Migration Assistant won't find right user

I'm trying to get Leopard on to my daughter's Powermac G4, currently running 10.4.11. Two previous 10.5 installations on my G5 and my son's snow dome Imac failed to complete as updates and the disk had to be erased. In both cases all the apps and settings and backed up documents had to be manually reinstalled.
This time I did a bit of research and used this page as a guide:
http://techdebug.com/blog/2008/02/25/leopard-erase-and-install-success-howto/
It tells you how to make a copy of the old system on a Firewire drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, then use Migration Assistant to import everything back once you've updated.
Everything went well and OS 10.56 is now on the Powerbook as a clean installation. But it all went wrong at the very last stage. The Powerbook will happily boot from my 500Gb Firewire drive running the old cloned system, but when I boot from Leopard and try to migrate the old user back, the Assistant doesn't find my daughter's account. Instead it finds only my own name and identifies 360Gb worth of "additional data".
Now there is no active system with my name on that disk – only a large amount of data stored in folders. There was an OS on there a long time ago but I thought I'd got rid of that.
I can understand the Assistant finding the vestiges of that old ID from invisible files on the drive, but why won't it then go on to find the fully working IDs that have just been installed there? It's got me seriously tearing what's left of my hair out.

Rather than connecting "on the same network", use Create Network from the airport menu icon and connect the two notebooks directly and thus get an "N" connection. Ensure that you turn on file sharing, turn off the firewalls on both computers on this singular network you have created. Then you should be able to migrate if you are the "owner" or administrator as set up on both computers. Follow the directions... post back if this does or does not work.

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Migration Assistant Can't Find Network User

We are trying to migrate an old MAC to a newer MAC over our network. Migration Assistant finds each MAC but it won't find the old User who is a Network User. Any ideas as to why this User is not showing up in Migration Assistant?
Thanks!

Boot the mini with the Recovery HD, erase it, reinstall Lion, and on first boot, use the Setup Assistant to do the migration. See Pondini's Setup New Mac guide for the details.

Migration Assistant - won't find other computer on network

Hello,
I have a brand new MacBook Air, and I am trying to use the Migration Assistant to transfer data from my old MacBook Pro via wireless network.
Both computers don't get any further than "looking for other computers" and they just sit there for ages looking but don't find anything. Both are connected to the same network.
Any suggestions?

Rather than connecting "on the same network", use Create Network from the airport menu icon and connect the two notebooks directly and thus get an "N" connection. Ensure that you turn on file sharing, turn off the firewalls on both computers on this singular network you have created. Then you should be able to migrate if you are the "owner" or administrator as set up on both computers. Follow the directions... post back if this does or does not work.

Migration Assistant can't find mounted external disc

Running Snow Leopard on newer iMac Dual Core. Trying to migrate users of dead G5. The G5 User data is intact, and on an external disc, and was transferred to this external disc from the G5's HD, by techs at The Apple Store. The specs of this external drive are:
30.74 GB
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Partition Map Scheme : Apple Partition Map
Mount Point : /Volumes/Macintosh HD 1
The external disc mounts to the desktop, but Migration Assistant just spins and spins looking for it, without success.
I have tried to boot from the external drive; Restart/Option does not result in the external disc as a startup option.
I'm thinking when the Mac boys wiped the external disc to make room for the G5 User data, they reformatted the disc to non-bootable. In an experiment, Migration Assistant easily found and transferred User data from my laptop (when restarted in target disc mode).
Is there a way to help Migration Assistant find this external disk - or an option that transfers the User files intact from the external drive to the new SL machine?
Thanks,
lex

lexsongs wrote:
+then MA will not work on it, period. you need to migrate manually. Migration assistant does not give a hoot what the partition scheme is on the drive you are migrating from so don't bother with that. the partition scheme on your main drive should be GUID but it's probably that already.+
+P.S. if you still have access to the old drive of the G5 then you can migrate from that drive directly.+
Thanks V.K. I did open Disk Utility and was ready to change the partition scheme (on the external disc) to GUID, but based on your last post I will hold off.
Yes, I have the old G5 HD, and will get some help with connections for migrating - or will build an enclosure (or have one built) and then use MA to move the User folders. In the meantime, I can still access the data in all User folders on the external disk.
if all the data you need is in the user folders you can simply do the following. drag a user folder from Users on your backup drive to the /Users folder at the top level of the main hard drive. make sure you don't have another user by that name already present there. you'll need to authenticate with your admin password. once you copied the user folder to Users on the main drive go to system preferences->accounts. unlock the lock at the bottom, click on + and create an account with the same short user name as the name of the folder you just copied to Users. it will tell you that a home directory by that name already exists and ask if you want to use it. say "yes".
Question: What allows MA to work with the original G5 HD but not with the copied User data on the external disc?
I don't know the exact innerworkings of MA but it clearly checks the drive to see if it recognizes it as something it can possibly migrate from as it needs a lot of stuff present to work. It doesn't just migrate user folders. it migrates applications, some library files etc. so unless it sees a full clone of another system drive or a TM backup of another drive (which both have all that stuff present) it won't even try migrating.

Migration assistant can't find external hard drive

I bought a Macbook Air and I can't move my files from the Time Machine created by my previous MacBook. Specifically, migration assistant can't find the external disk. I can see the external disc on the desktop, it's just the migration assistant that can't find it. I've done software update, I've attached and detached the external disk and restarted the Air in all imaginable combinations, migration assistant still can't see the external disk. Anyone know how to fix this problem?

franz1 wrote:
The top one has icons showing the two partitions from the external drive and the Air's HD.
That sounds like the Today (Now) display, the one that's show in full when you first Enter Time Machine. It's not a backup; it's the current contents of your Mac.
When I clicked on the 2nd window, it seems to be a back up from July 20, which I remember making on the old MacBook. It has one folder on it with my username.
Yes, that's a backup.
When I click on this folder, I find 4 folders inside it titled: Applications, Users, Library and System. I clicked on Applications and it was empty
That sounds like you'd excluded Applications from backups. Or else you didn't wait long enough for all the apps to be displayed.
sometimes the names of programs covered with a see-through "no parking" sign - a circle with a slash through it
That's an incompatible app.
Is this the Time Machine's records?
Yup.
Can I click on the July 20 date and click on restore? Will everything just come back on it's own?
No. You can restore individual items that way (if you have permission to them), but not a whole system. You can restore "simple" apps that way, too, but not "complex" ones -- ones that came with their own installers, because they install other files in other places. If you don't restore those other things too, the app won't work well, if at all.
Can you post a screenshot of the Migration Assistant window that should show your backups (something like this):

Migration Assistant can't find External HD on MacBook Pro Mid-2012

Hi, I have a MacBook Pro Mid-2012 running OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and I am trying to use Migration Assistant to transfer Time Machine backups that are on my external hard drive, that I backed up from my old MacBook Mid-2010. The problem I am having is that Migration Assistant can't find my external hard drive. My MacBook Pro can find it when I plug it in (I see it in Finder), but Migration Assistant can't. Can anyone help or should I go to the Apple Store? I need help with this problem as soon as possible.
Thanks in advance,
- Daniel 

Since no one replied I figured out how to do it myself.
1.) First I plugged in my external hard drive with my Time Machine backups on them, then I opened Finder and click on my external hard drive under devices.
2.) Next I clicked on and opened the folder named "Backups.backupdb"
3.) Once inside that folder I could see folders with the backups from Time Machine and all of the folders names were the date I backed up that backup. I clicked and opended the lastest backup folder.
4.) Inside that folder, I clicked and opened the folder named "Macintosh HD"
5.) Inside that folder, I clicked and opended the folder named "Users"
6.) Inside that folder, I clicked and opended the folder named "Daniel" which was my Username on my previous Mac.
7.) Finally I could see and access all my folders from my Time Machine backups from my previous Mac.
Keep in mind this is only helpful if you are trying to access old backups (backed up from another Mac) on a new or different Mac. (Sorry for the blurry images)
Hope this somehow helps someone else,
- Daniel 

Migration Assistant won't see external hard drive

I have just done a clean install of Leopard onto my MacBook Pro, previously running Tiger. Now, I want to migrate my old user and programs from a backed up volume on an external firewire hard drive. The problem is that Migration Assistant won't recognize my external hard drive.
I have no other problem mounting or reading the external hard drive from leopard.
Could the problem be that the external drive has the Apple partition map instead of GUID as reported here? http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1329665
Any suggestion, solutions or work arounds are gratefully appreciated.

That isn't a valid link to your picture (it's a link to the file on your computer). You would need to post it to a serve (and remove the spaces in the name) and post that link here.
However it would appear that your short name is 'dalechristiansen' so presumably you originally created a user with that short name and your full name as.. the full name (unless it was just 'Dale'. Whatever you did before when you created your account is what you should do now. Then you can copy the equivalent folder's contents. (You might have problems replacing some of the root level folders, in which case you shuld copy their contents into the equivalent folders).

Windows migration assistant won't go passed the first screen. Connecting hp files to new Mac mini with Ethernet cable. Also tried USB

Windows migration assistant won't go passed the first screen. Connecting hp files to new Mac mini with Ethernet cable. Also tried USB

Are you following these instructions?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4796
Have yo tired by connecting both to same network vice direct ethernet connection?
There is no direct USB connection

Migration assistent, can't find my external HD, help!

I have reinstalled OSX 10.8.6 on my moms Mac mini2,1, 1,83 GHz, 80 Gb harddisc, 2Gb ram, bus 667MHz, to keep the speed fresh. The time machine copy from her mac is on a Iomega external hardisc 160 Gb, the "disctool/help" detects it as Toshiba MK1652GSX Media, physically it has two USB connections. But when I use Migration Assistant it doesn't appear as a option to choose.
On this external harddisc I have a Timemachine copy that goes back to 2008. I can see the harddick on the screen, I can connect the harddisc to Timemachine and it can start to copy and save, I can even copy back my moms documents, but still Migration Assistant can't find it.
I need to migrate all her applications, iPhoto for instance as the most important as well as her I need to migrate her letters and adresses.
What do I do?

Dear MrHoffmann
Maybe it is because I am foreign, that I don't understand correctly, and for that I am very sorry. I can't imagine what a restore of a Time Machine disk is then. And I tried to find out what a scratch disk is, and the online computer dictionary told me it was an external HD, with a space for not permanent files. Maybe I misunderstood that too. Where do I then perform a restore of the backup? And where am I told if the disk is vail and bootable... sorry for my lack of understanding. As I understand I am not able to boot from a Time Machine backup, at least before Lion, and I am talking about Snowleopard. And I am not able to understand Install logs. This just sounds too difficult and far beyond what I am cabable of with my skills. Sorry.
But on the other hand, I like to learn. And I am returning to my moms house for a few days in the end of september. And with me I can bring all kinds of tools to examin her Time Machine disk, extra hardisks, my macbook with the same system and age as my moms old Mac Mini2,1 (2006) and other things, mayby if I can find out excactly what to do, I can find out what was wrong with her Time Machine disk or Migration Assistent, to prevent that from happening again.
Thank you for taking your time to help me :-)
Bodil

Migration assistant won't work

Hello,
Hopefully someone can tell me what I am doing wrong? I have a macbook 13" running os 10.5.8 and a macbook pro 13" running os 10.6.8
The hard disc on the macbook pro crashed so it was replaced and reinstalled. Now I wanted to use migration assistant to copy all my user data, photos, itunes library etc.... from the old macbook. I launch migration assistant on both laptops, get to the point where new laptop gives me a 6 digit code for the old laptop, enter the code, and then on both computers migration assistant just says "searching for other computers" and nothing else happens.....
I am sure this worked fine when I first got the macbook pro.... Or is there a significant difference between transfering data using the setup assistant versus migration assistant?
Pretty please help cause I'm loosing the plot lol
Eve-Line
PS for some reason the power cable on the macbook pro isn't connecting anymore so that's going back to the shop (lousy repair service yes). Does that influence migration assistant?

Ok problem solved itself.... still don't know why though. I upgraded to ox 10.7 (purchased before hard disk crash, so just reinstalled it) and now migration assistant works.... Thanks however for reading and trying to answer my question BDAqua

Migration problem: migration assistant won't migrate both user accounts from time machine backup

My Mac was formatted due to some technical issues. Before handing to the lab- I backed it up using time machine ( and only that ).
I had two user accounts on the Mac before handing it to the lab.
One of them I never actually used -I'll call it the secondary.
The second one was the main one - which I used all the time - the principal account. All my data is there on that account.
The Mac was formatted at the lab.
Using the setup assistant I migrated one user from the Time Machine Backup.
Only later I realized it was actually the account I never used.
Since I never used it - I couldn't remember the login password and had to reset it, took a while.
I then tried to to migrate the principal account - the one I actually wanted to migrate, in the fist place, during the setup procedure - using the migration assistant.
At the relevant window I tick the principal account- the mac does some thinking and then in the login window my only options are the secondary account and guest account, the principal account is not to be seen.
I'm really really stressed and worried.
BTW -when looking into the actual external disk used for the Time Machine at this path: computer name--> backups-->macintosh HD -->users--> principal account - I see all the folders and files with a 'no entry' icon next to them.
clicking on the folders - I get the following notice - 'the folder xxx can't be opened because you don't have permission to see the contents''
What's going on?
I'm running on a 2.9Ghz intel core i5
16GB RAM 1600MHz DDR3
SW version: 10.9.4
would appreciate any kind of help,
Thanks
Dana

thanks,
the thing is the Mac was behaving strangely - that's why I sent it to the lab in the first place.
This Mac is just over a year old but it's content was initially migrated from the older mac.
And it (the new Mac) wasn't working properly from the get go..
It took ages for it to start up and wouldn't start up if any external disk was attached (via USB).
I had to start it up and only then connect external disks.
In the lab - They couldn't find and HW issues.
So they formatted and reinstalled the OS - I think that's all they've sone in the lab
The idea was to start afresh and slowly reinstall softwares - only those necessary.
So, having said all that- does that change your answer?

Migration Assistant Won't Migrate User Account from Time Machine

I am trying to move my wife's user account from a Time Machine backup using Migration Assistant. Migration assistant chugs along for 2 1/2 hours and says everything was transfered hunkie-dorie. However, when I try to log her on, I can't. When I log on as me, I went to System Prefs --> Accounts, her username is there. However, when I look inside the Users folder, none of her information is there.
thanks in advance,
tim

No Filevault on my computer and hers.
Doesn't work in Save Boot, either. That is the puzzle. Her account appears at the login screen--even the flower pic. that was migrated from from the Time Machine backup. The login screen will not accept any password. I know I'm typing it correctly. Her account appears in System Prefs --> Users, but it's not in the Users folder on my disk drive.
tim

Migration Assistant won't migrate User Account settings

I have Mac OS 10.7.5 running on the internal hard drive of my mid-2011 iMac. Because I'm having some issues with it that I suspect is due to old data/settings affecting 10.7.5, I wanted to see if installing Mac OS 10.8 might fix them. I installed 10.8 on an external FireWire drive but just did a clean install of the OS initially without migrating anything from the internal drive. My plan was to migrate things slowly rather than everything at once. Well I hit a snag at the outset when I tried to migrate my User settings; Migration Assistant says it can't do with out renaming my user account! The problem is that I don't know why this is happening AND I don't know if MA is talking about the user account in 10.8 or the one in 10.7.
Any idea as to what I can do? I was thinking of wiping the external drive and starting over but this time have the User account(s) migrated as part of the install; might this work?
BTW, when migrating AFTER a new OS install, is it better to have MA in the NEW OS pull the data from the old OS or have MA in the OLD OS push the data to the new OS (is it even possible to do this? I've always had the new MA pull the data from the old OS.)?

OK, yesterday I wiped the drive and started over. When I got to the Setup/Migration Assistant, I was given 4 options:
Users; Applications; Settings; Other files and documents... Under the Users option was a drop down where I could select which users to transfer; I selected mine and left the other ones (a "Test" account & an "Apple Service" account). Under the Settings option I could select "Computer" and/or "Network"; I selected both.The Applications & Other... options did not have ant drop down selections; I de-selected both.
After the installation was complete, I let the iMac run for several hours with no hint of the slow down that happens on the Mac OS 10.7.5 system. I then used the Assistant and had my applications copied over. Oh, I also created new "Test" and "Apple Service" user accounts.
OK, so what exactly is migrated via the "Other..." option?

Migration assistant won't transfer user account

Hi
Just used migration assistant to transfer data from a Tiger iMac to a leopard iMac, and while all the files and apps came across it did not copy the user account. I then connected to the host computer via target disk mode and see the user account is not accessible, but it is when connecting normally over a network.
I plan to wipe the new imac and start again, but anyone any ideas how to make the user account visible over firewire and TDM?
Thanks

jeevescat wrote:
Thanks for your reply.
The migration assistant behaved as usual, I've used it countless times, it came up with the list of accounts, in this instant there was only the one, and all the boxes were ticked to transfer all apps, files etc and all data from this account.
At the end of the transfer the computer restarted, but instead of going straight to the desktop, it ran through the account creation procedure.
All data and apps outside of the user folder have been copied but nothing in the user folder. Thats when I noticed that connecting to the old imac in TDM does not allow access to the data in the user folder,
please clarify that. do you mean that you don't have permissions to open that folder? or do you mean something else?
their is only one account which it is set to automatically log into. There are no passwords or security, file vault is not on and all sharing is enabled, access is fine over a normal network connection.
Any suggestions?

Migration Assistant won't recognize Time Machine Backup

I recenly got my old thunderbolt-less macbook pro back from a repair and I can't seem to resotre my data. My external drive it reconized in finder, but not in Migration Assistant. I have updated to the newest OS and still nothing. I was tunning mavrics before the repair so this should be working right? Thanks for any help you can offer.

A possible reason for backups not to be available in Migration Assistant is that the computer doesn't have a name, or the name is corrupt. Open the Sharing preference pane and check the name. If you can't do that, reset the PRAM. Credit to ASC member Csnote for this observation.
Most likely, some folders were excluded from your backups as the result of a failed or aborted software installation.
Starting from a clean installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Enter Time Machine and press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible.* Select the one you want and navigate to your home folder (in the Users folder at the top level of the old startup volume.)
You should now be able to restore your user data. I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: The next time you back up, Time Machine won't recognize any files as being the same as they were before, and will make a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on one or more of your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Migration Assistant won't find right user

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