Migrating from a PC to MacBook

I'm a MacBook newbie and have run Migration Assistant to copy my files from my Windows laptop to my MacBook and now I can't find my files! I ran it twice, both wirelessly and then wired, both times took hours, but no joy. Where have they gone? And how can I do this successfully?

KayJ said:

I'm a MacBook newbie and have run Migration Assistant to copy my files from my Windows laptop to my MacBook and now I can't find my files!

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Make sure you're signed into the proper account (you may have only created one account at this point). Then check in the "Documents" folder on the MacBook?

- Nick

I did, but they're not there. I believe that, as I had already completed setting up the MacBook before trying the migration, the files might be logged under a different, new, user. But there are no other users on this MacBook that I can find.

KayJ said:

But there are no other users on this MacBook that I can find.

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To verify this…go to:

- Apple Menu
- System Preferences
- Users & Groups

The "Users & Groups" will list all accounts setup on the computer. Typically this is just the single "admin" account (with the user name you setup). But sometimes folks setup multiple accounts on one computer.

- Nick

Thanks Nick, I had a look but the only user listed is me!

Here's another idea. Double click on your computers storage icon. After doing this…in the window that opens up…there should be a folder called "Users". Take a look in the "Users" folder. I've seen sometimes that Migration Assistant will create a folder inside of the "Users" folder with the transferred info.

HTH,

- Nick

Ok, this sounds strange but I don't appear to have a storage icon! Am looking in 'Finder'. Should I be looking somewhere else?
I'm really appreciating your help with this.

Kay

In Finder, on the top bar of the screen, click on "Go" and then "Go to folder." In the resulting box enter "/Users" and click Go. You will see finder show the Users folder that Nick referred to. Your folder there will have an icon that looks like a house and your login name. That's YOUR folder. There may be a "Shared" folder there and perhaps one that Migration Assistant created with your transferred files in it.

KayJ said:

Ok, this sounds strange but I don't appear to have a storage icon! Am looking in 'Finder'. Should I be looking somewhere else?
I'm really appreciating your help with this.

Click to expand...

It's not weird. It's a setting which can display or not display the storage icon. To make your computers internal storage icon visible:

- Go to the desktop/Finder (click on the desktop anywhere).
- click on the "Finder" menu
- select "Preferences"
- now you will see a list with check-boxes (check all that you want to appear on your computers desktop). At least the internal storage icon at this point.

* Nick

FYI...KayJ. Two ways of getting to the same place (what Jake & I posted).

- Nick

Thanks both. I got there in the end but no, there are no additional users but me (one single account)! I'd start again but am not convinced I have learned enough not to simply repeat what happen on both previous occasions: migration ran for hours and hours with no discernible result.

It's not quite enough to make me regret coming over to Mac but it's working on me!

Woo hoo! I found them! In 'Shared' was listed my PC. I tried to access it, wasn't allowed as it wanted a password that I had never set. So I went and set a password on my PC and then entered same on the Mac and - bingo - i gained access to the files. Then dragged and dropped to my home folder on the Mac and it now appears to be copying them across.

Thank you both Nick and Jake for your help and patience.

Kay x

Try this:

Open Spotlight (The magnifying icon on the top bar, right hand side)
Enter the name of a file you KNOW was in the PC that is unique to you
When Spotlight has a list of files it found, click once on the name of that document, and the press the Command key. At the bottom of the Spotlight window it should list the path to that document. That path is where you should find the rest of the files.

KayJ said:

It's not quite enough to make me regret coming over to Mac but it's working on me!

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Believe me. Lots & lots of folks have much success using Migration Assistant. My wife recently moved from an older MacBook Pro to a newer MacBook Air…and had no troubles.

- Nick

KayJ said:

Woo hoo! I found them!

Then dragged and dropped to my home folder on the Mac and it now appears to be copying them across.

Click to expand...

It's great that you found a way to access & move/copy the files. But it sounds like what's happening s manual copying of the files from one computer to another (not using Migration Assistant). This method works fine (and was something I was going to suggest next if we could not find a solution)…especially if you don't have too many files to transfer. We could have done the exact same thing with a USB thumb drive.

Good luck,

- Nick

You MAY find that once they are moved you have problems trying to change them. The system will report that you don't have the authority to make changes. That comes from the way the "permissions" are set on the file(s). In OS X, each user has permission to read and write their own files, but the default on files from other users are set to "Read only" for everyone else. It's part of the security system of OS X. So, there are ways to change the permissions. The easiest is to right-click on the file, then Get Info and in the resulting window at the bottom will be a section labelled "Sharing & Preferences." In that section you will see what YOU can do, as well others. Leave the others as they are, but if you have Read only access, you'll need to click on the little lock icon bottom right corner of that window, enter an Admin password and then change the privilege for you to be Read & Write. Once that is done, you can make changes and overwrite the file.

The reason this happened is that the Migration Assistant instructions were not followed: you're supposed to do the Migration as outlined in the initial Mac setup BEFORE you create an account. If you do so after creating an account, it can't move certain types of files over for fear of overwriting what's now in place, so it puts them elsewhere. This is done out of an abundance of caution regarding the safety of your new files.