mac connector whadda-ya-call-it question

August 9, 2023 11:14 PM

I have a 2013-ish MacBook Pro (running Mojave OS) with 20k or so of PDF files plus miscellaneous documents (nothing enormous: mostly around 3MBs on average and a few up to 30MBs, distributed into folders averaging 100 or so files each) that need to move over to a new MacBook Pro: what sort of connector/wire do I need?

The new MacBook Pro has Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, MagSafe 3, and HDMI connections (according to spec sheet) among other jacks. I presume I need a connector of some sort between the machines to make this happen, so I'm wondering:

1) which one and what's it called?

2) how exactly do I go about this file transfer?

3) how long approximately should the process take?

4) and can I use either machine with said file transfer going on?

Needless to say, I know less about such matters than I probably should. Thanks in advance.

posted by 5Q7 to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

The best way to do this would be a USB drive or thumb drive. You’ll want a USB C adapter - the 2013 doesn’t have USB C, but a USB->USB-C adapter is cheap enough.

You might also consider something like Dropbox or iCloud for cloud storage. If these are important files you want an automatic backup.
posted by jzb at 11:59 PM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Unless you're in a hurry, I wouldn't bother connecting the machines directly—I would use either airdrop or even a thumb drive as jzb said. You can also use migration assistant. It sounds like a relatively small amount of data, so it shouldn't take much time. Migration Assistant will take over your machine - a direct file copy will not. For airdrop, just right-click on a folder, hit "Share" and send it to the other computer. Migration assistant will ask what you want to copy - you can choose the documents folder, but I don't remember if you can be more specific
posted by O9scar at 12:02 AM on August 10, 2023

Use a thumb drive or network connection for convenience and low cost. You should even be able to enable Sharing on the old MacBook Pro and use Migration Assistant to bring over your whole user setup to the new MacBook.

For your desired direct connection, Apple still sell the expensive Thunderbolt 2 cable and expensive Bidirectional Thunderbolt 2-to-3 Adapter. Why expensive? On Macs, Thunderbolt 1 and 2 used a connector called Mini Displayport along with powered cables, where Thunderbolt 3 moved to a connector shared with USB-C, also using powered cables that contain chips to manage the connection.
posted by k3ninho at 12:40 AM on August 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

When I do this kind of task I use an external USB hard disk as intermediary storage. Way cheaper per capacity gigabyte than a thumb drive, way faster to write to, and at the end of the process I have another backup of all my data.

You'd also need a USB3 A to USB3 micro B (probably) cable for connecting the old machine to the drive, which will probably come with it, and a USB C to USB3 micro B cable for the new machine.
posted by flabdablet at 1:39 AM on August 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

Just for clarity about what the options are, the direct connection process would use Target Disk Mode. You can’t connect the two devices and have them both running—you need to basically shut one down and mount it as a hard drive for the other. But I agree with everyone that an intermediate thumb drive is an easier route, and has the bonus of leaving you with a backup when you’re done.
posted by staggernation at 4:27 AM on August 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

You can’t connect the two devices and have them both running...
Thunderbolt creates an ad-hoc network when both machines are running.

One machine needs to be configured under Sharing as a Samba host if you're going to copy files via Finder. Alternatively, you can use scp/rsync in a terminal window.
posted by k3ninho at 4:39 AM on August 10, 2023

Just use Migration Assistant; it's what it was designed to do and it does it very well. Yes, it will "take over" your laptops for a bit, but it won't take that long.
posted by rhymedirective at 6:22 AM on August 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

One machine needs to be configured under Sharing as a Samba host if you're going to copy files via Finder.

Doing this would also let you get the job done without any cables whatsoever, as long as both machines are connected to the same wireless network.

That would go faster than a thumb drive but slower than any of the other cabled options, and you'd have full use of both machines while the copying was happening.
posted by flabdablet at 6:29 AM on August 10, 2023

Adding to the "just use Migration Assistant" vote. It will take over your machine, but from the way you've described the size of the files, I'd think it would be less than 15 minutes, and I'd be astonished if it exceeded half an hour.
posted by praemunire at 7:07 AM on August 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

Another option is to set up an appointment with your local Apple Store, whose staff can assist with migrating data via the Migration Assistant tool, using the right dongles and cables for your two machines.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:39 PM on August 10, 2023

one of these and bob's your uncle. i use them all the time. slide the button to one side, it's USB C. slide it to the other side, it's USB A.
posted by koroshiya at 1:13 PM on August 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

Umpteenthing using Migration Assistant. It's actually a pretty awesome tool. I've migrated two of my wife's MBPs using MA, and they both went perfectly.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:24 PM on August 11, 2023