Transferring individual items with Migration Assistant

How do I transfer just what I wish from my iMac to my Air using Migration Assistant? I just can't figure it out. It wants me to transfer everything-which is way bigger than the 120 gig hard drive of the Air.

You can't....You might want to use different migration software available through a search on VersionTracker.com under the mac links....they sell this in larger software stores, although since CompUSA closed in my hometown, nobody locally has them...
BUT -- your best option is just to do a fresh install of the software or files that you want on your MBA...as time consuming as it is.
Of course, your other option is to set up your other mac the way you want it to look on your MBA by using your backup time machine (i.e. delete the files and programs you don't want copied over, then restore them from your backup after you migrate everything over)...which is actually time consuming and a pain in the a--
But the Migration Wizard only allows an all-or-nothing migration (while it does give you some option as to including files, apps, etc...you can't select from within those options)

Similar Messages

Transfering an app with Migration Assistant

Hi,
I deleted an application and it's widget from my HDD, they were installed to my HDD using an installer. They are currently sitting in my FW external drive that is bootable and I want them back on my HDD. I would just use SuperDuper! to do an Erase and Install but I have new data and apps in my HDD that I don't want to lose.
If I used the Migration Assistant to transfer them, would it transfer everything to do with the app and the widget for them to work properly from my HDD?
Thanks.

Does anyone know if you can use Migration Assistant to transfer applications to a new Mac and have them work? I transferred all my info: Word and Excel work, but not Photoshop and Illustrator. When I open them it says "cannot open because of a shared library error...".

I am having problems with migration assistant (windows pc to Mac 2011) When I get to the 'Quit other applications' box and click continue, nothing happens. There are no other apps running - any ideas, please?

I am having probems with migration assistant. Trying to transfer data from a windows laptop to iMac 2011. It was working fine when I did the set-up yesterday, but it was going to take hours to transfer some videos so I quit the process with the intention of doing it again at a later stage. However today I find that everytime I get to the 'Quit other applications' box on the Mac and click 'continue', nothing happens. Have checked mission control and confirmed no other apps running. Tried several times with the same result every time. Migration Assistant running on my laptop with the 'Waiting for mac to connect' box displayed. Mac is connected to wi-fi OK as able to use Safari and access internet. Any ideas, please?

Thanks for your suggestions. Have managed to get Migration Assistant working but now have a new problem, i.e. where does it save the transferred files?!! Searched a few forums and it seems it saves it under your old username, or suchlike. Anyway I tried logging on as a new user using my old user name but there were only a handful of files there, couldn't locate the majority of stuff from my old laptop. Anyway I don't intend to go through any more hoops with MA - will just save the important stuff to an external drive and transfer it that way. Not impressed with MA at all. I thought it was supposed to be a user-friendly tool to simplify the transfer from pc to Mac - not my experience, I'm afraid!

HT4796 Help needed with Migration Assistant, can't find files?

I've just purchased my first Mac (macbook Pro 15in) so please be kind, I'm so clueless it's ridiculous! Using migration assistant I've transfered aprox 100GB of files from my PC which seemed to take about 2seconds, but have no idea where they are or how to access them. The files were mostly music but when I opened itunes there is nothing in my library. The rest of the stuff was pics, docs, email accounts but none of that seems to be there either.. From the few articles I've read I seem to have somehow created another user account which is labeled Guest User/Sharing only, but I can't seem to log in as that user to find the files.. What have I done?! HELP!!

Congratulations!
... Using migration assistant I've transfered aprox 100GB of files from my PC which seemed to take about 2seconds, but have no idea where they are or how to access them.
It sounds as though Migration Assistant did not do a thing. With Migration Assistant, 100 GB will take time, no matter how the two computers communicate it will be at least an hour. Probably more. I recommend you connect them both to a wired network and make sure the PC is really using it. Wireless will take a lot longer.
I suggest you read the following step by step. On your Windows PC, you will need to download Migration Assistant. That link and everything else you need to know is in this document: OS X Lion: About Windows Migration Assistant. Follow its instructions to the letter.
The "guest" user is a feature of OS X and will not contain your files. Don't concern yourself with it.

Transfer emails with migration assistant.

My boss asked me to transfer all his old email from old macpro to his new one. Do i have to set up his email account on iMal first before i transfer them with migration assistant? Or will that set up autmatically while transfering?

On the old Mac. User/Library/Mail. Copy the folder to the new Mac to the desktop. Then on the new Mac from the Finder menu hold down the option key and click on Go. Select Library. Drag the Mail folder from the Library to the trash (don't empty). drag the Mail folder from the old Mac into the Library. Now launch Mail and check to see that all the email is there. If all is well empty the trash.

Backup will not restore with migration assistant.

This is long and complicated but here goes. Had a 10.5 machine PPC that was backing up to a time capsule. IMac blew out PS so was toast. Took it home and took another iMac 10.5 machine that had a bad HD. Put new HD into that machine and installed 10.6 and then ran migration assistandt from the old iMac HD drive from the unit with the bad PS. The restored iMac with the new HD was a perfect close of the older iMac and everything was perfect. Took to customer site and they were happy. Time machine started backing up again to the same time capsule as before. It created a new backup image on the time capsule with the EXACT SAME NAME as the older iMac had. I did not know that until a year later when the new hard drive in the rebuilt iMac failed. I took a newer iMac of the Intel variety with 10.7 on it to the customer site. I told migration assistant to restore from the time capsule users and data file. I di not want it to restgore programs since I knew the ones on the newer iMac where newer versions and probably not compatible. Restore seemed to go just fine. Users were all there and desktop looked the same as the older iMac with the dead hard drive. I had to install a printer driver but all appeared okay. Customer called the day later and said all files for pages and numbers and address book appeared a year old at the newest. See where this is going.
I went to the site and started looking at the backup files on the time capsule drive. Taht is when I noticed that two exact backup named files existed. So I started drilling down through them ( Not using time machine casues it only had 1 day history on it ) and looked at the dates of the files. Sure enough, one of the backup images had files that had all ended a year ago when the original iMac blew out the PS and the other backup file with an identical name had files much more current in the current month and year. Simple I said to myself. I just happended to pick the older file to restore from. So I renamed the older file so I could not get them confused. Double checked that the one with the current files was named correctly. Went to migration assistant again and ran it again. Completed just fine but sill no file less than a year old. NOw I am really puzzled so I tried a test of one simple file to see if I was wrong in my assumptions. The address book file was one of the files that was a year old. I went to the time caplsule and drilled down to the exact file that address book makes. I had already thrown the corresponding file away on the new machine so I copied the file from the exact same location on the time capslue back up to the same location on the new machine. I then fired up address book on the new machine and the address book worked perfectly with the new and updated and current records.
So now I am sure that the drive image that I have been playing with on the time capsule has the up to date backups. But migtration assistant will not move them to the new machine. It will take a very long time to move every pages and numbers files scattered around in various folders to do this manually. What is wrong with migration assistant that it will not work correctly.

I am not asking if there is anything on the card. I'm not worried about the backup or recovering all of my information. I'm asking if setting up the replacement phone as NEW will change anything at all when I use the OLD sim card.

What's the fastest way to transfer files with Migration Assistant?

I am trying to transfer everything from an iMac 21.5 over Ethernet with Migration Assistant and it is 20+ Hours estimated transfer time. Once I strt can I switch to Thunderbolt? Everything I've read states this is the fastest means.
Thanks!

Thanks. Through further investigation my old iMac does not have a Thunderbolt port so that's out of the question. I think it was going over wifi instead of Ethernet so I disabled my router and am now migrating from Time Machine via USB 2.0. Estimated around 3+ hours now.
Any idea how to get my old iMac out of migration mode?

Pb with migration assistant

Hello,
I try to install a new Macbook Pro with Migration Assistant.
I connect the Ethernet cable between macbook pro Lion (Source) and macbook pro Lion (Target) and i start.
When i arrived on the screen Transfer Information to this Mac, i select "From another Mac" and i launch Migration assistant in the source.
The target view the source but source can't view target.
I have always "looking for another computer" and nothing.
Thanks for your help.

Hi,
Sorry for my mistake with Pb, I'm frenchman and it's the first time I write a post..And sorry if my english is not correct... If you understand me...it's perfect
So, in the Pondini's Setup New Mac,(thank you very munch for that) he wrote :
Usually, the best way is to use Setup Assistant, when you first start up your new Mac. It will set the new Mac up just like the old one: all configuration, settings, users and data, and all applications (except newer versions already installed).
I make that, but nothing.
So I select "Do not transfer the know", and when I created the user, I do not choose the same as the source, otherwise there are a problem with migration assistant. and after, I used Migration Assistant to install all applications, configurations...But I think it isn't normal.
Today, i will try to install a new Mac with Time Machine.
Thanks for your help

Insufficient space for importing TM backup with migration assistant

First of all this is not for my main Mountain Lion installation on my Mac Pro, it is on a VM Ware Fusion virtual Mountain Lion installation that is running on my Mac Pro also running Mountain Lion. So this is really more a question dealing with VM Ware Fusion (or Parallels since I have the same issue with that as well) vs. a problem with Mountain Lion. Confused yet? I sure am....
I am trying to import a time machine backup of my previous Snow Leopard drive into my virtual machine. I did not want to import this into my new drive because I am starting fresh and trying to clean up and Snow Leopard had 10 years worth of crus I am trying to get rid of, but I would still like to have my old SL drive running within VM Ware to help with the transition. I have a Mac Pro with a dual monitor set up so I want it to run in my second monitor and very slowly over the next few weeks get all the files I want and need instead of just importing a bunch of useless crap.
Anyway, here is the problem I am having and cannot seem to get past this hurdle. When I open migration assistant inside VM Ware ML and choose my time machine backup of snow leopard everything works fine until it finishes calculating the size. I deselected all the files and folder I possibly can which leaves 209GB. Even with every single folder deselcted it still give an insufficient storage error I have already resized the VMware drive to 400GB which is more than enough. In my real machine under Finder>Get Info it shows it as 400GB, but within the virtual machine it is only showing the Mac HD to be 40GB which won't allow migration assistant to import the backup due to insuffient storage.
I have a Mac Pro with tons of disk space so I have plenty of free space to allocate but I have tried everything I can think of but came up blank. Sorry if my explanation was overly verbose or confusing but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. Haven't really fiddled with the settings in VM Ware in a while so I must be missing something.
So, how do you import files showing as larger than 40GB from a time machine backup with migration assistant without getting an error that there is not enough remaining space? And again, I have already resized the disk to 400GB that shows as 400GB on my real machine but only as 40GB inside the VM Ware Mac HD. I also have Parallels if that is easier to do what I am trying to accomplish.

I just solved the problem! And this is actually a pretty big deal because experts at the VM Ware Fusion website and many other forums told me it was impossible.
So here is the guide to running Mountain Lion in VM Ware Fusion or Parallels with a partition larger than 40GB and allows you to import an old user account from Tiger, Snow Leopard, Lion, etc..
1) Make sure to shut down Mountain Lion in VM
2) Under VM settings expand hard drive to whatever size you like
3) You will need either a disk image or an actual DVD of mountain lion, mount that in your VM and choose it as start up. After rebooting open disk utility and partition Mac HD. Instead of only showing the 40GB limit it shold now show the size you created from step 2. Close disk utility and install Mountain Lion as normal. Reboot and unmount disk image.
4) You now have a virtual Mountain Lion with whatever hard disk size you chose.
5) Open migration assistant and do your time machine back up as normal from previous systems.
The reason you might want to do this are many. In my case I wanted to have my old Snow Leopard user account open and running on my second monitor since I just did a fresh install on my Mac Pro. It is easy to import audio, photos, videos but there was a lot of other things I want to take my time bringinging over. There are also many cases where I needed to open up an app and view settings. Now I have my old machine essentially running at the same time as my new install side by side which is fantastic.

I need some help with Migration Assistant for transferring data

I would like to transfer selected items from my iMac (G4) to a new MacBook Pro using Migration Assistant, Can I selectively choose things to transfer? And are there any problems going from a G4 to an Intel-based machine? I'm mostly interested in transferring iPhoto photos and music from iTunes.

Migrating data other than your home folder may replace Intel components with PowerPC ones on the MacBook Pro, which will cause slow performance. Dragging over applications manually by restarting the old Mac with the T key held down and then placing them in the new Mac's Applications folder will work with many applications, but not all; any applications for which this doesn't work will need to be reinstalled.
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Transfering Settings with Migration Assistant

Can anyone tell me what "settings" are transferred when using migration assistant to set up a MacBook Pro (by either migrating from another MacBook Pro or from a time machine backup)? It always asks if you want to transfer 1) applications, 2) documents, 3) settings
Here is the background:
1) Applications: I am setting up a new machine (OS 10.6.6) from an almost identical machine that I barely finished setting up (also OS 10.6.6). I had only a few programs installed but because of known transfer problems due to licensing issues (Office 2011, Adobe CS5) was advised by colleagues just to install my applications fresh on the new machine, which I did.
2) Documents: I would like to use migration assistant to copy all my documents, I don't see a problem with that and I was planning to do that next.
3) Settings: What I don't know is whether I should restore/migrate "settings". Are these things like my folder display preferences or power settings (which may have taken some time to get just the way I like and would like to replicate)? Are these settings that pertain to my applications, which may not link up with the newly installed (un-migrated) applications and then cause problems? Or are these things like internet settings, which I've already gotten in place and working for the new machine?
So the big question is: what "settings" are these and will they overwrite or interfere with anything that I already have set up on the new machine?

what "settings" are these and will they overwrite or interfere with anything that I already have set up on the new machine?
Using Migration Assistant, all of your settings will be transferred: system settings, application settings, even .ds_store files: your windows will all be in the same place as they are on your other machine; your custom icons will still be there, your file structures, your desktop picture, your passwords, pretty much everything.
If you use Migration Assistant on the initial setup, the account you transfer from your old machine will be the main admin account on the new machine. If you wait and use Migration Assistant after the initial setup, a new account will be created to contain the migrated data.

Finding Files Transferred with Migration Assistant

Hi there,
I used the Migration Assistant to move my settings, documents, programs, etc. from my iBook to my MBP. The assistant moved most everything from my iBook over, as I couldn't pick and choose which particular applications, documents, etc. that I wanted to migrate.
I'd like to go through my new laptop's drive and clean out the items that I didn't want transfered but were since I couldn't specify the files and apps I actually wanted to transfer.
Does the Migration Assistant group the files that it tranferred in 1 easy place? The only thing I saw was the System Folder (from Old Mac) directory. If there is not, is there a way to find those files and applications easily (ie some general flag that files that were transferred from Migration Assistan share that I could search for via Spotlight)?
Many thanks,
sarah

The moved documents, applications etc. are but in the same general place (directory, folder etc.) as the original. If images are moved from the User's Picture folder, they are put in the new User's Picture folder. The same is true for music, applications, documents etc.

What is transferred with Migration Assistant?

I'm getting a new Mac, and am planning to use Migration Assistant to transfer my files. But I'm not to sure what transfers during this process. Since my current Mac has two users, can I choose to transfer from one of the users? Do all files transfer, or are there limitations? Does my Windows transfer?
Thank you in advance.
P/S: Sorry if I have any mistakes, English is not my first language.

It transfers one user account, it does not transfer Windows, the new Mac should not have any accounts on it when you start the migration.
Windows can be cloned using Winclone and restored later (read the Winclone instructions)
I would not use MA at all for this, I would use Winclone to clone Windows to the OSX partition and then delete the Windows partition, then I would use CCC to clone the OSX partition from the old Mac to the new Mac and restore Winclone.

Multiple problems with Migration Assistant

I have just wasted more than 4 hours trying to transfer all my information from my G5 iMac to my new 13-inch aluminium MacBook using an ethernet cable and the 'Migration Assistant'.
Perhaps someone here can enlighten me as to why this has been such an unmitigated disaster and where I went wrong.
I followed the instructions exactly as to how to proceed - this is what happened ...
The Migration Assistant showed that the items I selected to transfer were as follows -
Documents 5.9GB
Music 20.8GB
Pictures 34.1GB
All Other Files 5.5GB
Total 66.3GB
The transfer commenced at 1748. By 2053 the Migration Status in the dialog box stated -
'Transferring files to support applications' - the progress bar showed that this was more than 95% completed and the message below the progress bar stated 'Less than a minute remaining'. Both the 'Go Back' and 'Continue' buttons in the dialog box were greyed out.
After a further hour with no progress I terminated the Migration Assistant application. My MacBook showed that the transfer had been completed 'with some errors' - I cannot recall the exact error message but it referred to 'Charcoal' and fonts.
When I commenced the transfer I had only used 15.7GB of my MacBook hard drive. Apart from doing a custom reinstall of the OS I had also installed Office 2008:mac. After the transfer I ran Disk Utility which showed that I have now used 85.2GB of my MacBook hard drive.
HOWEVER, when I opened iPhoto - it is completely empty. Similarly, iTunes has no music in it either.
How can this be??? Of course, there are no documents in the Documents folder either.
Can someone please tell me whether I should simply do yet another Erase and Install (and waste another day of my time) or whether there is some way I can locate my missing data?
Needless to say, I never had these problems when I could connect one Mac to another using a Firewire cable and transfer my data via Firewire.
I'm sorry if I have made some very basic mistake here, however, I thought that if I followed the instructions as to how I could transfer information 'from another Mac' it would 'just work'. How wrong I was!
Tricia

Thank you for the suggestion Doug. A few extra hours of digging today resolved my problem.
I remembered that, when I initially started to transfer the data the Migration Assistant threw up a warning to the effect that the user name I was transferring from the iMac already existed on the Mac Book (am I the only one who uses the same long name and short name on two machines???). Naturally, the MacBook has to have the user's name set up before the Setup Assistant or the Migration Assistant can be used to transfer files and folders from another Mac. I recall that the only option that allowed me to proceed with the transfer was to change both the long and short names on the iMac (the machine from which I was transferring the information).
This prompted me to check Macintosh HD/Users.... I was surprised to see that, apart from the account I had set up on the MacBook there was a second user (with the new short name from my iMac). This User had folders for Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Library, Music and Pictures (all of which had the little red circle with the minus sign in the lower right hand corner of the folder).
So, I logged out as my normal user name and then logged in using the user name from the iMac and ...voila ... my iTunes music folder, my iPhoto library, my documents and all the applications on the iMac had been transferred to the MacBook under my iMac user name.
Because I don't want to have two user accounts on my MacBook I copied the iTunes music folder and the iPhoto library to the Shared folder - making sure that I first used Get Info to check the Sharing and Permissions for the folders which I changed to allow my 'normal' name Read & Write privileges. After they were copied into the Shared folder I logged out of my 'iMac name' and logged back in as my normal name. I then copied the iTunes music folder and iPhoto library from the Shared folder to my Home/Music and Home/Pictures folder.
I know it was a very 'clunky' way of getting what I wanted but it all works!! I'm now busily deleting the apps that were copied across from the iMac because, obviously, my iMac is a PPC G5 and my MacBook is an Intel. It occurred to me that I'm better off either re-installing from disk or downloading directly to my MacBook so that the apps are for Intel machines not the PPC.
Cheers
Tricia

Use new name with Migration Assistant?

I am getting a new dual core iMac and will transfer all my applications, files, and settings using Migration Assistant. I would like to use the same account name and admistrative password on my old computer for my new computer. However, I've heard this could cause problems.
Question: Should I pick a new account name and administrative password for the new computer when using Migration Assistant?

When you migrate your old account you cannot have an account of the same name already on the new computer. When you first setup the new computer create your first account using a different name. Then migrate your old account over. Log into the old account and delete the temporary account.
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. These versions are not universal binaries and will not work on Intel-Macs. 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 only current choice is USB Overdrive. 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 (does not work), TechTool Pro (does not work), SuperDuper (newest release works), and Drive Genius (untested) may not work properly on Intel-Macs. The same caution may apply to the many "maintenance" utilities that have not yet been converted to universal binaries.
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
Written by Kappy with additional contributions from a brody.

Transferring individual items with Migration Assistant

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