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Take time to go through your Desktop, Documents, and Downloads folders.Why? Because in our experience, it's better to reinstall applications rather than migrate them.
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Make a note of any business-critical software you want to be certain is installed on your Mac after the migration.Your passwords will be needed to log in to your new Mac, activate your Microsoft/Adobe/Extensis software, and connect to file-sharing servers. Collect and document as many of your passwords as you can (or rely on a password manager.How To Prepare Your Mac for Migration Assistant In most cases, we recommend starting the migration, then walking away for the night.Īpple's support article, How to move your content to a new Mac lays out the basics of how to make this work.īelow we've added our own tips and tricks to make the process as smooth as possible based on performing thousands of migrations over the years. It doesn't do a very good job of estimating how long the migration will take, and sometimes it can get stuck and never finish. Migration Assistant can migrate data from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk - even from a Windows PC! The Truth About Apple Migration Assistant I use the software primarily to remote control the Mac, but its file transfer services is often useful.When it's time to move your content to a new Mac, Apple provides Migration Assistant to get the job done. I also use a VNC application (RealVNC to be specific) to transfer files via a "tunnel" over the internet from my Windows machine at home to my Mac at work and vice versa. This can be a bit of an effort to get working between macOS and Windows, but once setup it is easy to use. At work, I have a shared folder on my Windows devices which I connect to from my Mac. I use this at home with a number of Windows machines. This provides some additional data security and they automatically delete the uploaded files after a set number of days.ĭirect network connection: This requires that the two machines be connected to the same network and that one of them shares a folder on the network or it requires significan IT skills and/or special software. WeTransfer follows a somewhat different paradigm where you upload via a web interface and they email a download link to your target user. ): Most of these can be used with either dedicated apps or via a web interface. It only requires that the storage device be formatted in a cross-platform format, preferably exFAT.Ĭloud service (DropBox, OneDrive, WeTransfer, iCloud. USB storage device (thumbdrive, SSD, HDD. There are 3 general classes of method and I use all 3 a various times:
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