Migration Assistant. extra User, double the files - only 10 GB left on HD

I restored my system after a login "freeze", following an upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard. Apple help advised to use Migration Assistant to back up everything from Time Machine. Now I have an extra user ID (as they said I would) but the file structure doubled! This leaves me only 10GB on a 500GB drive - which I read is not good. Do I wipe the drive and start over but instead restore files one by one, or do I delete all the files in the new user ID, or is there some other idea I should consider? It appears there are dups of all the files from user to user, but I fear they are linked and deleting one will delete the other. Help.

Studio B player wrote:
Apple told me to go back to the originally supplied OS X (Leopard 10.5.x), then use the Snow L upgrade disc - is this really required ?
Yes, because your machine came with 10.5, there is a free iLife suit on the 10.5 disks that is not on the 10.6.3 retail disks.
BTW the 10.6.3 disks have the full 10.6 on it too, just no iLife. So you could have installed 10.6.3, Software Updated and installed another iLife if you needed it. A option to keep in mind for the future if the 10.5 disk no longer boots.
Last question ( for now;), what about apps I've downloaded (no disks)?
You need to download new copies from original sources. Your basically rebuilding your machine from the ground up to be reliable. If you have licenses, just email the developer and tell them your TM drive got screwed up, you had to rebuild your machine from scratch and need a new license code.
Programs need to be installed in most cases with the developers installer as they can place files in certain locations on your computer, including copy protection methods etc.
Once you have your brand new pristine system, then clone that to a couple of new blank external drives, date them, leave one as original, the other you set to update by tweaking CCC's settings to clone/backup according to your preferences.
Good Luck.

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I'm attempting to transfer files, address book, etc from an external hard drive to my new Mac-mini using migration assistant. The external drive is showing up on my desktop but Migration Assistant is not seeing the drive when searching for devices

I'm attempting to migrate files, address book, maile, etc to my new Mac Mini using an external hard drive and Migration assistant. I followed the instructions on using Migration Assistant to do this but Migration Assistant is not seeing the external drive, which is displayed on my desktop

I've been chasing this problem all afternoon. I had to reformat my internal drive on my MBP and reinstall Mountain Lion Start up assistant wouldn't see my extrnal drive with the Time Machine files on it. After many tries, I skipped the restore there and let the system boot. I could see my external drive from Finder and the files looked OK. I was told to use Migration Assistant and it had the same problem.
I saw a hint on one of these posts that the icon that you see and is label Macintosh HD is actually your backup disk and it is telling you that it has a copy of your internal Macintosh HD. I went ahead and told it to continue and it started to restore my apps, settings, and documents. It's been going for a couple of hours, and is close to being done. I expect to see my old system restored when it is finished.
Wish that Apple would put some type of note that it is seeing the backup. That is most confusing and seems to be a problem for lots of users.
It's been a month or so since your post Did your get it to work?

I am trying to transfer files from MacBook Pro to new MacBook air using Migration assistant via WiFi connection - the two computers can't seem to find each other

I am trying to transfer files from MacBook Pro to new MacBook air using Migration assistant via WiFi connection - the two computers can't seem to find each other.
Any ideas?
Barry

Try this article - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889.
If it doesn't help, post back in this thread.
Best of luck,
Clinton

HT4889 when using migration does it copy the files to the new computer or transfer (leaving the files only on the new computer)?

when using migration does it copy the files to the new computer or transfer them (leaving the files only on the new computer)?

It leaves them on the old computer. Nothing will be changed on it.

Migration Assistant and user permissions broken

I just used Migration Assistant to my old early 2008 unibody 15" MBP to import stuff to my brand new 15" quad core i7. The old machine was connected through FW800 in target disk mode.
Somehow this process failed and it left me to an odd result which I cannot figure out how or why such things would happen. I have used migration assistant often successfully, if not exactly this way.
I already decided to start things from scratch, but I would appreciate any insight that somebody might have. Like what just happened? Do you have similar experiences?
The process:
- In my old machine I had two users, for the sake of argument, "MainUser" and "OldUser".
- In my new machine I had two users made right after a clean install, "Admin" and "MainUser". I usually work with "MainUser" so I made one without thinking about it much.
- I connected the old machine in Target Disk mode and started Migration Assistant under Admin of the new machine. First question I answered to migrate from another disk, as the other machine was in Target Disk mode. Next one asked to pick the disk and that is followed by a selection "What to migrate". I wanted to install applications from scratch, so I checked everything except applications. I do not know if this is relevant, but I would imagine it is not.
- A pop-up appeared, which correctly told that there already is MainUser on the new machine. The dialog gave me three options: 1. Rename the account that I am transferring, two with the same name could not exist 2. Replace the existing account with the one I am transferring 3. Do not transfer this account.
- I chose 2, because there was nothing worth saving in the MainUser account on the new machine. Continue.
- Watch a few hours of progress bar
- After the migration process the machine was in very odd state. I logged in as MainUser and it oddly looked like default Snow Leopard state, not like the desktop of the migrated account. No folder items that I had on the desktop previously were visible, language was default English and desktop background was the Snow Leopard nebula. I tried, but could not change that in the system preferences.
- Closer inspection revealed that I did not have permissions to access any of the folders under my username, like Documents, Music, Movies etc. This also explained the desktop problems. It meant that none of the programs were allowed to read or write any data under Library folder so everything was and stayed as default. For instance, any settings that I tried to change and which might even apparently change, would reset back on logout. Programs settings were empty, like no bookmarks on Safari or Apple Mail did not show the mail accounts.
- I checked with Terminal what was on with permissions, and for some odd reason, all the folder owners under MainUser belonged to OldUser(!).
- There is no reason that I can think of why that user account would have anything to do with this migration -- after all, the whole deal was supposed to be to migrate (or overwrite) MainUser, not to mess with OldUser in any way, except bring that over as a separate item.
- For the sake of argument, I also logged to OldUser account and that seemed to be transferred correctly. No issues with file permissions or the desktop. Only MainUser was messed.
- I decided to take the ownership of all files under MainUser account back. I did "sudo chmod -R MainUser *" to grab everything. Immediately the stuff on desktop appeared. After logout and login rest of things seemed to return (mostly) to those places that the migrated MainUser should have had, like the desktop background, dock position and even Apple Mail now showed my old emails.
Even if I sort of fixed things, I have iffy feeling about the whole process.
I decided to start over. This time I will not have MainUser account on the new machine to avoid any further hassle. While I suggest everyone to avoid this situation and not to have users with same name or let Migration Assistant to run this overwrite -option, I would like to hear any speculation why or how this might have happened.
If Apple is listening, you might check the latest Migration Assistant in the above case. There might be a bug. Thank you for listening.

I think it is inadvisable to have the same user account on the target machine when using Migration Assistant - just from recollection this is known to cause problems.
However, in my experience (and I have used MA many times across many machines), even when apparently completing successfully, MA simply does not work properly when it comes to permissions.
For example, after using MA to import my previous user account to my new MBP 2.3 i7, I cannot drag anything out of the dock - it just doesn't work.
Also, content of my desktop folder does NOT display on the desktop itself.
I have tried applying specific permissions to this folder, for my user account AND "Everyone" - it makes no difference.
I do not regard Migration Assistant as fit for purpose.

HT4796 I´m trying to migrate from my old PC to my mac, but in the migration assistance of my PC, the legend "waiting for your mac to connect" continues ever for ever, never appears the passcode. What can I do?

I´m trying to migrate from my old PC to my mac, but in the migration assistance of my PC, the legend "waiting for your mac to connect" continues ever for ever, never appears the passcode. What can I do?

The transfer of content from sources such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve music files and playlists from your iPod. I use Senuti but have a look at the web pages and documentation for the others too, you'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos and games as well. This is just a small selection of what's available, you can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
Senuti Mac Only (Currently only the beta version is iPod Touch & iPhone compatible)
PodView Mac Only
PodWorks Mac Only
iPodDisk PPC Mac Only (experimental version available for Intel Macs)
TuneAid Mac only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac & Windows
Music Rescue Mac & Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
Floola Mac & Windows
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide

Migration Assistant - individual users?

Just a shot in the dark here -- I would assume the answer is no.
I'm receiving my 20" iMac G5 tomorow, and I plan to set up user accounts for both myself and my wife. I'm hoping there is a way to use the Migration Assistant to pull her account off her Mac Mini and mine off my PowerBook. Can you "migrate" into specific accounts from different machines?
Asking too much? Probably so.
Thanks for any help.

You can use the Migration Assistant to import users from different machines provided that only one machine contains accounts protected by FileVault if any do. The computer with the FileVault-protected accounts must be migrated from first. To access the Migration Assistant after using it the first time, open it from the /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Basically, the answer to your question is yes.
(11679)

Used Migration Assistant to successfully transfer PC files to Mini. However file creation or modified date does not transfer. Date of creation is listed as day of transfer. I would gratefully appreciate any help in solving this,

Used Migration Assistant to successfully transfer PC files to Mini. However file creation or modified date does not transfer. Date of creation is listed as day of transfer. I would gratefully appreciate any help in solving this?

I have the same problem; used Migration Assistant to transfer all my pix from PC to MacbookPro, however dates of pix were not transferred. Date created as the date of transfer. Cannot sort my pix according to date.
Anybody has an answer?

I have itunes on a mac with 2 users but the library only shows on the main user how can both users have the same library?

i have itunes on a mac with 2 users but the library only shows on the main user how can both users have the same library?

Hi,
Have a Look at these Links on Home Sharing:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4620
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3819
Could be what you need...
Cheers,

Adding a user to the File Security Realm

Hello,
When I attempt to add a new user to the file realm with Application Server->Security-Realms->file-> Manage Users, I get the error:
A "com.sun.enterprise.tools.guiframework.exception.FrameworkError" was caught. The message from the exception: "Unable to get View for ViewDescriptor 'fileUsers'"
The root cause is "java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 0"
See the HTML source for more detailed (stack trace) information.
When I look at the file C:\Sun\AppServer\domains\samples/config/keyfile I see the new user added, but the Admin Console is not happy...
Please advise.
-- POC

There are some issues in admin gui for managing security service in beta.
I have verified that this has been fixed in FCS branch.
Since the user and password has been written to keyfile in your scenario, it may be OK.
You can try to use the user. If this is not working, then restarting the server should work.
Another way is to create user by using asadmin command. This is working fine in beta.

How do I ensure user name is shown rather than 'another user' on the 'File in Use' dialog box?

How can I ensure user names are shown rather than just 'another user' on the 'File in Use' dialog box that appears when attempting to edit a checked out document in Microsoft Word/Excel?
All suggestions welcome.

If I recall correctly, that dialog is generated by the Office client product supporting that file type. There would be no way to modify it.
Trevor Seward
Follow or contact me at...
This post is my own opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or view of Microsoft, its employees, or other MVPs.

Does opening an image from iPhoto in another app double the file size?

I'm told (the usually unreliable sources;-) that when you open an image from iPhoto on an iPad into another appson the iPad, Photo Manager Pro for example, it actually duplicates the image: in effect doubling the file space taken up on the iMac. For example, if you had 10, 10 MB images in iPhoto on your iPad, and you opened them to the Photo Manager, it makes a copy, I'm told. If that is correct, you'd now have 20, 10MB images on your iPad; and if you opened those in a image editor on your iPad, you'd now have 30, 10 MB images! Is this correct?
If so, pretty soon all the storage space would be taken up?
Is that true, and if so, what's the workaround?
Thanks
Haly2k1

Not necesarilly, the app will portray the photo from your library, not make a duplicate.
Hope this helps.

Problem when exporting to Vimeo I get message "The share operation has failed. Quicktime error: -50" The file only gets to 8% before this happens any idea how to fix I have a movie deadline to meet!

Hi all,
Finished editing a short movie.
Then went to share on vimeo but got this message - see also screenshot when I tried to export to desktop.
Problem when exporting to Vimeo I get message "The share operation has failed. Quicktime error: -50" The file only gets to 8%.
Have tried deleting my render files for the project and also another fix mentioned of deleting any black space files on the edit itself but neither work?
Just upgraded to OS Mavericks could this be causing it? If so how to downgrade?
thanks
Louis B

Thanks for your help both, I called Apple tech support and spoke to a really helpful chap called Andrea who helped me out. Now got my Master file sorted and am trying Vimeo upload again.
Just to clarify points for people out there with the same issue:
First steps
- Ensure background rendering is turned off in preferences
- Delete project and events render files
- If upgraded to Mavericks then go to FCPX in finder under applications hit buttons 'CMD' and 'I' together and tick the 'prevent App Nap' box.
Next Steps
I had already done all of this when Apple Tech spoke to me so we discussed the message 'Quicktime -50' and what it meant. It wasnt a purely generic error message but was not detailed enough to point to one specific issue. This problem had occurred in previous years (so Mavericks not wholly to blame) and patches were issued over the years by Apple to help resolve some of the problems.
The message essentially is indicating that there is a problem somewhere with the media in some way shape or form.
My export went to 8% then failed. Apple's answer was that the project settings were corrupted in some way.
So what they suggested (so simple I could kick myself) was to select all the media files by 'CMD + A' then copy them 'CMD + C' then create and open a new project timeline, and then paste in 'CMD + V'.
Then we tried export again this time to a master file with some settings detailed by Apple.
The difference now was it got to 40% then failed but due to a different reason 'error -1 frame 10124 error'
At last we get past the project issues and into the event media issues, it seems that when I loaded the compact flash last night, the iMac kept ejecting the reader so had to copy files over quickly and seems that some of the file clip I used although showed on the viewer, didn't seem to have loaded all the correct media, so selecting this clip frame 10124 on the viewer I found that it showed as red on the frame row which implied an issue. So I simply bladed it off and deleted it.
Then I reran the export to Master file and it worked, though jumping from 40% to 100% complete was a shock to me!
Now am trying the export to Vimeo - hope this helps some of you out there. Worst case pick up the phone to Apple and speak to the Final Cut Pro guys they can help.
best wishes,
Louis B

Cannot download account in Migration Assistant as person is a File Vault User!

I just received my iMac back from the Apple Store with everything brought back to scratch and the operating system (Mountain Lion) reinstalled. I was trying to re-install two accounts which belong to my wife and I. Everything went well for mine but the one which belongs to my wife didn't appear. It was only when I went back into the Migration Assistant that it showed all the boxes ticked except for my wife's which was hidden the first time around and it said it couldn't migrate hers because she is a File Vault User.
I am no expert and if I set her up as a File Vault User it was in error. I would be very grateful if someone could spell out in detail, step by step how I can migrate her information unless it is lost forever!
Many thanks

The easiest way by far to handle this would be to do a full-sytem restore.
OS X Mountain Lion: Recover your entire system

HT4796 How to solve my situation of having several Mac users created for me as I used Migration Assistant multiple times to move files from my PC

I recently tried to migrate data from my old and perpetually unstable PC to my new iMac through the Set up Assistant. However, half way through the 6 hour process, my PC crashed (the exact reason why I finally bought a Mac!) and the connection was lost. I continued with the Mac set up and then tried again later to migrate the files with Migration Assistant. Since I was nervous that my PC would crash again, I decided to do the data transfer in multiple migrations (ie. first I did photos and then after seeing that that was done successfully I did music and so on). Unexpected to me, even though all of the 4 migrations were successful I now have 4 additional users (in addition to the one I set up durnig the initial process) because each migration created a new user. Each user has little bits of my data.
What is the easiest way to merge these users or at least the data that resides in each one? I really only want one user. thank you.

You may not have created a mess, it's possible you simply don't know where your data is after migrating. Had you followed the Setup Assistant's on-screen prompts when you initially turned on your new system you would be running just fine by now. My guess is you haven't been exposed to Pondini's Lion Setup Assistant tips.
Migration Assistant (MA) and Setup Assistant (SA) are cousins, similar but different. The primary difference is MA creates a new user account which can be confusing to some users. If you successfuly migrated then log out of your existing using account and you should see the new user account. Log into that account then you should see the migrated data. If you do then use Pondini's Transferring files from one User Account to another.
However if you have totally made of mess out of things then I'd start over, this time using the Setup Assistant Tips beginning where he discusses Second Chance.

Migration Assistant. extra User, double the files - only 10 GB left on HD

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