OS X Mavericks Migration Assistant

I want to copy/move photos from an older MacBook to a newer iMac that is running Mavericks. What's the best way? Using the migration assistant or just multiple copy/paste tries with a USB flash drive? Thanks.

I need to do the entire photo library from the old MacBook. Will that overwrite the photo library on the iMac, or only add to it?
What's the best/fastest way to connect the two computers for the transfer using Migration Assistant? USB-USB, FireWire (though I'm not even sure the MacBook as such a port)? Thanks!

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My mavericks to Mavericks migration assistant hangs.

My mavericks to Mavericks migration assistant hangs on the last minute. I am using Ethernet. What can I do?
This is the third time I've tried.

See Pondini's Setup New Mac guide, which might address the issue.

HT204350 USB Time Machine backup drive not visble in Mavericks Migration Assistant

Hi all,
Yesterday I updated my dad's iMac from Snow Leopard (SL) to Mavericks. Seemed to work ok apart from the fact that turning on iCloud wiped out the calendars. In order to get the calendars back I restored from the most recent SL Time Machine backup. This turned out to be a big mistake! It did get the calendars back but stopped all programs not included in the OS X install to stop working!
I then managed to get a bootable flash drive installer for Mavericks sorted out and installed a fresh copy of Mavericks on the computer with the plan of using Migration Assistant to bring all my dad's files, settings, etc over. The problem is that when I open Migration Assistant and try to migrate from the USB Time Machine backup drive, the drive doesn't show up in the list.
I have also tried restoring from the Time Machine backups that were made straight after the upgrade to Mavericks as I have exported copies of the calendars now and that was the only issue at the time but when I do that the restore fails after about 4.5% progress.
Any help would be amazing as my dad runs two small businesses with the computer and the down time causing quite a few issues.
Thanksin advance!

If you synchronize any of your calendars with a server such as iCloud, disable that synchronization. Quit Calendar.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Calendars
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder selected. Enter Time Machine and restore that folder from the snapshot you want.
Relaunch Calendar and test. Your calendars should be as they were when the snapshot was taken. If you don't sync with a server, stop here. If you do sync some of the calendars with a server, select each one in turn and then select
File ▹ Export ▹ Export…
from the menu bar. You'll get ICS files with the filename extension ".ics". Re-enable sync. Usually, all the calendars you just restored will be deleted. That's not a problem. Create a new calendar on the server for each one you exported and want to sync:
File ▹ New Calendar
Then import the calendar from the corresponding ICS file by double-clicking it. Follow the prompts to import the new events to the calendar you just created. For calendars that you don't want to sync, just import them again. They'll appear in the calendar list under On My Mac.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Mavericks Migration Assistant - Migrate user data to a separate user drive?

I have a question about upgrading to Mavericks with a separate user drive that I haven't been able to find an answer to, so I thought I'd ask for some guidance before actually trying to attempt it.
I have a late-model Macbook Pro (A1260) running 10.8.5 happily with 2 hard drives inside - a smaller SSD boot drive let's call BOOT 1 DRIVE, and a larger drive I use for my user folder which I'll call USER DRIVE. Now it's time to upgrade to a little larger SSD let's call BOOT 2 DRIVE. I have Mavericks already freshly installed on it (10.9.1) with a temporary blank user account. The MBP boots fine into the drive connected externally so I know it's all ready to go - all I have to do is swap out the drives and I'm good on the OS.
Now the tricky part: I want to transfer my user data from my old system 10.8.5 to the new 10.9.1 and ultimately have it reside in the same fashion - on the larger USER DRIVE. How do I do this? A few scenarios I ponder:
A) I'm assuming because this is migrating from an older system to newer system, you can't just create a new user in 10.9.1 with the same user name and point it to the existing home folder in USER DRIVE, but instead have to use Migration Assistant to transfer and update 10.8 user data to 10.9 user data?
B) Locially, you would boot into BOOT 2 DRIVE (10.9.1), and use Migration Assistant to transfer user data from the old 10.8 system (the system knows that the user data resides on USER DRIVE) to the new one but there's not enough space on the new BOOT 2 DRIVE to house all the data and even if it could, then what ? - transfer the user folder directly to a clean USER DRIVE and then point to it?
C) I have both BOOT 1 DRIVE and USER DRIVE cloned on separate volumes, so I could boot into BOOT 2 DRIVE, wipe clean USER DRIVE, and then migrate from the cloned drives - except in Migration Assistant, it says to transfer from "another Mac or Time Machine, or a startup disk". Would I be able to pull from the USER DRIVE CLONE and then have Migration Assistant write to the freshly wiped USER DRIVE?
Perhaps I'm overthinking this? Google pointed me to this post which seems to have some of this information covered even though it feels dated. Reading through it makes me believe that Senario A is actually my closest bet with some user account name swapping or something? Is it that User data doesn't need to be "updated" for the newer OS and you can just create a new user account with the same name and point it to the older USER DRIVE?
Any advice from the mac smarts out there would be appreciated.
Thanks!

SOLVED!
In case anyone stumbles upon this and is wondering what I did:
My hypothesis was correct - waaayyyy over thinking it.
I installed BOOT 2 DRIVE, swapping out the old BOOT 1 DRIVE. Then I renamed the new account to the same name as my previous account, users -> advanced options -> and pointed to the same home folder on USER DRIVE.
DONE
Initially, I made a new account and screwed things up a bit - after reading the post of the above, understood that the new user account should have the same UID as the previous one....
Anyway, all good now - happy camper.

Mavericks Migration Assistant keeps crashing.

Just got brand new IMac. (2.7GHz Intel Core i5 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3). Upgraded to Mavericks to match my MacBook (strangely didn't come pre loaded). When trying to use Migration Assistant to transfer profiles, software, settings etc across Migration Assistant on the iMac keeps crashing. Have tried both wifi and Ethernet cable (wifi switched off) but still no success and MA continues to crash at point when iMac is checking the MacBook

If your computers have the required ports, try using the Target Disc Mode.
Target Disc Mode

Mavericks Migration Assistant Can't Find Destination

I have a 2010 Mac Pro from which I wish to import data to my brand new cylinder Mac Pro.   I've done this before, easy enough.
Unfortunately, after resetting the SMC, reboots, checking cabling, etc., /and/ speaking upwards through senior Apple Support, I still cannot get this to work.
Each system can see the other in the Finder. Firewalls are not enabled.
What happens is the destination Mac Pro can see the source just fine; however, the source cannot see the destination.   I can otherwise see the IPs 169.x and I can ping from/to each host.   I double checked "pfctl -d" and it is indeed disabled. I run Sophos on the older host, but I've never had an issue with it. I have VMware Fusion, but that shouldn't apply.
[ it's worth noting here, I have two new Mac Pros which would not display on the new thunderbolt displays, which was probably due to firmware -- OS updates seem to have resolved it ]
Wifi is also off on both.
I have the exact same results regardless of whether I'm on the local ethernet LAN or just a plain old point-to-point LAN (with different IPs) and I'm puzzled as to what could be wrong. Apple senior advisors were stumped as well -- they suggested I try this over firewire, but I'll need to get a firewire-to-thunderbolt adapter first.
So I am wondering if anyone out there has run into and solved this pernicious problem.   I've been working on this all day :-) I'll be damned if I have to install all these apps manually again, but I will if I have to.
Thanks.

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):

Mavericks Migration assistant does not see time machine backup of older Lion Mac

Used to have a Macbook Pro. It was stolen (circa July 2014). Luckily I had up to date Time Machine Backups. The Macbook Pro was completely up to date running the latest OSX Lion (circa July 2014) when stolen.
Bought a new Macbook Air just now (Mar 2015).
Plugged in the old Mac's Time Machine Backup Disk, Migration Assistant doesn't see the old Mac's Backups.
So I setup the new Macbook Air without restoring.
Plugged in old backup drive, am able to navigate to old Mac's Time Machine Backups.
Tried running Migration Assistant many time , but still it does not see the the old Mac's Time Machine Backups. (although they continue to show in the drive if I navigate to it)
Pls help so I can migrate the old Mac to the new Mac!!!!

Thanks Turbostar.
Well, I think there should be solution to use TIME CAPSULE restore as it should I mean I bought Time Capsule because it is easy to use and I really do not want to solve any issues or make any workarounds.
I think APPLE should resolve this ASAP. Meantime maybe anybody knows any trick about this issue?

HT204350 Mavericks Migration Assistant aborts

I'm trying to migrate data from an old (2008) to a brand-new (2013) iMac, both running Mavericks. Things work fine (confirmation on both sides, code displayed, etc.) until the target iMac is trying to find all the items to migrate. It just hangs and eventually, after maybe 5 minutes, returns to the login screen on the new (target) iMac, with no action taken. I tried it three times, with the same result.

I have same situation trying to migrate from a MacBook Pro 13" late 2011 to an iMac 3.06 (2010-11?)...
My softwares on both are up to date (on Maverick).
(We have just done the same from the iMac 3.06 (2010-11) to new 27" iMac three days ago and worked like a dream... everything worked.)
Have set up new profile on iMac 3.06... still crashing on iMac whilst looking for data...

HT204350 migration assistant mavericks.

I am trying to migrate to a new imac using migration assistant. I connected the old machine and new via ethernet cable. When the files began to transfer, the indicator reported over 400 hours to transfer. Suspecting the files were transferring via WiFi rather than ethernet cable, after over an hour with litte change in the counter, I disconnected the WiFi source and, sure enough, the machines stopped communicating. I also noted that Migration Assistant was telling me that connecting an ethernet cable would speed things up but the cable was already connected.
I stopped the transfer, switched off the airport and tried again, following to the letter Apple's Mavericks Migration Assistant instructions. I have been watching both machines search for each other for going on half an hour now and cannot understand why these machines are not seeing each other. Both are running Mavericks.

I noticed that the old imac's network preferences indicated that the ethernet port was "inactive". I bought a new cable, plugged the ethernet cable from the modem into the old imac to "reactivate" the port. Then reconnected the two machines via ethernet and ran Migration Assistant again and the migration went fine. I'm not sure which step caused the desired effect but that's what I did.

Migration assistant doesn't see my time machine backup

Since upgading to mavericks migration assistant no longer sees my backup on my external drive that I use for my time machine backups. The drive mounts fine and I can access my backups through my finder using "enter time machine", but I can not restore because migration assistant can't see the drive. I don't knoe if it's a time machine issue or a mighration assistant issue. I have tried on several macs and with several different hard drives but migration assistant cannot restore from my time machine backups. I suggest everyone make sure they can restore from their time machine backups because this may be a major problem and result in complete loss of data. I have found no solution yet.

Here are the articles I have on Migration Assistant. None of them had the answer to your problem (or at least I couldn't find it). Check what you did versus the recommendations in the articles is about the best I can offer.
Migration Assistant
Migration Assistant (2)
Migration Assistant – Tips and Tricks

Mavericks Migration?

Going to some new hardware (SSD) to create a new boot volume with Mavericks. Want to start as clean and fresh as I can. I KNOW if I use Migration Assistant, there will be some old and no longer useful items in my users Library & Preference folders. I don't think any of that has much impact on running it, and I do plan to gradually toss most of the stuff that I recognize are no longer needed. If anyone thinks I'd get a gotcha, let me know. I will NOT migrate any applications as I have TONS of those on my current system that I no longer need (most work related and I'm retired).
But the real question has to do with MA itself. Several OS X versions ago, I found that I HAD to create a user account with the exact same short name on the target system. I WOULD like to "migrate" to a new short name account... will the Mavericks Migration Assistant allow that?

Hi Riverside_Guy,
One solution to what you are trying to do - that is migrate your user folder to a new username - would be to go ahead and do the migration under the old username and then change the username once you got the files to the new computer. This article explains how to do the username change -
OS X: How to change your account name or home directory name
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

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

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

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

Migration Assistant in Mavericks not listing Users

I thought I would experiment with using Migration Assistant on my two MBPs since I will be helping someone tomorrow transfer their data from an old iMac to a new one.
I have a Mavericks MBP and a Mountain Lion MBP and connected them together via ethernet. I opened MA on the Mavericks MBP, followed instructions and opened MA on the ML MBP. Confirmed Passcode and clicked continue and waited for the files to list on the Mavericks MBP.
Applications, Settings, and Other files were listed but no User accounts were listed. Only those three items were shown.
I'm in the admin account on both Macs and the ML MBP has four user accounts.
What gives? Why aren't Users listed also?
Thanks for any help.

Here's some more information for you.
I have an iMac, Model 10,1 , with Mountain Lion installed. So, both iMac and one of the MBPs are running the same OS.
I thought I would try MA between those two. I set everything up to transfer from my ML MBP to the iMac, and all data was listed in MA on the iMac. MA worked great.
So why wasn't all the data listed on the Mavericks MBP when I ran MA between the MBPs?
The two MBPs are identical, Model 3,1 , except for the OS, one is the latest Mavericks version and the other is the latest Mountian Lion version.
I also noticed in MA on the Mavericks MBP that when the three items were listed only the Settings item had calculated the size correctly, the Applications and Other files were showing 0kb, which I know is incorrect.
On the iMac the sizes for Users, Applications, Settings, and Other files, were all shown and were correct.
Does anyone know why MA is not working between two identical MBPs, but is working between a newer iMac and older MBP?
Thanks...

Migration assistant to transfer data from PC - Windows 7 to MAC Book Pro running Mavericks

Hello Gurus,
I am having toruble using the migration assistant to transfer my data from my PC windows 7 to MAC book pro Mavericks.....
The MAC window for migration assistant keeps searching the source computer..... and windows PC says waiting for the MAC to connect...

I had the same problem, I solved it by turning off the firewall on both the PC and my MacBook Pro. It worked immediately after that. Hope that solves your problem too.

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.

OS X Mavericks Migration Assistant

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