Migration assistant utility...

This will be the first time I am going to use the migration assistance and any guidance would be appreciated.... Yes, both Macs will have the latest version of MacOS and no, the 2FA is not active.

The MacBook Air (MBA) is a business laptop and being replaced by a MacBook Pro (MBP), for both increased performance a storage. There are couple of programs that need to be migrated, such as QuickBooks 2016, MS Office 2011, etc., in addition to files, system and network settings. The plan is to:

1. Set up the MBP with a "new account", don't connect to the iCloud yet
2. Check the MacOS version on the MBA and update, if necessary
3. Connect both Macs to the same network
4. Start the migration assistant on the new and then the old Mac
5. Select "everything" to migrate to the MBP from the MBA, including user accounts
6. Restart the MBP and exit the migration assistant on the MBA
7. Test the user accounts, programs, etc., on the MBP
8. Delete the "new account" on the Pro

These are just the highlights with details omitted, but do have some questions...

When migrating licensed programs, will the license, data, settings, etc., moved to the Pro; more specifically QuickBooks and Outlook email accounts with the passwords?

Will the moved user accounts have their profile, with the password after the migration completed?

The user account(s) have their own Apple ID/iCloud account that utilized for backup. Will connecting to the iCloud result in duplicate files after the successful migration of the user account(s), programs and data?

Thanks in advance for your advise...

I just did what you are proposing to do a couple of days ago. In my case I was transferring from a Time Machine backup. to do an install from a new drive. With Migration Assistant most programs will transfer the licensing information. I'm not sure about QuickBooks though as I don't use that program.

I would suggest that when you create the new account use an account name that does not exist on the old machine. If you use an account with the same name there are sometimes 2 avccounts whith the same names and that can cause permissions issues and be a mess to clean up. Once the process is done you can delete the new account if you like. I usually leave the new account around as a clean accoount for troubleshooting purposes.

Thanks Sly...

Well, for some reasons, neither the MacBook Air, nor the MacBook Pro update to the latest MacOS of 10.13.6. The MBA is at 10.13.5, while the MBP is at 10.13.4, that's not going to work with the migration assistant.

I wish, I could use the Time Machine, but I do not have USB-C type of external storage and there's no USB3 connection on the new MBP. Nor do I have an Aiport Time Capsule. My only option is the migration assistant over WiFi.

I did create an account that does not exists on the MBA. Do I need to register the MBP prior to updating to the latest MacOS?

See if you can get the downloads you need from here?

https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos

ferrarr said:

See if you can get the downloads you need from here?

https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos

Click to expand...

Yes, I can, it is downloading now, but cannot promise that it'll install...

Is macOS updates are similar to Windows updates? In a sense that they are cumulative, meaning that I don't have to download the version 10.13.5 update, the version 10.13.6 update can be installed for the version 10.13.4.

Cr00zng said:

Yes, I can, it is downloading now, but cannot promise that it'll install...

Is macOS updates are similar to Windows updates? In a sense that they are cumulative, meaning that I don't have to download the version 10.13.5 update, the version 10.13.6 update can be installed for the version 10.13.4.

Click to expand...

That's right. You should be able to go from 10.13.4 to 10.13.6 without using 10.13.5. Every once in a while a situation will occur where you can't skip an update. If that happens the installer will rarn you either in the information on the download page or when the installer is run.

Actually, it doesn't really matter since you can always download the combo update which will include the initial installation plus all subsequent updates.

chscag said:

Actually, it doesn't really matter since you can always download the combo update which will include the initial installation plus all subsequent updates.

Click to expand...

Actually... I've downloaded and installed the version 10.13.5 update. Some update routine must've been broken with the new MackBook that had been fixed by version 10.13.5. The updated system found the version 10.13.6 update in addition to updating iMovie, Pages, etc., as well...

Sounds like you have things well in hand.

Slydude said:

Sounds like you have things well in hand.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't go that far, but thanks...

I did start and completed the migration, prior to the updates. Despite the different macOS versions between the MacBooks, it did finish the migration with some minor complaints.

One is the assistant tried to update the version on the MacBook Pro to 10.13.5, but it failed. Since there's is an option to "Skip" the update and proceed, I did and selected to migrate everything. During the migration, it did require entering the password for the administrator account on the MacBook Air, but not for the standard UID. On the other hand, it did offer making the standard UID administrator that I did not do. After the migration and subsequent reboot, I could not login with the known password for the standard UID, but could with the migrated administrator account. Changing the user's PWD to the known PWD resolved that.

Interestingly, during the migration the assistant asked for updating the iTunes, which I let it do and it worked.

All the programs migrated without much of an issue and most of them did not ask for licenses. QuickBooks had to be different and was slated to work with license for 15 days. Selecting to activate the license online presented a pre-populated license information and it had been a breeze to do that.

Most of the password for applications, Apple ID, iCloud, etc.,did not migrate over. QuickBooks had to be different here as well; after selecting the admin account for QB, it just logged in the account.

In so many words, migration assistant will work with minor version differences...