Migration assistant from Time Machine - more questions

I have recently used Time Machine with Migration Assistant to transfer account information from an old iMac I am decommissioning. At first, I decided to simply transfer account information documents, and not any programs. However, after completing the Migration, I tried to use it again to copy across programs. However, the second time I used it, the Assistant did not recognize the Time Machine backup for the old iMac (even though the sparsebundle exists). Furthermore, when the older iMac began its Time Machine 'cycle' (eg, it has not been fully shut down yet), it did not recognize this bundle either, and created a new TM backup.
Can anyone help? I am most concerned with ensuring I have what I need on my new computer. But also would not want to have to get rid of the old sparsebundle, as it might contain information I need in the future.

Have you run any backups of the new Mac? If so, how did you answer the "Re-use" prompt, per #B5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
It sounds like you did, and selected "re-use." If so, that may be the problem. The old sparse bundle was "converted" to belong to the new Mac, so all the new backups belong to it.
That would also explain why backing-up the old Mac started a new sparse bundle -- the old one is now associated with the new Mac, not the old one.
Migration Assistant uses the last backup from the sparse bundle you select; you can't pick and choose which one you want.
Your best bet may be to use the +*Browse . . .+* option, per #17 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). See if you can find the last backup of the old Mac. If so, you should be able to selectively restore from it. You'll need to restore to an "alternate location;" see #15 in Troubleshooting.

Similar Messages

Migration Assistant from Time Machine not working, Migration Assistant from Time Machine not working

Hello,
A friend of mine recently bought a new Macbook Pro. I believe it is a 2.8 Ghz i7 model.
Anyway, they wanted to transfer all of their stuff from a 5 year old Macbook (running Snow Leopard) to their new Macbook Pro (running Lion) and they asked me for help. I suggested they run Migration Assistant from a Time Machine backup. They did that last night and everything ran fine until the very end, when they got this error message "Superdrive firmware Update 2.1 is not compatible with this version of Mac OS X." Also, it appears that nothing had been transfered.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Thanks a lot both. The thing was that I couldn't find any DVDs that belonged to my new computer, so I just used my old Leopard DVD thinking that it didn't matter which one I used anyway. When you said it did
matter, however, I looked a little closer and found two DVDs in my new computer's box. I'm doing a clean installation as we speak.
Thank you for your help!

Confliciting info - Migration Assistant from Time Machine Backup

I want to do a clean install of ML, There are certain applications that I did not want to migrate. I was told that you had no choice, it would migrate all of them.
when using Migration Assistant from a Time Machine backup.
Is this true before I start
Thank you in Advance

That's correct (whether you migrate directly from another Mac, or its Time Machine or "clone" backups). See Transferring Applications for an explanation and possible workarounds.

Migration assistant versus time machine

I am about to get a new mac, is there a reason to prefer migration assistant or Time Machine
to transfer the data from the old to the new? Will any method allow my computer to recognize
the time machine data as its own? Thanks

Jhalev wrote:
I am about to get a new mac, is there a reason to prefer migration assistant or Time Machine
to transfer the data from the old to the new?
Your best bet is to use +Setup Assistant+ (when your shiny new Mac first starts up), per the link supplied by Baltwo. You can transfer from your old Mac, or it's backups. It's probably best to do it directly from your old Mac, but if it doesn't have a FireWire port, or isn't available, and your backups are on a external HD, you can use that instead.
Will any method allow my computer to recognize the time machine data as its own? Thanks
Not exactly. Time Machine will do a new, full backup of your new Mac. But you will get a prompt about whether you want to "reuse" the backups. See #B5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for details.

Cloning VS Migration Assistant VS Time Machine restore

Dec 2006 MBP, disk has never been defragged or re-formatted from day 1, so it's pretty cluttered up.
New HDD coming in today, what do you think is the best way to transfer my system, apps and files to the new drive in a clean way?
(running OS X 10.5.8 now, think I want to do an upgrade to OS X 10.6 while I'm at it...
Should I do that before/after transfer? How does that affect Migration Assistant or Time Machine?)

My preference would be to make a bootable clone on my internal on an external. The clone will allow extraction of users, files, apps, and data at the end of an erase and install. Also, if your Sno install goes bad, then you can clone back to your internal to get back where you started. My preference for installing Sno is an erase and install.
Upgrading ought to be pretty much as good as, as good as, or better than (depends on who you talk to) erasing and installing, and having done so everything still should be in place except for archived incompatible programs after the install. Having a bootable clone is just as important in the case of upgrade as in the case of erase and install.
You bootcamp partition won't be affected under either install method. But, keep in mind that if you want to change its size, then erasing and installing will give you the opportunity to do so. No migrating needed for the Boot Camp partition.
Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

After migrating data from Time Machine, some of my photos are not showing up in iPhoto. I get a 'dashed rectangle." When I click on it I get ' ! in a Triangle" When I click on that, I actually can see the photo. I want to see my photos

After migrating data from Time Machine, some of my photos are not showing up in iPhoto LIbrary view. I get a 'dashed rectangle." When I click on it I get ' ! in a Triangle" When I click on that, I actually can see the photo. I want to see all my photos in 'Library' view, and I can't figure out how these photos seem to be arbitrarily hidden. Help, please.

Try these for the first attempt:
First be sure to have a backup copy of the library if you already don't have one.
OT

HT1277 Mail has gone crazy. Header's and messages are mixed up. New Mac Book Pro. Migrated files from Time machine running snow leopard. Reinstall or new computer needed?

Mail has gone crazy. Header's and messages are mixed up. New Mac Book Pro. Migrated files from Time machine running snow leopard. Reinstall or new computer needed?

Ok; I'm not sure what you're doing. 36 hours is rather long. Seems like a new migration. Not what I intended.
Here's what I intended: from the newly-migrated and apparently-corrupt environment, create a new user, not related to any existing user, nor any migration-created user, or any other user for that matter. That is, use  > System Preferences > Users and Groups, authenticate yourself by clicking on the padlock, and then click the + and create a wholly new user. Then log in under that user and establish the mail access.
36 hours? I'm wondering if there's an error or an exceedingly slow network here? Or a really, really slow disk? Or a sick backup? (WiFi isn't the path I'd usually choose, either.)
Failing the attempted second migration, I'd try a different tactic. Does your existing (old) system work? If so, I'd bypass the backup and connect an external (scratch) USB disk drive to the (old) sstem and then boot and use Disk Utility booted from the installer DVD disk or boot and use Disk Utility from the recovery partition or booted from a recovery partition created on some other external storage (details here vary by the OS X version and what hardware you have), and perform a full-disk backup of your original internal disk to (scratch) external storage. (Make sure you get the source and target disks chosen correctly here; copying the wrong way — from the scratch disk to your existing disk — will clobber your data!) In esssence, this will clone your existing boot disk. Then dismount the (formerly-scratch) external disk, transfer it over to the new system, and use it as the source of the migration, by performing a fresh OS X installation on the new system.
Target Disk Mode is also sometimes an option for accessing the disk for a migration, but that requires the right cable, and requires systems that have the same external connection; newer MacBook Pro systems use Thunderbolt for this, and older systems tend to use FireWire. And I'm guessing you don't have compatible hardware.
The details here can and do vary by your OS X versions and your particular Mac systems — if you'll identify the specific models and hardware, somebody might be able to better tailor the above (fairly generic) sequence to your particular configuration.

Migration Assistant from Time Capsule or from a External Drive

My old iMac (20" Ambient Light Sensor 2.1 , 2.0 GHz) just died. Troubleshooting indicates the logic board is dead. Time for a new iMac. I have one on order. I had set up Time Machine to backup this computer onto a Time Capsule. The Time Capsule was backing up both my laptop and this iMAC.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to access the iMac Time Machine to make it think I am the old iMac so that I can restore the latest backup. I don't seem to remember setting up a password. I'm not even sure what the name of the iMac was on the network. (For next time what should I make sure that I keep?) I'm not even sure that it has been backing up regularly. This was my wife's computer and I set it up and then rarely went to it. When I look at the files on the Time Capsule, the iMac file does not have a recent date. That was question 1. How can I get my new iMac to recover all the files and settings from my Time Capsule?
Question 2: I have removed the hard drive from the iMac and will get it working in an external enclosure. Since it was a G5 computer, this hard drive won't boot up the new computer. But, will Migration Assistant allow me to migrate from the hard drive to the new iMac? What kind of connection do I need between the external enclosure and the new computer?
Anyone have any guidance?
Thanks,
Dave

PianomanDave wrote:
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to access the iMac Time Machine to make it think I am the old iMac so that I can restore the latest backup.
You'll want to use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first starts up. See Using Setup Assistant on Lion for details. As noted there, it will automatically use the last completed backup.
Question 2: I have removed the hard drive from the iMac and will get it working in an external enclosure. Since it was a G5 computer, this hard drive won't boot up the new computer. But, will Migration Assistant allow me to migrate from the hard drive to the new iMac?
Yes, assuming neither the drive nor the data on it was damaged when the logic board failed.
What kind of connection do I need between the external enclosure and the new computer?
USB, Firewire/800, or even Thunderbolt -- anything that will connect to the new Mac. And use Setup Assistant when the new Mac first starts up, not Migration Assistant later on.
Either way, you'll need to select From Time Machine or other disk on the setup screen.

User Not Found Using Migration Assistant and Time Machine

My iMac running Leopard kernel panicked which forced me to do a hard reset. After rebooting, the account I was logged in as disappeared. Fortunately, that wasn't the admin account. I logged into my admin account and thought I would use Migration Assistant to recreate the missing account (I did run Disk First Aid first to ensure the hard drive was in good working order). However, Migration Assistant does not list the missing user account when reading my Time Machine backup. I do see the user if I go directly into into Time Machine. I'm guessing that Migration Assistant may only be looking at the most recent backup which obviously doesn't contain the missing user.
Suggestions on how to restore the missing user or how to get Migration Assistant to read all of the users in my Time Machine backups?

BobParr wrote:
I'm guessing that Migration Assistant may only be looking at the most recent backup which obviously doesn't contain the missing user.
Correct.
Suggestions on how to restore the missing user or how to get Migration Assistant to read all of the users in my Time Machine backups?
How many backups were done after the problem occurred? One possibility would be to delete those backups (see #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum), so the last one has the missing user's data, and Migration Assistant can find it. If you do that, once everything's properly restored, boot up from your Leopard Install disk, then reboot normally. That will trigger a "deep traversal" in the next backup, where TM will compare everything on your system to it's backups, thus assuring that nothing was lost via the earlier deletions.
Another would be to do a full restore from Time Machine, per #14 in the FAQ.

What's best: restore using migration assistant or time machine back up?

Hi,
here's the scoops, wondering what to do:
1-tech support at apple store did a clean install of os lion on my macbook.
2-I have a back up from time machine
3-I want to restore everything but applications
4-Problem is: "I think" it's better to use the back up rather than install one certain program (quickbooks) again
5-Should I just use migration assistant to restore everything after setting the computer as a new one; or restore using time machine, without the applications, and restore quickbooks from the back up by itself later on?
Sorry for the sillyness of this question..
Thanks

Where is Pondini...

Migrate, restore from Time Machine or fresh install

Folks
Getting an MBP today and migrating from MBA. Should I fresh install, use the migrate tool or restore from Time Machine?

You are going to get several answers here depending on users' opinion and experiences. My own view, having done the Time Machine backup as demo in a class, is that, if you have the time and all the settings written down, the best way is to start from scratch. Indeed, the last two Macs I bought, I even installed the OS myself, despite them being out of the box.
Having written that, I do find Time Machine a useful facility and it is possible to selectively bring the data back, which is really quite useful with a new machine. This would be a great tool in the case of a stolen computer or if a hard disk had crashed and it was necessary to get up and running quickly. As a note, I still found that with the TM restore, certain parts (such as Mailboxes and some other network related security stuff) still needed setting up again.
I did use the migrate tool once and was not over-convinced although I understand it has been updated. Someone else should offer an opinion on that.
If time is of the essence, go for the TM or Migrate tool. If you want a more stable and secure environment (perhaps that backup could bring over a problem), go from scratch with a selective backup.

Migration assistant and time machine: now I have two profiles

Hi all!
I wasn't able to do what I was hoping to (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2791592&stqc=true) since I had the wrong torx screwdriver (by the way if anybody knows the size...), so i restored my data from time machine.
After that i was logged in in the profile I created when I first booted the mbp. I was able to see all the application restored from time machine but not the data. Under users, there were the new profile and the one I used to have before (and that was on time machine). To access "old" data I had to log in in the old profile.
My questions are:
- Should I eliminate (and is it safe to do so) the new profile created on the new mbp and keep only the old one imported from time machine? Will this save space/increase performance?
- Is there any risk to loose something that was by default on the new macbook pro (programs etc)?Actually using the old profile averything seems the same as in the old mb, even desktop settings etc.
-I ran geekbench just after booting the mb and I scored around 6000 and 5800 (don't have details here now). After importing data I was between 5400 and 5600...why?
thankyou all
Message was edited by: mrc

keep the blank user account.
you can use it in case you have a problem on your normal user account. by checking the problem on the blank user, you can see whether it originates from a user file or from deeper down your system.

How can I migrate iTunes from time machine to new macbook air?

My old macbook died completely and will now not start up, so I cannot reauthorise it. I have everything backed up on time machine on an external hard drive (passport for mac). How can I just restore iTunes but nothing else? I cannot find any option to select what is restored. I don't want to put all the junk onto my new mac!
Thanks in advance for your help

06/2014 ChrisCA post: Restore iTunes library from Time Machine backup - https://discussions.apple.com/message/26104480

Just reinstalled software and migrated data from Time Machine, now iMac does not recognize printer or camera

Under the direction of Apple Support, I recently erased my iMac (Intel) hard drive, reinstalled and updated software and migrated data from an external hard drive via Time Machine.
Now, after clicking on "PRINT", the print dialog box says "printing" then says "no pages found", and finally says "stopped"; and when I plug in my camera to download photos, the camera is not recognized. Both printer and camera are connected via USB.
I checked connections, verified printing and iPhoto preferences, turned printer off then on again, unplugged and replugged USB connections, and checked and followed directions in the Help menu.

Thanks very much, I'd just tried rkaufmann87's suggestion and entered "This solved my question" when your suggestion popped up—you deserve a "This solved my question" too, though I saw only an option for "This helped me".
Before I got rkaufmann87's suggestion, I repaired disk permissions and that resolved the camera problem. Both of you nailed the solution.
Thanks again!

Migration Assistant versus Time Machine back-up

I'm trying to migrate a Time Machine back-up from my recently stolen 2010 MacBook Pro (running OSX 10.6.7) to my old (2008) MacBook Pro, running on OSX 10.5.8.
However, Migration Assistant on my 2008 MB Pro does not detect the backup folder/file on my external HD, even though Finder does.
I've tried by making a new temp Admin User with a different name as the User on my back-up, but no luck.
Even though it is only temporary, for two months or so, I'd still like to migrate. Anyone?

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Migration assistant from Time Machine - more questions

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