mac migration assistant looking for incompatible software takes a long time

Migration Assistant Looking For Incompatible Software Takes A Long Time Archive The Account

Enter ls -l Volumes in the Terminal, and you get a list of all internal, external, and network drives.

We managed to keep their previous computers working for seven years, but these new Macs will see my kids through to college and maybe beyond.

New Macs meant that we had to move all their files from the older computers to the new ones.

The old machines both had macOS High Sierra installed, and the new ones have the current macOS, Mojave.

Following Apples instructions, I started migration on both older systems to both newer ones.

It made for a lot of smiles and laughs as family members passed through the room with four Macs all chugging away at once.) Both computers gave errors at the end of multi-hour migrations, though one pair of computers appeared to have fully transferred data.

The other pair did not; it seemed to have transferred apps and system preferences, but left out the main user.

This may have been due to that user having parental controls set, though Migration Assistant doesnt warn of that being a problem, nor is there a mention in any support notes from Apple.

I tried three different methods to shift that user directory over, and only the third (and very technical one) worked.

Migration Assistant Looking For Incompatible Software Takes A Long Time Archive The Account

Delete and archive the account The most obvious way to move the account was to use the Users Groups preference panes option to remove an account, but archive its contents.

Then follow these steps on that computer.

Note that for later migration methods, youll return to use some of these steps, too.) IDG.

Make sure the Account Name is different from the folder you created in Users in step 9, as the Account Name is used to create the name of the folder in the Users directory.

In the Finder, select the new users folder in the Users directory and choose File Get Info.

If you cant log in, you may need to take one of the steps below.

For me, this option failed after step 6, with macOS refusing to delete and archive the account.

Use Disk Utility to archive the user folder as a disk image Disk Utility can create a disk image from a folder, and this seemed like the logical next step.

Disk Utility was unable to create the disk image, so I proceeded to the next option.

You will have to authenticate this move operation with an administrative password.

If the old account matches an account that already exists on the new machine, rename the folder you copied to the Shared directory to something else before you move it.).

Use command-line tools to copy all files Warning Its easy to make errors at the command line that could cause problems with your Mac, including requiring a full restore of the system and all your files.

This is essentially a recipe that you can follow with careful attention to detail in which you substitute in your own user account names and folder names.

Heres how it works.

An old Unix command called tar (for tape archiveits that old) creates ZIP-like archives of files and folders that exactly capture the directory hierarchy.

Just as with ZIP, when you extract an archive, the structure is reproduced.

Instead of creating an archive on disk, you can use tar to send the archive across a network connection where its extracted live as each file is added.

Its a kind of bizarre Unix copy operation thats often more reliable and possible in cases where others fail.

To carry this out, start steps 1 to 4 under Copy via a network connection.

Mac Migration Assistant Looking For Incompatible Software Takes A Long Time