MIGRATION ADVICE PLEASE - New Macbook Pro

Forums › Mac OS › MIGRATION ADVICE PLEASE - New Macbook Pro

dimsim

867 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 151

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#222949 5-Sep-2017 11:18

My sister has just handed me her old and new macbooks and asked me to migrate then but her new macbook only has half the hard drive space of her old one (512gb vs 1TB)

She uses iPhoto and the library for that alone is 640GB, wondering what the best approach here is as looks like upgrading the internal SSD isn't possible right now.

As the new macbook has the Thunderbolt 3 USB-C type ports its probably best for her to get a large capacity fast new external HDD so I think I have a two options..

Move her iPhoto library to the new external HDD then carryout the migration?
Carryout the migration without moving photos, then copy the old library to the external drive and reconnect it to iPhoto on the new machine?

Also does anyone have any external HDD recommendations, form what I can find the LaCie Rugged STFR4000800 4 TB 2.5" External Hard Drive - USB Type C looks like the best option at the most reasonable price.

Any/all recommendations appreciated.

Thanks.

dimsim

867 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 151

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1860675 8-Sep-2017 08:57

Wish someone had piped up and said tread carefully with the Migration Assistant! it not only transferred all the data and application but also a whole host of problems..

I've since freshly rebuilt the new machine and am manually installing apps and restoring data but for some reason the Mac Mail isnt going as expected.

I've backed up and copied the following files/folder

~/Library/Mail

~/Library/Keychains

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

When I first opened mac mail on the new machine it upgraded the database (looks like V2 to V4) but then wanted a mail account added which i though was the point of copying com.apple.mail.plist and the Keychains folder. I've since manually added the account but it opened without any of the old mail that I copied over.

Anyone care to lend a hand?

nedkelly

666 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 104

Trusted

Subscriber

#1860724 8-Sep-2017 10:37

dimsim:

Wish someone had piped up and said tread carefully with the Migration Assistant! it not only transferred all the data and application but also a whole host of problems..

I've since freshly rebuilt the new machine and am manually installing apps and restoring data but for some reason the Mac Mail isnt going as expected.

I've backed up and copied the following files/folder

~/Library/Mail

~/Library/Keychains

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

When I first opened mac mail on the new machine it upgraded the database (looks like V2 to V4) but then wanted a mail account added which i though was the point of copying com.apple.mail.plist and the Keychains folder. I've since manually added the account but it opened without any of the old mail that I copied over.

Anyone care to lend a hand?

Sorry, I normally keep a close eye on the Mac OS threads but has not been much activity recently.

Yeah Migration assistant is quite a pain, I personally just manually copy files over and setup everything else from scratch, had some bad issues occur from jumping a few OS X releases to the newest and having old settings break new stuff due to changes.

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
9332 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6198

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1860862 8-Sep-2017 13:00

Maybe not really what you're looking for but iCloud storage is pretty cheap at NZ$1.50/ month for 50GB.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Sam91

620 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 183

#1860871 8-Sep-2017 13:15

I've never used migration assistant. I thought restoring from a time machine backup would've been easier. Although, you'd still have to back up her photos separately to reduce the back up size.

dimsim

867 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 151

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1861033 8-Sep-2017 16:36

just got a 4tb portable thunderbolt drive and its perfect...

really need to sort the email...

is the above process correct? should that restore the old mailbox and accounts settings?

is going from 10.7.5 to Sierra a problem with the mail or have i missed a step somewhere?