Migration from iMac Catalina (Intel) to iMac Big Sur (M1)

[pine man]

Prior to creating a user account on your new M1 iMac, I recommend using the Migration Assistant with your latest Time Machine backup as the source.

I note that you advise using Migration Assistant prior to creating a user account. Presumably this allows the name of my user account from the old iMac to be applied to my new iMac.

Accepting this, do I have to change the name of my user account on the old iMac afterwards or can my two iMacs have the same user account?

The old iMac will remain in use in my name to resolve potential, purchased, software issues occurring if it is changed to my wife’s name.

I hope this makes sense!

 

[mfpv]

I note that you advise using Migration Assistant prior to creating a user account. Presumably this allows the name of my user account from the old iMac to be applied to my new iMac.

Accepting this, do I have to change the name of my user account on the old iMac afterwards or can my two iMacs have the same user account?

The old iMac will remain in use in my name to resolve potential, purchased, software issues occurring if it is changed to my wife’s name.

I hope this makes sense!

I’m using the same user account on all my Macs with no problem. Surely purchased software should not need to be aware of actual Mac user account names as they are usually licensed via serial numbers plus email addresses? If purchased through the App Store then it’s the AppleID (almost always now an email address) which matters.

 

[pine man]

Thanks for your reply and it's good to know that I don't need to change the name of the user accounts.

As far as the software goes on the old iMac, I was a bit concerned that if I, effectively, gave the old iMac to my wife and registered it in her name, using her Apple ID etc, some of the software on it, purchased for use by me, might create an issue.

 

[IWT]

Yes, Peter; it is essential, if using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! and Migration Assistant, to migrate from the backup source to the Mac before creating a User Account just as our friend Jake said - because if you create a User Account on the Mac first, you will have, as far as the Mac is concerned, TWO User Accounts.

Not only is this confusing in all ways, it means that you would not have "permission" to view your own data.

Many of our members over the years have come unstuck in this way; and trying to recover "permission" and true ownership of your data, apps and the like is a tiresome and frustrating endeavour.

If you follow the advice, Migration Assistant will move everything over to the new Mac including your current User Account.

Ian

 

[pine man]

Many thanks Ian, I think I'm now ready to get stuck in when it arrives.

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks for your reply and it's good to know that I don't need to change the name of the user accounts.

As far as the software goes on the old iMac, I was a bit concerned that if I, effectively, gave the old iMac to my wife and registered it in her name, using her Apple ID etc, some of the software on it, purchased for use by me, might create an issue.

Depends on the particular application. Some allow family use, some don't. Those which don't will probably still run, but not be able to be updated when new releases come out as she won't have the application in her list of purchased applications. There are some vendors who have software that "phones home" to the mothership to see if the product is licensed to that machine (Adobe, Microsoft are notorious for this). Those applications may give YOU a fit on the new machine because the UUID of the new machine won't match the one they have on file, so to them, you are an unauthorized user. For those products, you'll have to de-register the product from the old machine and register it for the new. Again, if you have a family license, you may be able to just use another registration. I have MS365 for Office applications with 5 licenses (I think), so I just used a license on a new machine when I upgraded.

 

[pine man]

Thanks Jake

Like you I have MS365 and don't anticipate exceeding 5 devices and I also have Adobe PSE which allows 2 devices. I do, however, have a fair bit of software that appears to be linked to my email address and others where I'm not sure what links exist.

I just thought it would be easier, to prevent any possible grief from vendors, keeping the old iMac registered to me and then being able to have copies of all sofware on both devices. This was the main reason for querying the use of duplicate user accounts, which appears not to be a problem.

Just out of interest I have been watching the discussion in 'No longer possible to manually upgrade RAM in M1 Macs?' I have certainly previously subscribed to the philosophy that you work out how much RAM you need then get a bit more. In fact I nearly ordered a 27" iMac this time as that would have given me an easy upgrade facility but it was much cheaper just to put extra RAM in the M1 when I ordered it!

Thanks again.

 

[ferrarr]

(Adobe, Microsoft are notorious for this)

They usually offer the software to be installed on multiple PC's, as long as the software is only used on one PC at a time.

 

[pm-r]

They usually offer the software to be installed on multiple PC's, as long as the software is only used on one PC at a time.

Thanks for that bit of information Bob, I was wondering if they still allowed such a policy as they used to do several years ago.

- Patrick
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[chscag]

Thanks for that bit of information Bob, I was wondering if they still allowed such a policy as they used to do several years ago.

Depends on the license Patrick. The license for O365 is actually more generous than the stand alone license in that you can have usage on more than one PC/Mac at a time.

Bob is correct in that the stand alone license that allows installation on more than one PC/Mac is limited to usage on one machine at a time.

Microsoft has tightened up the licensing for the Mac ever since Office 2011. Prior to that (Office 2008 and earlier) you could do multiple installs and did not have to activate over the internet.

 

[MacInWin]

Adobe phones home on installation (or used to before I dropped it because they went to a subscription) and won't install if the license is installed on another system. I tried to talk to them about this because I needed a Windows version and wanted to turn in an Apple version to get authority for a Windows version to run in a virtual machine and they flat turned me down. Even though the installation medium worked on both systems, the phone home process blocked my installation.

 

[pm-r]

Microsoft has tightened up the licensing for the Mac ever since Office 2011. Prior to that (Office 2008 and earlier) you could do multiple installs and did not have to activate over the internet.

I can remember those old days when I had an old version of MS Office installed and a finger-wagging message would come up saying I could not open my MS Word application as it was already open and running on another network Mac.

It might even still do so if we actually happened I have MS Word open and running which we hardly ever have need to do these days.


- Patrick
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[pm-r]

Even though the installation medium worked on both systems, the phone home process blocked my installation.

Isn't that when one would use Little Snitch.app to help resolve the issue as I vaguely recall to help overcome the issue???

But it seems as if your situation was slightly different. And I find it hard to believe that they actually turned down your request, but I guess I'm not really too surprised.


- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

Isn't that when one would use Little Snitch.app to help resolve the issue as I vaguely recall to help overcome the issue???

I don't think blocking the request for approval to install would allow the installation. It defaulted to NO INSTALL unless authorized. I didn't use Little Snitch, but I did try turning off WiFi and disconnecting from the local net to keep the machine out of the Internet. The installation balked, saying that it could not proceed until the machine was connected. Adobe was really pretty nasty about the whole licensing thing. That's one of the reasons I ditched them for Affinity.

 

[pine man]

Tomorrow is the big day when the new iMac arrives!

My existing Intel iMac is set up to save incremental daily backups with CCC on an external drive and hourly incremental back ups with TM, also on a separate external drive. Both lots of backups going back several years.

I intend to use Migration Assistant before setting up a user account but haven't yet made up my mind whether to use it with CCC or TM

However, my main query is, whichever I use, is it ok to use an incremental back up or is it, better/safer/quicker, to use a full, fresh back up?

Sorry to keep pestering.

 

[pm-r]

However, my main query is, whichever I use, is it ok to use an incremental back up or is it, better/safer/quicker, to use a full, fresh back up?

Personally, I would be inclined to do a new fresh clean recent backup just to be sure you have all the last-minute files and everything you might need, and I think I might be a bit more inclined to use CCC as I have never really trusted Time Machine and have seen TM goof up too many times for other users in the past. But maybe it has improved over the years.


- Patrick
=======

 

[pine man]

I have only ever used either of them to recover lost documents etc and never for restoration. Originally I was going to use TM but am starting to lean towards CCC. I will probably change my mind several times before commiting myself!!

I think that whatever I use I will probably start with a fresh backup, it seems to make sense.

Thanks for your views.

 

[chscag]

I have only ever used either of them to recover lost documents etc and never for restoration. Originally I was going to use TM but am starting to lean towards CCC. I will probably change my mind several times before commiting myself!!

I have both CCC and Time Machine working as backups. However, whenever I move to a new Mac my preferred method is to use the Migration Assistant and Time Machine. Of course that's before creating a user account on the new machine.

Time Machine in my opinion does a better job of migrating than CCC. You could of course use either, but I prefer and trust Time Machine when it comes to migrating to a new machine.

Your choice.

 

[pine man]

Come on you guys!

Logic, sort of ,dictates that using an Apple product like TM on an Apple machine should be the way forward but nothing is perfect. I suppose I could use TM for the initial set up and then, if necessary, use CCC later to make up for any shortfall?

My trouble is that I used to be indecisive but nowadays I just can't make my mind up.

 

[ferrarr]

If you still have the old Mac, and it stills has everything you need, you should be able to migrate from that with an ethernet cable.