Migration Assistant Issues w/New OS Install

I put 2 SSD drives in a MacPro and installed the OS on the new drive (RAIDed). Problem is that it's only 60GBs and I have a lot of apps. The /Library folder is ~60GBs so it will not migrate the apps. There must be a way to tell apps to use a different location, or should I just give up and accept the ugly reality that I will have to reinstall all my apps?

Your profile info indicates Tiger, update it if that's wrong.

Similar Messages

HT4889 I have accidentally created another account when using Migration Assistant to a new MBA. How do I now 'migrate' all the files from both accounts into one to save myself having two accounts, both of which are me? Help?

I have accidentally created another account when using Migration Assistant to a new MBA. I have read that I probably should not have skipped migration in the initial set up and the problem would have been avoided but, alas, here I am. Does anyone know how I can 'migrate' all the files from one of the accounts that has been created to the other, so then I can delete it and have a single user on the computer seeing as I am the only person using it? I have read starting again, if this is the way to go, where is the best place to start 'starting again'?

Yes definitely should see it but its not coming up (I don't think) when I log out of 2nd user and into the main account. Opening finder in the 2nd account, I can obviously find the public folder because thats where I dropped all the files, but when in the main account, it can't be found. The only public folder that comes up is the folder for that account (main account) and it does not display files I'm looking for. Frustrating....
EDIT: Have found it through a round-about way but all music and photo and movie etc files have a red stop sign disallowing them from being transferred. Can you guess what the next question will be?

After using migration assistant to a new Mac 10.9.5, Outlook failed to open...mssge "Could not rebuild database -18000"

After using migration assistant to my new MacBook Retina 10.9.5, Outlook failed to open...mssge "Could not rebuild database -18000"

See if this previous discussion/link to microsoft support helps
Re: There is a problem with the Outlook database. Your database could not be rebuilt. [-18000]

Migration Assistant issues and losing files (Mt. Lion on new hard drive)

I just, by either dumb error or providence, migrated the contents of my backed up hard drive, which has my Mt Lion and all applications folders, to a new hard drive. The old and original drive on my 2008 Quad Mac Pro was starting to worry me. All of the applications and systems files appeared to have migrated flawlessly, and my calendar updated and my 20,000+ emails were restored. All of the programs/applications work. Everything appears normal, except data and obvious missing files. (Note I had installed Mt. Lion over Leopard and Snow Leopard previously, and did not rewrite the drive before I did that.)
The size of this new drive is substantially less than the last one. On the latter, I counted more than 50 gigs of data, on the volume with all of the primary OSX documents. That is what I see in the Time Machine backup right before I did the Migration Assistant. The size of the same volume on the restored new hard drive that has my OSX is about 31 gigs.
I did NOT run (by accident and perhaps curiosity) the Time Machine restore backup using disk utilities. Again I did, by accident or curiosity) Migration Assistant.
What does appear lost are all of the Windows documents that were accessible on my portioned drive on my old hard drive, accessible only via VMWare. (I had all of those previously backed up, brute force, before doing this, and I'm not worried if I don't access them now since I have them if I need them). This was about 18 gigs of data I guess.
Does anyone else have experience with using Migration Assistant and losing files that may have been on a partitioned drive (running Windows) and accessible by VMWare? I can still rewrite over the new drive I just formatted and do it all over again using disk utilities and running this from a boot jump drive I created before, but this time using Restore/Time Machine. I just had heard from one source it was best to download Mountain Lion first, and then do a Time Machine restore, which I ended up actually not doing.
Thoughts appreciated.

I just, by either dumb error or providence, migrated the contents of my backed up hard drive, which has my Mt Lion and all applications folders, to a new hard drive. The old and original drive on my 2008 Quad Mac Pro was starting to worry me. All of the applications and systems files appeared to have migrated flawlessly, and my calendar updated and my 20,000+ emails were restored. All of the programs/applications work. Everything appears normal, except data and obvious missing files. (Note I had installed Mt. Lion over Leopard and Snow Leopard previously, and did not rewrite the drive before I did that.)
The size of this new drive is substantially less than the last one. On the latter, I counted more than 50 gigs of data, on the volume with all of the primary OSX documents. That is what I see in the Time Machine backup right before I did the Migration Assistant. The size of the same volume on the restored new hard drive that has my OSX is about 31 gigs.
I did NOT run (by accident and perhaps curiosity) the Time Machine restore backup using disk utilities. Again I did, by accident or curiosity) Migration Assistant.
What does appear lost are all of the Windows documents that were accessible on my portioned drive on my old hard drive, accessible only via VMWare. (I had all of those previously backed up, brute force, before doing this, and I'm not worried if I don't access them now since I have them if I need them). This was about 18 gigs of data I guess.
Does anyone else have experience with using Migration Assistant and losing files that may have been on a partitioned drive (running Windows) and accessible by VMWare? I can still rewrite over the new drive I just formatted and do it all over again using disk utilities and running this from a boot jump drive I created before, but this time using Restore/Time Machine. I just had heard from one source it was best to download Mountain Lion first, and then do a Time Machine restore, which I ended up actually not doing.
Thoughts appreciated.

Migration Assistant Problems with new iMac

I just bought a new iMac. Used firewire to connect to old iMac running 10.5.8. Followed instructions to reboot old iMac holding down the "T". Receiving this error on new iMac: "There are no versions of Mac OSX available on your old mac. You can only transfer information from a mac that has OSX installed." This is obviously not correct. How can I get my new iMac to recognize the old iMac and transfer the data? Thanks

Doug Holm wrote:
I actually chose option 1 as I was migrating from another mac. I'll try option 2. Another question: Does the fact that I'm migrating from an older G3 (circa 2003) affect the migration?
it could. it should still work though. such migration works ok for most people but but you may have compatibility problems afterward due to differences in architecture and OS versions (what do you have on the G3? 10.3?). I would suggest you choose to migrate your user data only. don't migrate applications. many won't work in snow leopard and can lead to conflicts. also, see this link on potential issues you may face
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=0
that link suggest doing manual migration.
I would still try using migration assistant first. if that gives you problems you can always do wipe and install and migrate manually.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Can I stop migration assistant on my new MacBook pro midway through? What would happen?

I started migration assistant on my brand new MacBook pro last night and I need to take one of the computers today, either my old dell laptop or the MacBook. Can I stop migration assistant? If so what would happen?

Link for Download & Install & Setup & Activation problems may help
-Chat http://www.adobe.com/support/download-install/supportinfo/
OR
Some download & install troubleshooting links
-Comodo Security kills download http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1460361?tstart=0
-http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html
-http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/error-downloading-cc-apps.html
-http://forums.adobe.com/community/download_install_setup
-http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/troubleshoot-cc-installation-download.html
-http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/errors-or-unexpected-behavior-websites.html
-http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/unknown-server-error-launching-cc.html
-Server won't connect https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1233088
-AND JUST FOR MAC USERS - Some 10.9.3 links
-Mac 10.9.3 workaround https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1489922
-more Mac 10.9.3 https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1491469
-Enable Mac Root User https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1156604
-more Root User http://forums.adobe.com/thread/879931
-and more root user http://forums.adobe.com/thread/940869?tstart=0

Migration Assistant problem? : New iMac's iTunes doesn't see the catalog or playlist of my old Mac's songs on an external drive

So I just migrated from a 10.7.5 iMac 27" from 2009 to 10.9.4 on a 2013 27" iMac with Fusion Drive.
I don't use Time Machine. There are no backups involved here.
Used Ethernet. Only took 20 hours... (BTW, it stayed on "less than 1 minute left" for like 12 hours but luckily I was away and just left it going in hopes it would work... and it did!)
Anyway, back on my OLD iMac, I kept all of my songs on an external drive because my internal drive was too small. So iTunes looked at that drive for the music it was playing. I turned that drive off, even disconnected it, during the migration process because I thought it was confusing it during the first attempt which took 10 hours and nothing happened.
So now it worked, finally. On my new iMac, running Mavericks, I now have two user accounts... the one that was set up when I started the computer the first time, and the new one that transferred over via Migration Assistant. No problem. I can live with that. The only thing is, I would still think the old XML files and library stuff would migrate over... but iTunes doesn't see it. When I open up iTunes, in *either* account, iTunes behaves as if it's brand new. Repeat: the old and new account on the new iMac, both, do not see an old iTunes library which IS on the old iMac. Only the music is on the external drive from what I understand.
I've done this before so I know it's possible. I remember upgrading a long time ago and got iTunes to see my old library... even though some of the music was no longer there. It just puts "!" marks wherever there is no link. I was hoping that that's what I would find when I launched iTunes, but no luck. Even connecting the old hard drive to the new Mac (via USB) doesn't make iTunes all of a sudden "see" the old library. That data doesn't seem to be there. It didn't transfer over. Did it not transfer over because the songs weren't on the internal volume? Should I have left my external hard drive on?
So.... now that I've spent almost 3 days total trying to get this to work, and everything is running... I don't want to have to start over in order to get iTunes to work. Is there a way I can just drag over some XML files or something from the old computer? I don't want to lose all of the ratings and personal notes and everything.
I should add also that I have like only four songs I've ever actually bought through iTunes. I'm still a bit old fashioned and buy CDs and rip them to Apple Lossless. So I hope it's not an authorization / reauthorization issue because I have like 1400 albums ripped.
Thanks in advance for any help.
--Jeff

iTunes does not use the .xml it uses the .itl
If you are sure your old library file migrated across (does the file size and modification dates suggest it has?) start iTunes while holding down the option/alt key and guide it to the .itl file to get it to use that one.

Migration assistant created a new user when transferring files from a PC to mac

I just bought a new macbook air and proceeded to transfer my itunes music files from my old PC to my new mac using the migration assistant. I could not find my music files that I had transferred in itunes on my admin user account but later found them on another user acount that I had not created. I was wondering if there was a way to collapse the two user accounts into one or transfer my music from one account to the other? (I tried using an external hard drive but it would not add my music files to the itunes library). Any ideas??

Cattus Thraex wrote:
I agree with the idea of an enhancement request, MA should have some more options if used later, normaly users a curious to log into the fresh system, and transfer data and settings at a later date.
Unfortunately, a "merge" option, where it would add things to an existing user account, isn't realistic. That would work fairly well for such things as documents, where everything is in separate files (although settings and preferences would get a bit tricky).
But not for things like iCal, AddressBook, or Mail, where there are complex structures. Trying to merge those in any automated way would be very complex. Even worse would be 3rd-party apps that Apple can't possibly know how to handle.
One thing that might help would be rewording the "You can transfer information later using Migration Assistant" line at the bottom of the Setup Assistant window:
A number of us have asked for that to be worded differently -- warning that it's much better to do it first, or not to install stuff you're going to need, or something. All to no avail, of course.
Tell Apple what you think here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Backing up my MacBook Pro using Migration Assistant Issues

So a very long story short, I have to get repairs done to my MacBook Pro which was/is operating on 10.5.8. When I left my computer at the store to be sent out, I backed up my computer with Time Machine, under the impression I could just reload everything during start up. Well this didn't work, There was some kind of issue where I would select my drive and it would return to the welcome video every time. So I just set up an Admin because I was given the option of using Migration Assistant. I did so, but it seems that our of 175 GB of applications, information, setting, and files, only 95 GB would get transfered under my old username/Admin user. I went ahead and did it anyway, and it took about an hour before it said a few minuets remaining. Then about a half hour later, it said my information was transfered successfully. What's peculiar now is that a little window appeared in the Finder titled 'Time Machine Backup', and its been loading 107 GB for the past hour. I'm using USB (which I know isn't the fastest method), and it's going abnormally slow, its been roughly an hour and only 2GB have loaded.
My question is this; When all 107GBs of data are transfered, will my repaired laptop have the (for lack of a better term) memory of my laptop before the hard drive wipe?

No idea what is going on & just 2 reasons I never use Time Machine, but are you certain it's not backing up your new Drive & is actually copying from the TM backup to your drive?

Migration Assistant Issues and Tips

So I had to restore my MacBook Pro after it didn't shut down properly and wouldn't start up.
I'm using Lion, latest patches.
I wanted to share what I've learned in the event someone encounters a similar situation like I did.
I tried searching Communities but I couldn't find much that helped me out.
Operating system wouldn't load at all.
I am using a Time Capsule with Time Machine.
If you are trying to restore from Time Machine (and you had to reload the OS) I suggest reloading it after you've logged in.
When you are prompted to create a user account, do not create one with the same name you used before. Create a
temporary account and call it temp.
Use the temp account to restore only the Users first. Do not select any other options like Applications, Settings and Other Files.
(Doing this can leave you in the dreaded 'Transferring files to support applications' hanging forever state - I figured out what causes this which
I will explain later)
The restore of Users from Time Machine/Time Capsule was successful for me.
I then re-started my laptop and pressed the 'Option' key during start up to get in to the recovery drive. I am doing this only to access the disk
utility to 'Verify and Repair permissions'. - Which needed to be done as it reported some permissions needed to be fixed.
I then rebooted back into Lion.
I installed EACH section one by one.
I chose not to restore Applications. I have a list of all the programs I've installed - luckily - and I have the original disks so I can re-install them. I think you can restore Applications successfully despite what some people have reported/suggested.
The reason why I restored each item, Users, Applications, Settings, Other FIles, one by one is because I was running into an issue. I was running into an issue when I tried restoring all 4 options mentioned above.
I found out one of the things that causes the 'Transferring files to support application' status message to hang there forever. It would cause Migration Assistant to run and never completely shut down on its own. I opened up Activity Monitor and found that after Migration Tool and Migration Assistant are done their thing, a program called 'SHOVE' runs. And it runs FOREVER. It won't stop. It sucked up my CPU usage too. I also had my Console open and was watching 'All Messages', and I could see that SHOVE was doing something with temp files, but it was never stopping.
--- I believe restoring the option 'Other Files' is what causes the 'Transferring files to support application' hanging. So don't restore that. Or if you really want to restore it, open up activity monitor and watch for the SHOVE process. I co-related it with the Disk Activity tool, once I saw Disk Activity DROP, either flat line or become really low then that's when I Force Quit the SHOVE process.
If you use Activity Monitor to Force Quit the SHOVE process, then Migration Tool and Migration Assistant will finally say that everything has been restored - BUT BUT BUT. It doesn't do so if you tried to restore everything all at once. Even after I rebooted. You MUST restore each item separately.
After I used Activity Monitor to force quit the SHOVE process, I noticed in my Console/All Messages reported that Migration Assistant exited properly.

BA88 wrote:
Hi,
Hi and welcome to the forums.
What I am trying to do is migrate all of my old stuff, from a hard drive image on an external hard drive (firewire).
How was that made? Is it really an image, or a backup of some sort (Time Machine, CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, the Restore tab of Disk Utility, etc.)?
I get a network error. I have tried migrating whilst still in the boot mode on the OXS DVD
That's via +Setup Assistant+ when it first starts up, per [Using Setup Assistant|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/SetupAsst.html]?
I don't understand why you're getting a network error if you're migrating from a FireWire drive. Are you sure the connections are snug and secure? Have you tried a different FireWire cable?

Migration Assistant Issues?

My G5 iMac was on its way out, so I picked up a new 24" Intel iMac. I was desperate to get it up and running, so I used the migration assistant. I figured there were few PowerPC only apps on my G5, so wasn't too worried.
Overall - no real problems. I was able to replace a couple of the PPC apps with Universal binaries. However, I'm having issues with two things: My system prefs and a Nikon picture sorting app called ViewNX.
The system prefs hang when I use the desktop/screen saver panel. I checked all of the screen savers for the Universal tag and removed those that were PPC, logged out, then logged in. The panel still hangs or updates slowly and eventually hangs. I removed all the screensavers (even the system ones) and no change. The panel also hangs when I navigate through the desktop image choices.
For ViewNX, the app quit upon startup the first or second time I used it, and continued to. I uninstalled and reinstalled many times, deleted all the Nikon app prefs, reinstalled, manually uninstalled - nothing seemed to work. Then I read about another ViewNX user having similar issues - he found the app would work from another account on his mac, but not his own. I found the same thing. And yet another user found that checking the "Use Rosetta" option would allow the app to run. That works for me too, but it's strange because the app is clearly a universal app.
I also repaired my permissions, but no change.
Any suggestions? I'd rather not back up the entire drive and reinstall everything, app by app - as otherwise I don't seem to have any issues.
And yes, I read the migrating to Intel notes on the forum...

I though I removed the entire ViewNX folder from the user application support folder. The uninstaller should have done the same thing - but maybe it didn't. I'll double check that.
Yes, there is an error log in the console, but I couldn't decipher it:
7/30/09 5:16:38 PM [0x0-0x8b08b].jp.co.nikon.ViewNX[1115] ViewNX(1115,0xa033b720) malloc: * mmap(size=2303983616) failed (error code=12)
7/30/09 5:16:38 PM [0x0-0x8b08b].jp.co.nikon.ViewNX[1115] * error: can't allocate region
7/30/09 5:16:38 PM [0x0-0x8b08b].jp.co.nikon.ViewNX[1115] * set a breakpoint in mallocerrorbreak to debug
7/30/09 5:16:38 PM [0x0-0x8b08b].jp.co.nikon.ViewNX[1115] terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::bad_alloc'
7/30/09 5:16:38 PM [0x0-0x8b08b].jp.co.nikon.ViewNX[1115] what(): St9bad_alloc
7/30/09 5:16:40 PM com.apple.launchd[137] ([0x0-0x8b08b].jp.co.nikon.ViewNX[1115]) Exited abnormally: Abort trap
Thanks for your suggestions!

Migration Assistant issues, Mavericks

So this has been frustrating. Two MBPs connected by ethernet, both running updated Mavericks. Both have wifi turned off, both have firewalls turned off, both manually assigned IPs on same network (finally got to all of those things being done after only the source machine was not being seen in Migration Assistant). Trying to migrate one user from old machine to new.
Now that I'm here, and both machines are seeing each other, getting a matching code, etc... when I get to the page on the new machine where I select what I want to pull over from the old machine, it only gives me a few options. One being an Applications folder with a listed size of 0 kb, one being computer with 141 kb, and one being other files with 0kb listed. (I'm going off memory as I'm typing this on one of the machines I was trying to do this on.
No ability to select a user, etc. WHAT THE ****?

This worked for me one time, but I had to wipe and re-do my whole system (different issue) and this solution did not work for me the second time. Instead, I had to disable my firewall on the original old mac completely to have my user accounts and other data show up as transferrable into the new mac. After messing around with it and reading a lot of other people's problems with this, I thought I should post my solution for others in case this works for them.

Should I uninstall Creative Cloud and CC apps before using migration assistant to my new imac?

I have heard that Creative Cloud and CC apps dont transfer well with the Migration Assistant from Apple.
I have a new iMac with Yosemite. Should I uninstall everything before using the Migration Assistant and then re-install Creative Cloud and apps afterward by downloading from the Adobe site again on the new iMac?
Is there a link to full instructions how to completely uninstall CC and the apps and clean up?

Hi There,
Kindly follow the below mentioned steps.
Try to Sign out, Sign in | Creative Cloud Desktop app
Sign in, activation, or connection errors | CS5.5 and later
If that doesn't help.
Try to uninstall the product and run the Adobe CC cleaner tool to be on a safer side.
Install Creative Cloud app, Install the product again.
Kindly revert if the problem still persists.
Thanks,
Atul Saini

Recent Migration Assistant issue and question

Just purchased a MacBook Pro and DID NOT utilize the MIGRATION ASSISTANT at startup and initial set-up. Wish I would have. I did not have FIREWIRE with me to accomplish.
Anyhow - went ahead and initialized start-up and registration ect.
Just did a complete MIGRATION from my older eMac that is updated with OSX Leopard via FIREWIRE tonight - two days later. Had to rename my USER FOLDER to be different as the name I have established on the new MBP.
It MIGRATED the entire HD off the eMAC as expected quickly and easily I might add.
I assumed it merged the new APPLICATIONS such as SAFARI - iTUNES ect... and simply updated them on the MBP Hard drive.
Not the case - it seems that I have two different versions of each application file - new and old - and for example iTunes using old LOG IN file transferred my iTunes Library - but when I LOG OFF and log back on using the new USER NAME - my iTunes does not show my old Music Library ect...
Same thing with SAFARI - the old application has all the previous bookmarks ect...but not the newer version.
I even have two different DESKTOP BACKGROUNDS with my two different USER Files folder ID's. The DOCKS are different with both USER files also - different shortcut icons showing up in each.
WEIRD?!?
I have my PALM PILOT application that transferred as well and I had previously installed the software this morning so now I have two different PALM applications.
QUESTION: - What or How do I merge these two into one single DESKTOP or am I forced to toggle back and forth by logging on and off under two different user names ect.?
What about iTunes and Safari - is there anyway to merge them into one functioning application instead of two. Any way to DISCARD or TRASH one and still leave the other intact?
Do I actually have two program applications now installed on the HD? I looked in the Application on HD and only one Safari, iTunes, Palm Pilot ect...show up there.
Need help!
Chris Kaiser

Not weird at all. You migrated a PPC system to an Intel system. A perfect situation for disaster. You have but one viable option.
Boot from the OS X Installer Disc One that came with your MBP. Do an Erase and Install which will wipe the disk clean and reinstall the proper version of OS X for the computer.
When this is completed reinstall all your third-party software from scratch. If you have PPC only versions then upgrade them to Intel versions if you can. All third-party contextual menu items, preference panes, startup items, internet plug-ins, and the like must be replaced with universal binaries as the PPC versions will not work and may crash OS X.
You can reinstall pre-bundled software from the Install Pre-bundled Software installer located on the OS X Installer Disc One.
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
In the future you should post questions about the MBP in the MacBook Pro forum. This is the Mac Pro forum.
Message was edited by: Kappy

Migration Assistant Issues - Don't waste hours like I did

Here's the issue in a nutshell: if you fail to include files in a Migration Assistant transer the first time around, you will have a **** of a time copying files later from your old Mac to your new.
Here's how this went down, and the workaround I was able to come up with:
I successfully and easily migrated my applications and files from my old MBP to my new Retina MBP. However, when I ran Migration Assistant initially, I had decided not to transfer videos until I had an opportunity to delete some of them using my old computer. After doing this, and going back to Migration Assistant to bring the videos over, I realize that, alas, Migration Assistant is not set up to add to a previous migration. It only offers choices to overwrite an existing account, or to delete existing and save as deleted files -- neither of which I wanted to do.
(By the way, perhaps this is a result of my migrating the old account to the new computer, using the exact same account name. But that seemed like the right idea at the time.)
So, I decided I would simply copy the files over my wireless network instead, using Finder copy functionality or AirDrop. I struggled with both of these for two hours, during which time the copy function would just hang on "estimating transfer time," and then suddenly quit after 30 minutes.
It seems that, due to the migration, the account on each separate computer has the same "UUID" (universally unique identifier - not so unique, apparently). I guess this makes sense if the account is a clone. But for reasons that are not clear to me as a non-programmer, this somehow screws up the ability to copy files from one computer to another. Taking the lead from a tangentially related Apple Community posting regarding permissions problems, I generated a new UUID for the account on the old MBP (go to System Preferences --> Users, click to unlock, right click on the user and click on "advanced settings" - you'll find UUID in there), and now the copy seems to be progressing fine using a normal Finder copy.
Ugh. Only about 2 hours to figure this out. Really, why Apple could not inform people that you only get one shot at the migration, I don't know. But there certainly has to be an easier way this could work if you don't use Migration Assistant the first time.
I hope this helps someone.

Good point sorry about that.
All of our machines are PGPed and are running v10.5.8 which we want to upgrade to v10.6.3.
We can't use the normal way of upgrading the OS since PGP prevents it. Our work around is to image (customized image of OS/software) a new drive and migrate the data.

Migration Assistant Issues w/New OS Install

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for