6 easy steps to migrate your Mac using Time Machine

If you use Time Machine in Leopard, then transferring your stuff to a new Mac might be a bit simpler than you thought. With Migration Assistant, you can easily transfer Applications, Documents, Settings, and more. In this Mac 101, we're going to show you how it's done, and how you can do it yourself!

1. Make sure you have a recent backup
Make sure you have a recent Time Machine backup on the machine you wish to transfer your information from. To check, go to System Preferences (Apple menu) > Time Machine. If you see a recent backup, then you're set; if not, click "show Time Machine status in the menu bar." In the resulting menu bar item, click "Back up now." Time Machine will make a new backup.

2. Make sure you're not leaving anything behind
In the Time Machine System Preference pane, click the Options button. In the dialog box, you can see all the folders you have chosen not to backup -- check these to make sure you really don't want them. If you do, click the folder and chose the "-" (minus button) at the bottom. Click OK and backtrack to step 1 to create a current backup.

3. Getting the new machine ready
From this point, you can deviate into two directions:

If your Mac is new: Boot up the new Mac and go through the setup screens. When the setup assistant asks if you want to migrate information from your old Mac, choose "From Time Machine backup or other disk."
If your Mac has an existing account, don't fret. Just open "Migration Assistant" located in /Applications/Utilities.

4. Connecting your Time Machine drive to the new machine
Once you have completed the above step, click continue. Migration Assistant will ask you to specify the backup you would like to transfer to the new machine.

Migrating to a new Mac

Continue reading for more details...

5. Select the account you wish to transfer
You will now be presented with a dialog showing all the accounts that were on the old machine. Select one, two, or all of them, and click continue. If you want more options (such as what to transfer), click the gray disclosure triangle next to the account name. The resulting view will allow you to opt-out of transferring certain folders (i.e. Pictures, Documents, etc.).

6. And you're done ... almost
In the next few dialog boxes, you can opt to transfer Applications or Network Settings. Once you click transfer, your account will be copied in its entirety to your new Mac.

An important note: If you already have an account on the Mac you're transferring to, the account name cannot be the same as the one you're transferring. In other words, you can't copy an account if one exists on the new computer with the same name.

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If you use Time Machine in Leopard, then transferring your stuff to a new Mac might be a bit simpler than you thought. With Migration...

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eremek

Ok, I want to move all from Macbook 10.4 to my new Macbook 10.5. No Firewire port on new machine required by Migration 10.4. Old machine only supports wire to wire. Workaround??

November 23 2008 at 11:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to eremek's comment

eremek

Saw the earlier post on this. But the computers cannot find each other............now what

November 23 2008 at 11:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

AlexH

Awesome tip. I used an external hard drive + time machine to transfer all of my data onto my new MacBook Pro recently. It works great, but just a quick tip to all who go this route, you might have to manually make Spotlight re-index your hard drive. I had to. It's really easy, fairly quick, and certainly painless. Works great.

November 22 2008 at 12:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dank

Hello.

Can i backup multiple Macs in the same disk? The thing is i am backing up mine, but i want to backup the entire MacBook of a friend of mine so i can restore everything after the new fresh install of Leopard.
Thanks in advance.

Take care.

November 18 2008 at 5:13 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gizmo

Thank you for your answer ;-)

November 06 2008 at 5:13 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dhanur

Hi, I will be migrating to a new Macbook via Time Machine, I won't pysically have my old Macbook .. so Im hoping Time Machine is enough!

But can someone tell me if its possible to migrate registered applications as well? Or do I need to buy new serial numbers again?!

November 04 2008 at 10:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Fred

A shame that my current mac backs up to Time Machine on a firewire 400 drive and I'm moving to a new Macbook.

October 31 2008 at 6:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Fred's comment

GlennAC

Thankfully, there are more options now for transferring data from an old Mac to a new one.

Wireless
Ethernet
Disk Sharing

MacBook (Early 2008) and MacBook Pro (Early 2008): Migration Tips and Tricks

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1291

November 05 2008 at 1:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

iomatic

Two questions (about to migrate to a new machine):

a) How much space does Time Machine take; is there an initial amount that is equivalent to the original amount of data you have or the drive size?

b) Is it possible to migrate just documents, and a few saved items (don't want old-old-old prefs cluttering up a new user) from the App. Support folder to the new User on the new machine? I mean easier/faster/accurate, etc.?

Thanks

October 31 2008 at 6:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kim Fieldstad

I am using Time Machine on an hourly backup and I use SuperDuper on a daily backup. When configuring Time Machine to exclude files, what do you recommend? I do not backup photos, because I use Aperture and I use the vault function within Aperture. I also do not backup music files because I feel that SuperDuper will do that. I guess what I am asking for - is there a suggested way to streamline Time Machine.

October 30 2008 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Kim Fieldstad's comment

akira

if you have vmware on your computer, only back it up once and a while. that will save you a ton of space. Other than that, regular files are to small to really have an impact.

November 03 2008 at 6:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tim_Netherlands

Great article and just in time as I'm about to get a new MacBook (second hand) later today.
One question, though.
At the end of the article it is stated:

"An important note: If you already have an account on the Mac you're transferring to, the account name cannot be the same as the one you're transferring. In other words, you can't copy an account if one exists on the new computer with the same name."

So I can't name the users the same. Will it work when I do it like this: on the new MB I'll create the same users but now with the number 2 after each name.
How will Time Machine be able to know which settings and documents need to go to which user?

Hopefully someone can tell me.

October 30 2008 at 5:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Tim_Netherlands's comment

pulse

"So I can't name the users the same. "

You can have the same name. When you transfer an account, it will have the same name. The only time you can't is if the new computer already has an account with that name.

The article said: " you can't copy an account if one exists on the new computer with the same name."

October 31 2008 at 3:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

GlennAC

Tim,

If you do the Migration from Time Machine DURING the initial launch of the new Mac, then duplicate usernames is not an issue. As long as you choose the option to migrate from a Time Machine backup, then you are never given the opportunity to created a new user account.

Nevertheless, some users forget to plug the Time Machine disk in before they launch the new Mac. In that case adding a # as you describe will make it different enough that Migration Assistant will ignore the newer user account. BUT, if you happen to create the exact same username on the new Mac as the old, then during the migration Migration Assistant will see that and ask you if you want to Replace or Rename the new user account.

Cheers!

November 05 2008 at 12:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Brian Garrett

Great article - I wonder if it would work on migrating a server from a PPC Xserve to an Intel Xserve. I'll probably find out in the next week or two when I try it out... :)

October 29 2008 at 8:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply