try to login.
Steps I've taken so far:
- Booting the MBP from the USB external connected to the MBP. Works fine, with no password problem.
- Booting to the Recovery partition, erasing the main drive, and reinstalling the OS, then running Migration Assitant over again. Long process, same password trouble.
- Erasing main partition again, then running Migration Assistant directly from the source iMac via wireless. Slow, but it worked. And I got the same result: pasword not accepted.
- Creating a Test User account with no data migration, then loggin in at the App Store to download the previously purchsed Mountain Lion installer. (The MBP is brand new, but shipped with Lion instead of Mountain Lion). At the end, I got some cockamamie "can't download" error.
Aaaaargh!!
Could it be related to the iMac haivng been upgraded to Mountain Lion before the process bega, while the newly-arrived MBP had Lion installed? I wouldn't think that would screw up a simple data migration, but...
Anyone?

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.

Time Machine (Snow Leopard) not appearing in Migration Assistant (Lion)

Hi there,
I have an iMac that was running Snow Leopard with a Time Machine backup on a 1TB Iomega USB2 Ext HDD.
I just Erased and Installed Lion onto the iMac, expecting to use Migration Assistant to restore my files. However, Migration Assistant does not recognise my Time Machine Ext HDD, only the iMac's HDD, and it keeps searching for other computers.
The Ext HDD is there in Finder, and I can copy files to and from it... it just won't appear in Migration Assistant. I've patched Lion to 10.7.1, but that doesn't help.
I've read elsewhere about a Snow Leopard patch, but that doesn't seem to apply for Ext HDDs, only for backups from other computers.
I can copy things over manually, but was hoping to avoid it. Besdies taking a while, I'm not entirely sure how to restore all my iPhone data to iTunes and the like.
Any one got any advice?
Thanks.

It seems that
in order for Mac OS X to realize that it's a Time Machine drive, there should be an invisible "flag file" (0 bytes in size) at the root of the drive, called com.apple.timemachine.supported - if this file is missing for some reason, Migration Assistant won't pick it up.
not sure that it's true but worth trying.

If Migration Assistant hangs up in the middle of the migrating process what should I do?

What is the Migration Assistant's default behavior in Lion? About 3/4 of the way through a 10 hr. process of file migration from my old PC to my new Mac Mini the Migration Assistant has hung up on me.I am scared to close it out and start over for the fear that I will have to transfer the whole lot of files all over again. If I do close it out and begin the process again will the migration assistant pick up where it left off or will it indeed start from scratch from the very beginning?

Kamath,
If the channel is inactive , it will error out in Integration Engine itself, so u can restart those messages manually.
Also, lets say the receiver system is not reachable(example JDBC), then what happens? You can find those messages in
http://host:port/MessagingSystem/monitor/monitor.jsp . In the window left frame choose Received Messages , in the right frame choose Status Not Delivered. Change the time frame and click tab(there is no enter) , u can find list of messages. Now for each message u can find two options Delete, Re-Deliver ,click on Re-Deliver the message, it will go thru.
raj.

I just bought a mac and I used the migration assistant so I could have all my files, but I got my account from Snow Leopard and now I don't have Lion anymore?

If anyone knows what my next step is, please help! Thanks

Are you absolutely sure that your new Mac had Lion installed? If so, are you now absolutely sure you are running Snow Leopard? What does About This Mac under the Apple icon in the menu say about what system you are running.
Snow Leopard will not install on top of Lion. You have to erase the HD to downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard. Migration Assistant doesn't have the capability of doing this.

After a Lion clean install, how do I retrieve my data from external back-up? Following Apple advice for use of Migration Assistant did not work creating similar issues leading to clean install.

After a Lion clean install, how do I retrieve my data from external hard drive?
Following Apple advice I used Migration Assistant which crashed new system twice which is why I had to clean install Lion in the first place.
Is there a sure way of doing it?
I have only a few programs that I will have to install myself and that should not be a problem.
I just want my data, music and photos back where I can use them.

Time machine backups. I went to migration assistant a few hours ago and limited my selection to "users", no need for applications, settings and other files. Stuff started moving over at a fast pace but has now seemed to stall.
I will let it run overnight as there are lots of songs and photos as well as a few movies.
If that does not work, then I will go into TM and try restore. I have restored some things in the past such a mail files and it has worked well.
The Apple fellow at the store told me to go right into TM, he may have had a point. I'll get it eventually.

I am trying to transfer files from my PowerBook G4 (OSX 10.4.11) to my new iMac (Mountain Lion). Migration assistant tells me I need to upgrade migration assistant on the G4, but I can't find a download that will work for anything older than OSX 10.5.

Yes, my PowerBook G4 is still trucking along. It is running OSX 10.4.11, but I just bought a new iMac that is running Mountain Lion. I just tried to use Migration Assistant. It told me to update Migration Assistant on the G4, but I can't find an update for anything earlier than 10.5. Is there a way to get my files transfered, or am I going to need to update the OS on my computer I was getting ready to retire?
Thanks!

You never know, someone might remember. What happens in detail when you try to use it, and HOW are you trying to use it?

Migration Assistant problem: Lion to Lion does not work

Background:I have a 2 year old 15" MBP. I just purchased and tonight am setting up a brand new 27" iMac 2.7Ghz i5.
I upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion the day it was released on the MBP. A day later, I purchased the iMac which still had Snow Leopard so I used the "up to date" program to get a free version of Lion. I did a clean install of Lion on the iMac since it was brand new.
Problem: I connected the MBP and iMac via Ethernet cables connected to my Airport Extreme. Migration Assistant worked on the initial steps, finding the MBP and matching the authentication codes. After that, I get to the screen where the iMac is looking for files on the MBP and calculating the size of folders to move. On this screen (on the iMac side), an error box pops on and off many times for about a minute then stays there with the following: "Your other Mac stopped responding.    Make sure that all of your network devices are connected and turned on. If you cancel the transfer, use Migration Assistant to complete the transfer later.      Looking for your Mac..." It only gives me the button to "Cancel Transfer"
My connections were fine. I was able to connect until this point. This issue happens whether the connection is Ethernet network via Airport Extreme, both connected via Wifi from the Airport Extreme, or connected directly via Firewire 800. I've tried everything I can think of. No solution and have not found this issue here or on any other forum. Any ideas? I really want to use the Migration Assistant route with this. I've use it before on previous Mac's with no issues.

I just talked to the Apple support and they suggested to try the migration using Time Machine. That's was also my idea this morning so I'm trying to do this now.
For the Apple support I add the repeating part from the console here:
25.07.11 23:44:01,106 MigrateTool: (SRV) ! (26) `o:incompatibleAppsInfoForPaths p:/Library/Screen Savers/3D Weather Globe Deluxe Edition.saver... [92] o:(null)... [0]'
25.07.11 23:44:01,106 MigrateTool: (PA!): failed to serialize result: (null)
25.07.11 23:44:01,107 MigrateTool: (SRV)            -> served 0.000004 MB... 0.001252s @0.003047MB/s
25.07.11 23:44:01,709 MigrateTool: (SRV) -> Reset Server Control...
25.07.11 23:44:01,710 MigrateTool: (SRV) ! (27) `o:sizeForAbsolutePath p:/Users/andreas/Desktop... [1] o:(null)... [0]'
25.07.11 23:44:01,773 MigrateTool: (SRV)            -> served 0.000230 MB... 0.062471s @0.003679MB/s

When I use migration assistant to move all my data from my Macbook Air to my Pro, it uses the last full back up not the last partial back up. The last full backup is two months old though. Both machines are running Mountain Lion. How do I get my latest 1

Hi
I need to move my data from a time capsule that backuped my Macbook Air (which has been destroyed by liquid damage) to my Macbook Pro. The Air and the Pro both run Mountain Lion and I have a clean installation on the Macbook Pro.
I used Migration Assitant to move the data across but while I have back ups of my Air up to 24 hours before it was destroyed, the migration assistant only wishes to migrate data from the last full back up that it finds which is 2 months old.
Please can you advise how I can restore the latest data to my Macbook Pro.
Many thanks.

please let me know the linksys device model number you are using ..

After my hard drive was replaced I installed Mountain Lion. I was unable to use time machine or migration assistant to access files on my external Omega hard drive even though the files are still there? Is there another way?

My hard drive on my iMac was unrepairable so Apple installed a new one for me. When I reconnected my external Iomega USB hard drive I could "see" the original backup figures and the rows of "windows" and back to the original red rows of dates in time machine, but I could only access the recent installation date of my new OS X Mountain Lion. Migration assistant would not work as well only accessing the recent backups. Is there a way to "unlock" the past data so I can retrieve my documents and photos without resorting to purchasing "rescue" software??

I can't see backups for a disk/partition that's no longer connected

Why doesn't Migration Assistant recognize my backup disk after rolling back to Mountain Lion from Mavericks?

I rolled back my OS from Mavericks to Mountain Lion and now the Migration Assistant isn't finding my Time Machine backups. Any idea why this is?

One reason may be a different computer name. Check System Preferences > Sharing and make sure your computer name has been the same through all your various OS X iterations.

HT4889 Used migration assistant to move from Lion to Mountain Lion and an entire user account did not move over.

The user name (account) was the same on the source and the new computer. Is this why the data could not move over? I did not see this user account in the list of users presented by migration assistant. Thought it was default so that is why it wasn't shown. I can move the data over manually, but this was a surprise. Any feedback on why this happened?

I migrated Office 2011 and other than forcing me to enter the license code again (all 2 million letters of it) everything went OK.
Note that when I tried to open Parallels desktop 6 it wouldn't open and said that it wasn't compatible with Mountain Lion and the icon had a sort of greyed out look. I upgraded to 8 and it started working. I wonder if there is any issue with Office 2008 and Mountain Lion? Probably not but it's a possibility.
You can buy an external superdrive too from Apple. I bought one for my 2010 Air. But CD sharing from another computer should work. I bring it with me when I travel to watch DVDs.

Mountain Lion re-install has migration assistant options greyed out. How do I choose only data I want?

I ran out of space on my Mac Mini so I bought the iFixit kit and added a second drive. This resulted in me putting a 60GB SSD system drive and a faster 7200 RPM 500GB data drive in the mini. I removed the original 500GB drive and placed it in an external enclosure.
After installing Mountain Lion I ran migration assistant. It shows all the data from the external drive, but everything is checked and it will only migrate to my 60GB OS drive. Of course this won't work.
I made a link to /Users to my second internal data drive but migration assistant still shows a -486.34GB of space needed.
So, instead of taking a week to upgrade my App Store purchases and install and configure everything (Mountian Lione Server, Xcode, Microsoft Office, Parallels...) how can I get migration assistant to allow me to just choose specific items to migrate?
As a side note, how can I make Mac OS X Mountain Lion use the second internal drive for User accounts *AND* recognize it properly? My link works but I'm early into this and would rather do it 'right' now then live with frankenmac later.
Thank you,
-Tim

Well, maybe I posted to the wrong forum...
I went in to speak with a mac genius too. All I got was, "In all the years I've worked on Macs, I've never seen the migration assistant with greyed out options." Ok. I guess I have more experience, I've seen it. They then suggested I run check permissions on the drive and buy Disk Warrior for $100. Sorry guys, the drive is fine. My TM backups are fine. It's not that.
I went ahead and bought a 1 TB drive. Even then, the migration assistant choices were greyed out. I went ahead and created a Fusion drive to take advantage of the SSD (the 1TB is only 5400 RPM). The directions can be found here. I then just ignored the greyed out options and brought *all* the data over to the 1.1TB drive. Everything works fine.
I'm bummed about not getting the apps and O/S pinned to the SSD but I figure if anything is getting used a lot, its where it needs to be.

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.

Migration Assistant downgraded my OS to Lion

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