Titanium Software Maintenance app?

[IWT]

I found this Apple document which might be of interest to you @BobHas:

https://support.apple.com/lt-lt/guide/disk-utility/dsku19ed921c/mac#:~:text=Mac%20OS%20Extended%20(Case%2Dsensitive,HOMEWORK”%20are%20two%20different%20folders.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

First question - how does a disk get AFPS?

It's formatted for it. After HS, it became the default format for the internal boot drive, and the drive was converted to that format during the upgrade process. APFS is optimized for SSDs, so folks with older rotating drives took a performance hit when the drive was changed from HFS+ to APFS.

My question about case sensitive stirred up a bit of discussion that reflects exactly the source of my difficulties being clear about it. My experience I think has been the MacOS is case insensitive when say I search for a file with Finder. I am much happier with it that way so worry when I see that a disk is case sensitive and don't know how that could surface for me.

That is how most of us, I think, feel. If I have a file named "ThisFile" and another named "thisfile" it is confusing to me what happens when I search for it in Finder. I don't use case sensitive format, and never have because I want to be able to search for "thisfile" and see "ThisFile" in the results. Recently, Time Machine has forced Case Sensitive on the format of the backup drive. I don't know why Apple chose to do that, and I hope it's not a fore-runner of some decision to make Case Sensitive the default (or mandatory) on the boot drive.

As mentions of Migration Assistant come up it reminds me I have never know much about it and what what all it can do. In this thread there have been multiple mentions. I have done some looking but have not found a good guide to it and the things it can do. It looks like having that in the toolbox for my current situation would be very helpful.

Migration Assistant is the tool provided by Apple to let you migrate your system from one Mac to another, usually to a new one. As such, it's a kind of one-time thing, although it's there for any other use you might need to recover from a backup, or a separate drive. Here is the main Apple article on it:

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Use Migration Assistant to copy your files from another computer.

support.apple.com

 

[BobHas]

"It is formatted for it" - right, but where do I control the formatting of a disk? I could have missed it somewhere like in Disk Utility - Erase, or some such.

 

[MacInWin]

"It is formatted for it" - right, but where do I control the formatting of a disk? I could have missed it somewhere like in Disk Utility - Erase, or some such.

Disk Utility User Guide for Mac

Learn how to use Disk Utility on your Mac to manage APFS volumes, test and repair disks, erase disks, and more.

support.apple.com

This is labelled for Sonoma, but DU works pretty much the same in all versions.

 

[pm-r]

when say I search for a file with Finder. I am much happier with it that way so worry when I see that a disk is case sensitive and don't know how that could surface for me.

Maybe getting a bit OT here, but even though the MacOS Spotlight has improved greatly with most recent versions, you may want to arm your Mac arsenal or your Dock with a copy of the free Find Any File.app if you haven't done so already for those times when you really do need to find something and the Finder searches either can't find it or won't:

Find Any File

apps.tempel.org

It also provides lots of options of just searching on the name alternatives:



I'm sure you'll be glad you did.

As for using Migration Assistant.app and its features, apple has a fair bit of information:

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support (PH)

Use Migration Assistant to copy your files from another computer.

support.apple.com

And of course a Google search for provide you lots of alternative choices for you to read and digest:

Mac "Migration Assistant" guide book tutorial - Google Search

One flaw of Migration Assistant IMO, unless it has changed recently, is that it does not emphasize the importance of when it is actually used to make it useful and without creating even more work that may need to be undone later on.



- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

One flaw of Migration Assistant IMO, unless it has changed recently, is that it does not emphasize the importance of when it is actually used to make it useful and without creating even more work that may need to be undone later on.

The new process is slightly improved, Patrick. And the explanations of what is going to happen are better, too. MA used to be a hidden mystery, but Apple has made it more transparent. Plus, the initial problems with permissions have been fixed, so it's possible to migrate later in the process and not have the issues that used to be triggered if you did it in any wrong order.

 

[BobHas]

I see Migration Assistant exist in my Applications/Utilities folder and shows a created date of Oct 7, 2017 and a modified date of date of Sep 26, 2020. Getinfo has those and says version 13 with copyright of 2015. I Given that this is High Sierra that may match with last support more or less.

So, when you speak of more recent versions are they newer and in some way accessible from this computer/OS?

 

[MacInWin]

So, when you speak of more recent versions are they newer and in some way accessible from this computer/OS?

No. AFAIK, Migration Assistant is macOS version specific. My version is 14.1, has the creation/modification date of the day I upgraded to Sonoma 14.1, as I would expect.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Randy, I read that article and it doesn't say which APFS format is preferred. It just discusses the various options that are available. Is there another reference for why "case sensitive" is preferred? I would be interested in the benefits and downsides of case sensitive.

Apple doesn't give any guidance on which is preferred:

File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on your Mac, format disks or volumes using Apple File System (APFS), Mac OS Extended, MS-DOS (FAT), and ExFAT.

support.apple.com

The Mac OS allows you to use both upper and lower case in file names, so logically it wouldn't seem to make sense to defeat that ability by making file names case-insensitive. But I guess that some folks might have reasons for wanting to do so.

Ultimately I think that which you choose will come down to whether your software runs with your choice. I think that making things case sensitive affords applications the greatest possibly of working, as they will likely work if you set things as case sensitive, even if they prefer one or the other.

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks, Randy.

I will say that NOT using Case Sensitive has not led to any issues for any application I have used, so I'm sticking with it as long as Apple allows me to do so. The only app I have ever heard of that needs (and forces) Case Sensitive is Time Machine, which basically makes no sense if it's backing up non-case sensitive data, but maybe Apple has a reason they aren't sharing with anybody.

To each his own, I guess.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

As mentions of Migration Assistant come up it reminds me I have never know much about it and what what all it can do. In this thread there have been multiple mentions. I have done some looking but have not found a good guide to it and the things it can do. It looks like having that in the toolbox for my current situation would be very helpful.

Migration Assistant comes with your Macintosh. It is in your Utilities folder.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/transfer-data-old-mac-to-new-mac/

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Thanks, Randy.

I will say that NOT using Case Sensitive has not led to any issues for any application I have used, so I'm sticking with it as long as Apple allows me to do so. The only app I have ever heard of that needs (and forces) Case Sensitive is Time Machine, which basically makes no sense if it's backing up non-case sensitive data, but maybe Apple has a reason they aren't sharing with anybody.

I've heard of Web-site creation apps that require case sensitive. But I've also heard that some Adobe apps require case insensitive. However, I can't tell you specifically which ones of either.

 

[IWT]

I see Migration Assistant exist in my Applications/Utilities folder and shows a created date of Oct 7, 2017 and a modified date of date of Sep 26, 2020. Getinfo has those and says version 13 with copyright of 2015. I Given that this is High Sierra that may match with last support more or less.

So, when you speak of more recent versions are they newer and in some way accessible from this computer/OS?

If it's any help to you, I have an older iMac running High Sierra and Migration Assistant is shown as 2.4MB and the Version is 10.13

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

I've heard of Web-site creation apps that require case sensitive. But I've also heard that some Adobe apps require case insensitive. However, I can't tell you specifically which ones of either.

OK, I don't do website creation and I got rid of all the Adobe stuff when they went to the subscription model, so neither of them impacts me. As I said, I'll stick with what I have until I'm forced to change.