Transferring from 2012 Mac to a 2022 Mac
July 11, 2022 5:23 AM Subscribe
Will be getting one of those new M2 Macbook Pros next week. My current computer is a Mid-2012 Macbook Pro, running 10.12.6. under the Sierra version.
Am I looking at any sort of problems transferring from such an old Mac (10 years baby!) to a spanking brand new Mac?
Do you have an external drive that you use as a Time Machine backup? That's the easiest way to copy everything over.
You will probably have some software that no longer works under MacOS 12.1 (Monterey). Go64 (https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/) is an easy way to check what you'll need to update.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:38 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
You will probably have some software that no longer works under MacOS 12.1 (Monterey). Go64 (https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/) is an easy way to check what you'll need to update.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:38 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: What sort of software do you use?
Generally Adobe stuff, so I don't see any problems there.
Do you have an external drive that you use as a Time Machine backup? That's the easiest way to copy everything over.
Nightly backups are done to an external drive via SuperDuper.
Looking at the Migration Assistant instructions, it seems like using that and wifi would be best. Is there any benefit to doing the Transfer via a Time Machine backup?
posted by clocksock at 5:44 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Generally Adobe stuff, so I don't see any problems there.
Do you have an external drive that you use as a Time Machine backup? That's the easiest way to copy everything over.
Nightly backups are done to an external drive via SuperDuper.
Looking at the Migration Assistant instructions, it seems like using that and wifi would be best. Is there any benefit to doing the Transfer via a Time Machine backup?
posted by clocksock at 5:44 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think the Time Machine backup or Migration Assistant should ultimately do the same thing. I'd guess that working from Time Machine would be faster than over wifi, but since you don't currently have a time machine backup, it's a moot point.
If the Adobe Software you use is through Creative Cloud, you'll be able to update it through the Creative Cloud app. If it's older stuff that you bought (I know a lot of people are still using pre-creative cloud versions of Photoshop), then you'll have to subscribe, as those programs won't work under Monterey.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:58 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
If the Adobe Software you use is through Creative Cloud, you'll be able to update it through the Creative Cloud app. If it's older stuff that you bought (I know a lot of people are still using pre-creative cloud versions of Photoshop), then you'll have to subscribe, as those programs won't work under Monterey.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:58 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Migration Assistant has worked great for me over the years, including between Intel and M1. If you definitely want to transfer everything over as-is, that's what I would do. I will say, sometimes it's nicer to start clean and just bring stuff over as you need it, but that is definitely more labor-intensive and error-prone. Some people swear by starting clean every time, some people swear by migrating. I've done both and I honestly don't think one is dramatically better than the other. They just have different pros and cons. I have one computer that has been continually migrated from old ones for well over 15 years and it's great.
Last thing I'll say is that if you can plug in wired, it will almost surely be much faster than wifi. I can't remember for sure, but 2012 may be pre-Thunderbolt, so that wouldn't be an option, but ethernet will still be faster than wifi.
posted by primethyme at 6:02 AM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Last thing I'll say is that if you can plug in wired, it will almost surely be much faster than wifi. I can't remember for sure, but 2012 may be pre-Thunderbolt, so that wouldn't be an option, but ethernet will still be faster than wifi.
posted by primethyme at 6:02 AM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
> Generally Adobe stuff
Are you running an older version of Creative Suite, from before the switch to Creative Cloud? If so, you probably won't be able to run it on your new M2 laptop -- make sure to investigate.
posted by mekily at 7:03 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Are you running an older version of Creative Suite, from before the switch to Creative Cloud? If so, you probably won't be able to run it on your new M2 laptop -- make sure to investigate.
posted by mekily at 7:03 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Echoing what others have said about using Migration Assistant. I've found it to be amazingly good, in a "I can't believe it was that easy" kind of way. If you had to do upgrades and transfers many years ago, before Migration Assistant existed, it will seem like magic.
I agree with jonathanhughes and primethyme that wifi will be slower than using either a hard disk connected directly to the new computer or using a wired connection of some kind. Depending on the quality of your wifi network, it might also be more robust against interruptions, so it may be worth considering. Roughly in order of speed, your options are:
1. Make a Time Machine backup just for this occasion to a spare external drive you may have. If it's a recent vintage drive, the drive will almost certainly be faster than wifi to a 2012-vintage Mac.
2. Reboot the old Mac in Target Disk Mode and connect it to the new Mac; it will show up as an external disk drive on the new Mac, and you can then use it as a source in Migration Assistant. Note #1: Target Disk Mode is apparently called "Share Disk" when using Apple silicon, but since it's the old Mac that's you would put into this mode, it's Target Disk Mode for that one. Note #2: if you have a firmware password set on the old Mac, you will need to disable it first before it will let you boot into Target Disk Mode. Note #3: you will need a USB-C to USB-A cable for this; they are less than US $15 on Amazon and handy to have anyway, so might be worth getting. Make sure it's certified USB 3.1 Gen2 for maximum speed.
3. Connect the two Macs using an Ethernet cable. MacOS should automatically configure a network between them. Your 2012 Mac probably has an ethernet port built in, but your M2 Mac doesn't, and so you'll need a USB-to-Ethernet adapter. A USB-C to Ethernet adapter is less than US $25 on Amazon, and IMHO such an adapter is worth having in any case.
If you do use wifi, an option that might be faster than connecting both Macs via wifi to a wifi network is to set up one of the Macs as a wifi base/hotspot, and then connect the other Mac to that one via wifi. I haven't done it this way but it should work in theory, and might be a bit more robust.
posted by StrawberryPie at 7:13 AM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
I agree with jonathanhughes and primethyme that wifi will be slower than using either a hard disk connected directly to the new computer or using a wired connection of some kind. Depending on the quality of your wifi network, it might also be more robust against interruptions, so it may be worth considering. Roughly in order of speed, your options are:
1. Make a Time Machine backup just for this occasion to a spare external drive you may have. If it's a recent vintage drive, the drive will almost certainly be faster than wifi to a 2012-vintage Mac.
2. Reboot the old Mac in Target Disk Mode and connect it to the new Mac; it will show up as an external disk drive on the new Mac, and you can then use it as a source in Migration Assistant. Note #1: Target Disk Mode is apparently called "Share Disk" when using Apple silicon, but since it's the old Mac that's you would put into this mode, it's Target Disk Mode for that one. Note #2: if you have a firmware password set on the old Mac, you will need to disable it first before it will let you boot into Target Disk Mode. Note #3: you will need a USB-C to USB-A cable for this; they are less than US $15 on Amazon and handy to have anyway, so might be worth getting. Make sure it's certified USB 3.1 Gen2 for maximum speed.
3. Connect the two Macs using an Ethernet cable. MacOS should automatically configure a network between them. Your 2012 Mac probably has an ethernet port built in, but your M2 Mac doesn't, and so you'll need a USB-to-Ethernet adapter. A USB-C to Ethernet adapter is less than US $25 on Amazon, and IMHO such an adapter is worth having in any case.
If you do use wifi, an option that might be faster than connecting both Macs via wifi to a wifi network is to set up one of the Macs as a wifi base/hotspot, and then connect the other Mac to that one via wifi. I haven't done it this way but it should work in theory, and might be a bit more robust.
posted by StrawberryPie at 7:13 AM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Any 32-bit applications that you use will no longer work, so you should look over your list of applications to ensure that nothing critical will be broken. To do that, go to "About This Mac" in the Apple menu, then choose "System Report" (or something similar; it might have been called Profile or Information in earlier MacOS versions) and click on the Applications item. You can then sort by Kind to see what, if any, 32-bit applications you have.
posted by brianogilvie at 7:32 AM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by brianogilvie at 7:32 AM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
I migrated to an m1 air from an old intel mac. That mac had been migrated maybe 4 times. The migration was SLOW and buggy and didn't launch properly.
I then made a clean account on the new m1 air and manually dragged all the data over from the migrated account...... and used the new account as my main account.
It was night and day. The cruft from 10+versions of OSX/MacOS and old config files was gone, and it sped up considerably.
If you have the time I would do it this way.
posted by lalochezia at 7:42 AM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
I then made a clean account on the new m1 air and manually dragged all the data over from the migrated account...... and used the new account as my main account.
It was night and day. The cruft from 10+versions of OSX/MacOS and old config files was gone, and it sped up considerably.
If you have the time I would do it this way.
posted by lalochezia at 7:42 AM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Regarding lalochezia's approach: it's true that's another option, but I feel I have to caution people that whether the approach works depends on the applications you use and also whether (and how) you do customizations to certain things like keyboard shortcuts. Those might not carry over, and some applications may fail to start entirely. So, the feasibility of doing it this way depends on the details of what exactly the user has done and what software they use.
posted by StrawberryPie at 9:12 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by StrawberryPie at 9:12 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Not to abuse the edit window:
All that said, lalochezia makes a good point, and it's worth considering that approach if it sounds like it will be an option for you.
posted by StrawberryPie at 9:14 AM on July 11, 2022
All that said, lalochezia makes a good point, and it's worth considering that approach if it sounds like it will be an option for you.
posted by StrawberryPie at 9:14 AM on July 11, 2022
Mac OS has a built-in Migration Assistant that works wirelessly. It's pretty easy to do.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:04 AM on July 11, 2022
posted by Thorzdad at 10:04 AM on July 11, 2022
I recently migrated from a 2013 Macbook Pro to a new M1 Macbook Pro. Migration assistant over wifi failed twice. It hung up at the very end of the tranfer during the first attempt, and the second attempt hung up at the very start of the transfer. Migrating from a time machine backup went smoothly. I have migrated computers several times so I probably do have a lot of old cruft gumming up the works.
posted by gamera at 10:21 AM on July 11, 2022
posted by gamera at 10:21 AM on July 11, 2022
I will nth that migrating from a Time Machine backup goes a lot more smoothly, plus you don't have to worry about a blip in your wifi connection or internet speed making your transfer hang, or spend a ton of time staring at the progress bar wondering if it's really maintaining the wifi connection and transferring. A Time Machine migration will likely be a lot faster, though admittedly you will have to factor in the time to make the Time Machine backup in the first place. Still, it'd drive me crazy to have the wifi transfer fail multiple times on account of internet connection issues, so it's worth it to me to go the more stable Time Machine route.
posted by yasaman at 12:51 PM on July 11, 2022
posted by yasaman at 12:51 PM on July 11, 2022
Response by poster: Perhaps a mistake has been made in getting this particular MacBook Pro.
Currently I use at least 3 ports, one for power, another to link to a USB hub and finally an HDMI port (with a VGA converter) for a second monitor (which is an old dell model with no USB ports) . The new M2 only has two ports total, one of which is used to power the machine itself.
This new M2 will be unable to power all those things, correct? Due to the low number of ports?
posted by clocksock at 3:31 PM on July 11, 2022
Currently I use at least 3 ports, one for power, another to link to a USB hub and finally an HDMI port (with a VGA converter) for a second monitor (which is an old dell model with no USB ports) . The new M2 only has two ports total, one of which is used to power the machine itself.
This new M2 will be unable to power all those things, correct? Due to the low number of ports?
posted by clocksock at 3:31 PM on July 11, 2022
Best answer: If you're on the MacBook Pro I think you are, you could get up to 10.15 Catalina, though you'd have to deal with the 32-bit deprecation. I think there was an OpenGL something in the previous release or two.
Re: ports, you have options:
* a new usb-c hub could also supply power to the MacBook
* I think this Apple adapter dongle would do everything you want, take in power, and take only one port
* this Anker hub is cheaper than the Apple adapter
posted by Pronoiac at 4:20 PM on July 11, 2022
Re: ports, you have options:
* a new usb-c hub could also supply power to the MacBook
* I think this Apple adapter dongle would do everything you want, take in power, and take only one port
* this Anker hub is cheaper than the Apple adapter
posted by Pronoiac at 4:20 PM on July 11, 2022
Best answer: If your 2012 device has Thundebolt, then a bi-directional Thunderbolt 2/3 adapter and a square-type (aka mini-DisplayPort) Thunderbolt 2 cable will get the best out of Target Disk Mode.
posted by k3ninho at 4:24 PM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by k3ninho at 4:24 PM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
OSX 10.12.6 (from 2017!) is so old that Migration Assistant or Time Machine backups may not work, but it's worth trying to migrate first instead of upgrading the old laptop to the newest version of MacOS (which may cause its own set of problems).
I'd try to do Time Machine backups instead of Migration Assistant just because it may take a very, very long time (or get stuck on something) and you won't be able to use your older laptop during this process.
posted by meowzilla at 10:13 PM on July 11, 2022
I'd try to do Time Machine backups instead of Migration Assistant just because it may take a very, very long time (or get stuck on something) and you won't be able to use your older laptop during this process.
posted by meowzilla at 10:13 PM on July 11, 2022
Re ports... I bought a CalDigit Element Hub, into which I can plug an external drive, my old Dell monitor (with an adapter), and various other USB-A or -C devices. It has a single cable from there to the laptop. It works well and it's very nice only being connected by a single cable. It also seems stupidly expensive for a hub and feels like a luxury.
posted by fabius at 5:43 AM on July 12, 2022
posted by fabius at 5:43 AM on July 12, 2022
Just recently I got a Mac Studio and ran Migration Assistant from my old 2009 Mac Pro running 10.12.6 to the new Mac Studio running Monterey.
It seemed on the surface like it worked, but I immediately started running into problems, the biggest of which was that I could not for the life of me get it to download Rosetta 2, the interoperability layer that allows running apps compiled for the Intel processors. It attempts to download it there first time you run an Intel-compiled app, but every single time I did this, it said “cannot download. Check your internet connection.” I tried all sorts of things but nothing worked. I erased it and started over with a clean install and it worked fine the first time I tried running such a program.
I’m quite techy, even more so than my husband, who told me I should do it as a clean install and download programs again and set things up that way. So that’s two votes for that direction.
You can check apps on https://isapplesiliconready.com/ to see if there is a version that is native to Apple silicon.
posted by tubedogg at 3:43 PM on July 12, 2022
It seemed on the surface like it worked, but I immediately started running into problems, the biggest of which was that I could not for the life of me get it to download Rosetta 2, the interoperability layer that allows running apps compiled for the Intel processors. It attempts to download it there first time you run an Intel-compiled app, but every single time I did this, it said “cannot download. Check your internet connection.” I tried all sorts of things but nothing worked. I erased it and started over with a clean install and it worked fine the first time I tried running such a program.
I’m quite techy, even more so than my husband, who told me I should do it as a clean install and download programs again and set things up that way. So that’s two votes for that direction.
You can check apps on https://isapplesiliconready.com/ to see if there is a version that is native to Apple silicon.
posted by tubedogg at 3:43 PM on July 12, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks everyone, adapter ordered, a Time Machine backup has been made, and now it's just a matter of waiting for the laptop to arrive (jesus, get out of Anchorage why don't ya).
I'm leaning towards just keeping the fresh install on the new machine and moving over documents and apps to the new machine. That way 10 years of cruft will be avoided, the chain to the Adobe system will be purposefully broken, and a fresh start will begin!
Thanks again!
posted by clocksock at 1:55 PM on July 13, 2022
I'm leaning towards just keeping the fresh install on the new machine and moving over documents and apps to the new machine. That way 10 years of cruft will be avoided, the chain to the Adobe system will be purposefully broken, and a fresh start will begin!
Thanks again!
posted by clocksock at 1:55 PM on July 13, 2022
Response by poster: Final note:
Ended up using Migration Assistant over wifi, which took about 8 hours. This sounds ridiculous and way to long, but it had a huge benefit: once I clicked a few buttons I didn't have to do anything.
Yes, it took 8 hours and I couldn't use either computer during that process, but I didn't have to monitor the process or do anything. Instead, ran several errands and did various other important non-computer tasks.
Once the process was over, just switched to the new laptop and everything has been working fine. Feels like I hit some magical tech jackpot by not having to do anything!
posted by clocksock at 7:51 PM on July 16, 2022
Ended up using Migration Assistant over wifi, which took about 8 hours. This sounds ridiculous and way to long, but it had a huge benefit: once I clicked a few buttons I didn't have to do anything.
Yes, it took 8 hours and I couldn't use either computer during that process, but I didn't have to monitor the process or do anything. Instead, ran several errands and did various other important non-computer tasks.
Once the process was over, just switched to the new laptop and everything has been working fine. Feels like I hit some magical tech jackpot by not having to do anything!
posted by clocksock at 7:51 PM on July 16, 2022
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posted by nickggully at 5:32 AM on July 11, 2022