What to do when Migration assistant stalls?

It had read 2 hours, 20 minutes left for over 3 hours. Thoughts ??

There are three ways to run Migration Assistant: (1) from another Mac over a network, (2) from another Mac over FireWire or Thunderbolt, and (3) from a backup of another Mac. If you're doing #1, try #2 or #3.
How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac

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Migration assistant stalls on "applications folder"

hi all
i'm having an odd problem upgrading a g4 dual gig desktop system to tiger using the erase and install option, after cloning my drive to an external fw hd. when i finish the install and get to step 3 (transfer your information) the migration assistant stalls on my old "applications" folder - it just sits there with the word "calculating" next to it. i tried leaving it alone for a while to no avail. with the "applications folder" checked (and calculating) the "transfer" button is greyed out. there is also an option for taking files and folders from the drive with the cloned system, and when i uncheck the "applications folder" and check the drive where this folder resides, "transfer" becomes active. i tried doing it this way, but it just copied the files to a folder on the upgraded system, without copying all my library support files, prefs and such. anyone have any idea what's going on? this has always worked flawlessly for me in many other installs. i'm stumped!
thanks
bruce
g4 dual gig "mirror face" Mac OS X (10.4.5)

well, none of that resolved anything. here are a few more details: after installing 10.4 and getting to the "import from another partition/computer" section of the migration assistant the file list shows the applications folder i need to access, but instead of a size it reads "calculating." even if i let it sit for several minutes this doesn't change. i ran the usual disk utility repair permissions and verify disk procedures, and everything comes back fine. if i try to boot from the clone everything seems very slow: boot up takes quite a while, it hangs on "waiting for apple file service" for several minutes and "login window starting" also takes forever. once it gets done i get a blue screen hang. if i boot into the new install of 10.4 and run the migration assistant, it doesn't see the partition with my cloned system at all. the first time i tried migrating the files, when it wouldn't see the applications folder, it did allow me to copy the files into a folder on the new system drive. this didn't help much of course, since it didn't bring the support files over. i'm resigning myself to having to reinstall all my apps manually, a big PITA.
<sigh>
g4 dual gig "mirror face" Mac OS X (10.4.7)
g4 dual gig "mirror face" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

What exactly does the migration assistant to?

I'm thinking of upgrading to a faster Mac, I'm tired of the slowness of a Core 2 Duo... when I get my new one, what is everything the migration assistant will do? Does it transfer all my apps and their product keys over? Or do I have to reinstall stuff? Do all my settings stay the same (dock, network, etc.)? What gets transferred, and what doesn't? And once the transfer is done, will my old Mac stay the same, or go back to default settings, or what?

Eric wrote:
Do all my settings stay the same (dock, network, etc.)? What gets transferred, and what doesn't?
Migration Assistant has several options that interact to produce different results depending on how you combine them. For instance, if you choose to transfer apps but not user accounts, then obviously user account settings don't get transferred. Conversely, if you opt to transfer users but not apps, user-specific application settings in the user domain will be transferred but won't do anything.
You also have options to transfer all or only some user accounts & to transfer all or only selected folders in their home folders. Transferring apps is an all or nothing process -- you cannot pick & choose which apps get transferred like you can with users. However, Migration Assistant will not overwrite newer versions of applications with older ones. Similarly, network & system settings will be transferred only if applicable to the new Mac.
Even if you opt to transfer everything possible, a few apps may require reinstallation or reregistration if they include certain types of anti-piracy technology.
IOW, there is no simple answer; however, Migration Assistant is usually able to sort out what you want quite well from the options you choose.
And once the transfer is done, will my old Mac stay the same, or go back to default settings, or what?
Your old Mac is unaffected.

Migration Assistant stalls every time, even with different backups

I recently had the hard drive replaced on my 2009 intel iMac. I have tried using Migration Assistant to transfer user settings and applications from both the USB backup drive of the iMac as well as my Macbook Pro but in both cases, Migration Assistant stalls at either 1hr 47min ot 1hr 53min and doesn't progress past that point. I've let it continue for hours but it just doens't go any further than that.
I assumed it was coming to a corrupt file but now I'm not so sure as it does the same thing when I try migrating from my Macbook Pro, which is a completely differn't system.
Any suggestions? Next, I'm going to try just transferring applications to see if I have any luck with that.
Any way to transfer applications manually? I have so many, it would take days to re-download and install everything.

It may have completed the migration. Have you logged out and then looked for a new user account to see if your migration was completed?

PC migration assistant stalls At "inspecting your computer".

PC migration assistant stalls At "inspecting your computer". PC is Vista64 Mac is latest lion up to date.

My computers happened the same too. I left the computers for more than 12 hour and did not progress to anything. It only said. "inspecting your computer".

What do I use when Migration Assistant reads "you might not be able to transfer using firewire on this computer"?

When using Migration Assistant to transfer from one Mac to another Mac, as soon as I get to the point where it says to connect the firewire to each computer, it says "You might not be able to transfer using Firewire on this computer". What do I use then?

firetruckjanet wrote:
The G5 is running osx 10.4.11, but so is the G4.
I don't know if it's the Tiger or the Leopard.
10.4.x is Tiger; 10.5.x is Leopard.
I've not used the Tiger version of Migration Assistant (just Leopard and later), and there's not much in the way of Apple tech articles for it anymore.
Since the message says "might not," I don't see any reason not to give it a try. At worst, it will fail and perhaps leave a partially-transferred user account on the G5. If that happens, we can deal with it.
I'd make sure the connections are snug and secure, and try it.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
I don't have any backups of the G4 and I don't have an external drive and I don't know anyone who has one.
If your data is important to you, invest in one . . . soon, and start making regular backups. They're not very expensive (some as cheap as $50, good ones perhaps $100). Disk drives fail, especially after a few years, other things go wrong, and even the most careful users make mistakes now and then.

When Migration Assistant won't work, what should be done?

I had to zero a hard drive, fortunately all of my data was accessible, and I backed it up on another drive. Obviously did a fresh 10.4 install, and all of the updates so the computer is now up to date.
How can I migrate everything to my new system folder, libraries, etc. I already did the Apps manually. The problem is that I used Desinstaller and accidentally removed panther system components that were still relevant to 10.4.6 (strangely enough).
Now I'd like to get my prefs, app support, and everything else to my new drive so my Applications will function properly (and registered again). Migration Assistant will not work because, while it is on another drive, it only sees my actual system folder that I use as a backup OS on the other drive, not the folder with my old system files that I backed up myself there.
So any programs or applescripts to set this up, so that prefs go into their new spots in the proper folder hierarchy?

if u own or buy a usb hard drive on ur pc find ur itunes folder that hold all ur app music and pictures etc
copy it on to the drive then copy it to ur mac
then open itunes up and c if it has found u data if it has hook ur ipod up
if its not found it u need to copy all data from the folder to the tab in itunes

Migration Assistant stalls: Solutions and tips

As a long-time Mac user and fairly competent OS X guru, I was not a happy camper when I found myself floundering through the process of migrating my 2007 MacBook Pro with OS X 10.7 to a brand-new MacBook Pro with OS X 10.8 this weekend. What was even more frustrating than serial freezes of the Migration Assistant was the lack of a clear roadmap to solving the problem. Fortunately I'm the persistent and methodical type, so I DID solve the problem and figured it was worth taking the time to write up some tips for future sufferers who might feel as though the only solution is to throw up their hands, take both machines to the Mac store, and fork over $99 to have them keep the machines for several days to do what ought to be easy.
1. Buy a Firewire cable that fits both of your Macs. 2007 and later MacBook Pros have the 9-pin socket as well as a 6-pin socket. The 9-pin to 9-pin cable works just fine. I think a 6-pin to 9-pin ought to work but haven't yet tested.
2. When you first start up your new machine, DO NOT go through the standard migration process. Just set up a temporary admin account as if it were a new machine that you were not going to migrate. Don't use your usual account name or the name of any account that's on your old machine -- just set up a temporary account that you can delete later if you don't need it. Oh, and a word to the wise: don't use a stupid password just because this is a temporary account! You might forget to delete that account and leave the whole machine vulnerable in case it got out of your hands.
3. Once you've got your new machine all booted up, do a Software Update. OS X 10.8 was installed on my system, but the current version is 10.8.2. What I didn't know (and no one at the Apple Store told me even after I had problems) was that 10.8.1 contained a fix for Migration Assistant freezes. Why I couldn't learn that by searching the Apple database I haven't the foggiest -- it's the kind of thing that ought to be front and center and well-known by all Apple Geniuses, don't you think? But now you DO know: update your machine before running Migration Assistant and you'll save yourself a lot of time and frustration. BTW, I could not do this through the Apple Store: 10.8.2 requires 10.8.1, so I had to search for the 10.8.1 update, install that one, and then download 10.8.2 and install that, restarting the system after each install. Sooner or later there will be a cumulative update, so if you're reading this sometime in the future it might not be so difficult. But it's always good policy to get the OS to the current level before trying anything fancy.
4. Once your software is all updated, turn off wi-fi on both machines. Migrating via wi-fi seems to be the default, and you could spend many, many hours waiting for that to happen. Turn off the wi-fi and plug in your Firewire to connect the machines. Theoretically this process also ought to work by plugging both machines into the same Ethernet router, but I haven't tested that yet either.
5. Start the Migration Assistant on your new machine. (Just type "Migration" into the Spotlight box and you'll find it). Tell it that you'd like to migrate "from a Time Machine backup or other hard drive" rather than from another computer. That's not strictly true, but that's what you have to choose to make the Firewire work. Then start the Migration Assistant on the old machine and wait for the new one to find the old one via Firewire. Duh, that one took me a while to figure out, and I only stumbled across it after the two machines connected via Firewire couldn't find each other and I threw up my hands and connected the old Time Machine backup to the new machine and restarted the process to try to migrate via TIme Machine backup. I hadn't disconnected the Firewire, and the two machines found each other on that connection within seconds. I'm sure Firewire was far faster than doing the same task via USB drive would have been!
6. Having already had the process stall on me several times, I was cautious about how much I wanted to migrate at a time. So I first did only "Applications," and then restarted the Migration Assistant to do "Settings," "Users," and finally the rest of my files. Each one took a while (several hours, with files being an overnight run - I have a LOT of stuff), but the results were just about perfect except for a couple of apps that didn't quite get all re-installed. I imagine that you could do it all in one go if you wanted to -- I'd just been burned too many times to want to try that :-)
7. One other tip: if your migration DOES hang, don't hestitate to CMD-Q and kill it on both machines. It doesn't hurt a thing although it may leave some partial (and non-functional) accounts hanging around. I haven't gone back to look for those yet, but eventually I will and I imagine they'll be pretty easy to clean up. And of course the corollary is that you can run the Migration Assistant as many times as you like, even importing apps and users from multiple machines if you like. Kind of useful if you're consolidating machines.
Hope this helps anyone who has similar problems now or in the future. After Thanksgiving I'm going to try migrating an old iMac running 10.6.8 to a new Mac Mini by connecting them both to the router since I don't have a 6-9 Firewire cable. I'll pop in to update this posting and we'll all have a bit more generic feedback on the best way to use that Migration Assistant. Sheesh, maybe the Apple Geniuses will all read this and be able to better advise their customers and keep those loyal folks who have used Macs for many years and are willing to do their own migrating from running into the same brick walls that I managed to find.

It may have completed the migration. Have you logged out and then looked for a new user account to see if your migration was completed?

Migration assistant stalls

I've done a clean install of 10.4.7 on a 15" G4 Powerbook 1.5 GHz, and am trying to use Migration Assistant to transfer my data from a 17" FP iMac (with 250 GB internal drive), also running 10.4.7.
The iMac volumes mount in Migration Assistant, but when I get to the Pick Users to Transfer to This Machine panel, the program stalls, with Space Remaining: Calculating and Selected Items: Calculating messages. This state doesn't change for hours. I can click Continue to see the Pick Applications and Files panel, but get the same messages. If I click Continue again, I get to the Pick Volumes panel, and there I see two of the three partitions on the iMac. But the previous panels never finish "calculating," and thus I can't transfer my data. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance for any help.

Did you run any utilities such as disk warrior on both hard drives? If not that could be the reason. Just because you install a fresh operating system does not mean everything is in order and it may have problems finding things like files on the hard drive. if you are using fire wire be ready for it to be some what slow. if do not have disk warrior you can use drive genus. i can't think of any oter ones that will do the job.
good luck

Migration assistant stalled

I am using migration assistant from a Macbook to a macbook air. It had gotten to 15 mins remaining, and then jumped up to almost 4 hours, and has been stalled there for a few hours now. This is after running all night and working fine to transfer files (via wireless internet). Do I need to restart both computers? What can I do to prevent this next time? The progress bar is almost at the end, and it is working on transferring application folders now.
Thanks!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Restart both Macs and start Migration Assistant after restarting in order to transfer the files that weren't transferred. It's easy to get interrupted the migration when you are using Wi-Fi, and that's why I recommend other ways to transfer your files with Migration Assistant. Read > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889

MIgration Assistant Stalls out on 'Searching for Disk...'

The main problem here is, I reinstalled Snow Leopard after some acting up by the OS. Backed up ON my main HD and tried to use Migration Assistant to restore the backup. AS of now, every time I load up Migration Assistant, it just stalls on 'Searching for Disk...' and never finds a backup.
I'll try and make a long story short, my optical drive was acting up so I took it in to the Genius Bar. Luckily, they had a new one in stock and replaced it on the spot. Upon getting my MacBook Pro (2009) back, everything was acting crazy. Lagging, freezing, etc. The genius told me it was normal that things start acting up after installing new hardware and that all I had to do was reinstall Snow Leopard and that before installation, it would ask me if I wanted to backup all my data and that once it was re-installed it would automatically come restore to its previous form. Here's where I think things got a little screwy...
I was running Snow Leopard but unfortunately when I installed it, it was from a friend's 'family installation' pack, so I didn't have the installation CD at hand. Anxious to get things fixed, I put in my original installation disc that came with my MBP. Looking back, it should've been obvious that downgrading might cause some problems. Booted to disk and I went on to reinstall. Right before the reinstall it asked me if I wanted to backup all my data to restore once the installation was done. Sure enough, it seemed to have worked so I figured all was going well.
The installation finished and asked me if I wanted to restore from a backup. Of course, hitting yes only gave me an error saying that the backup was created on a newer OS and that I wouldn't be able to restore it on an older OS. I was bummed out but it made sense. Fast forward another day: I call my friend and ask to borrow his Snow Leopard installation disc again. I install it, hoping to see the same, "Restore from Backup" screen at some point, but nothing.
I noticed right away that I only had 16 GB of HD space left (what it was before any of this madness) but everything looked as if it was brand new. After some clicking around through some folders I found the old backup within some folders so I figured that everything worked fine and Migration Assistant would be a quick and easy fix. From here on, Migration Assistant can never seem to get past the loading screen. All I see is, "Searching for Disk" and an eternally spinning circle.
Am I missing something? I've repaired disk partitions and done plenty of searching online. Am I just going to have to setup everything manually again? Thanks.
-Raul

Wow. Sorry, but you've made a major mess.
I was running Snow Leopard but unfortunately when I installed it, it was from a friend's 'family installation' pack,
That's a violation of the license. The +*family pack+* may be installed on up to 5 Macs in the same household. You need to buy your own copy of Snow Leopard.
It sounds like the prompt you got form the Leopard disc was to +Preserve Users and settings.+ That's an +Archive and Install+ of Leopard. If so, there should be a +Previous System ...+ folder at the top level of your HD. If so, that's where you found your backed-up stuff.
The +Restore System From Backup+ option on the DVD is to restore from Time Machine backups, and it doesn't sound like you've ever made any.
And you cannot use +Migration Assistant+ on that folder. It works to transfer from one Mac (or Time Machine or "clone" backups of one), to a different one.
If that's what you did, you'll have to install Snow Leopard over Leopard (that won't disturb anything else). When you start up, you'll have Snow Leopard and little else. You'll have to copy what you need from the +Previous System+ folder.
|
Once this is sorted out, in addition to buying Snow Leopard, you really should start making regular backups of your system. See the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), and/or Kappy's post on [Basic Backup|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12366915#12366915].

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.

Migration Assistant stalled-now have a mess!

Ok. I will outline what I did. I am really stuck....
1. I wanted to do a clean install. Followed directions to make a bootable clone of Yosemite. Worked fine.
2. Erased hard drive.
3. Installed Yosemite.
4. Decided that I didn't want to piece-meal my stuff back so I plugged in my clone and started up Migration Assistant.
5. It took a long time but it got down to 2 hours and 44 minutes and stayed there for a long time. I decided to let it run overnight.
6. About 10 hours later I checked again. Still stuck at 2 hours and 44 minutes.
7. Decided it was stalled. Had to hold down power button to get it to restart.
8. Booted up in Yosemite.
9. I was able to get some apps up and running by dragging from the clone to my hard drive. App by app.
10. Then I ran into problem #1-iTunes doesn't have my apps in it from my iPad (4th gen) and iPhone 6. It has my music but not all of it. It appears that all the movies are there. But I can't update to 8.1 because what I have in my iDevices does not match what is in iTunes. So how do I get my iTunes like it was before so that I can update to 8.1? I don't want to restore my phone and iPad do I?
11. I tried retrieving my iTunes backup from Time Machine but I got a message that I can't do that-maybe because it's from a backup prior to my upgrading to Yosemite.....
12. I have a Crash Plan backup but it's trying to get caught up from all the changes I have so I can't use it right now.
13. Can I do Migration Assistant again and specify which Time Machine backup I want to use?
14. Is there an app that will let me get into the nitty gritty Time Machine files?
15. Ugh!
I really do appreciate any help you can give me to get me out of this quagmire! Judy

Re: Why not boot from the 750 GB drive and try the migration that way?
Good idea, but no joy. I've booted from both the original 250 GB HD and the new 750 GB HD and in both instances Migration Assistant reports one of my folders has 239.8 TB. Any idea why such an impossible amount is reported? Thanks, -wjm

Migration assistant stalled ( 110 hours, after 30 hours ). How else can I transfer my data from PC to new iMac without wireless migration assistant?

i am a new mac user
i have a new imac
was trying to transfer data from old pc to imac using migration assistant ( wirelessly )
i had done it once already, but i noticed that although it took about 8 hours, very little data from the c drive was actually transferred ( i had not noticed i had to designated folders to copy )
so i did it again, targetting folders on the D drive and my external hard drive F - lots of data ( about 300 GB )
after an hour i noticed that the estimated time for completion was 88 hours ! i did let it run for about 30 hours anyway and hoped for the best ...
this morning when i woke up the time remaining was estimated at 42 hours, but then it suddenly jumped to 110 hours !!!
when i came home 8 hours later, it was still at 110 hours, so i stopped it - i assumed it had crashed ...
i got a message that one folder on my pc might have been lost - corrupted
incredibly, after more than 30 hours, no data had actually been transferred to my new mac !!!!
in any case, i see now that migration assistant created a new user account anyway, which i do not want
SO
how can i transfer data from my pc laptop to my new imac, preferrably with a direct cable connection as opposed to wireless, directly into my main account
and i how can i delete the other account migration assistant created in the initial "successful" transfer
thanks
chris

baltwo wrote:
Csound1 wrote:
Connect an ethernet or firewire cable between the 2 Macs, Wireless is the worst way to do it (as you have found)
Concur; however, the OP has one Mac and one PC (non-Mac). Details are in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518
Ah yes, forget the Firewire cable then, use ethernet.

How to migrate when Migration Assistant isn't helping

I'm helping a friend move from her old MacBook (OS X 10.4.11) to a new MacBook Air (OS X 10.7.1). Her home directory on the MacBook is Filevault-protected.
The first thing that I tried was using Migration Assistant to migrate via wi-fi. However, the two machines just stall at the "searching for other computers" stage. Neither computer is ever able to see the other (I had a similar experience migrating a Snow Leopard MacBook Pro to a newer machine, making me think that wireless migration just doesn't work).
I tried on a non-Apple wireless network, and on a network using an Airport Express. I also tried having the Air create an ad hoc network, and connecting the MacBook to that. In all cases, Migration Assistant on the Air was not able to detect the Macbook and just stayed at "searching for other computers" indefinitely.
The Air doesn't have a Firewire port, so a Firewire connection is not an option. I believe that it's not possible to connect two machines using USB and have Migration Assistant work over the USB connection.
I don't have the USB-to-Ethernet adaptor, so Ethernet isn't an option. The MacBook is running OS X 10.4.11, so making a TimeMachine backup is not an option.
I used Carbon Copy Cloner to create a disk image of the MacBook's disk on an external drive, in the hope that Migration Assistant could import from that. However, Migration Assistant on the Air won't migrate user data from a Filevault-protected home directory.
It looks to me as if the best route is for me to remove Filevault protection from her home directory, image the disk to the external drive, and then migrate from that image.
However, my understanding is that disabling Filevault protection requires free space on the hard drive equal to the size of the protected user home directory (at least temporarily). There simply isn't that much space available.
Is there a way that I can duplicate the user's home directory to the external drive, removing FileVault encryption as I go? Or can I clone the user's home to the external drive, and then strip FileVault from the copy there?
Any suggestions or tips would be gratefully received.

Also, I want to add that in the accounts section I DO NOT see two accounts there. I have been reading the forums and some suggested that after using MA it creates another user profile and all the files should be there. However, I do not see another profile. Also, I think it is strange that it took less than 1 minute to transfer my files! Help!

What to do when Migration assistant stalls?

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