Migration from iMacPro to Mac Studio....advice please?

[nk_e]

Hi everyone,

My new macstudio just arrived. My current machine is an intel imacPro running Sonoma 14.7.4. The macstudio is Apple Silicon running Sequoia. I am planning to manually reinstall my DAWs, as well as my plugins when I can. If my objective is as clean an install as possible, Is migration assistant something I should avoid as far as plugins and applications are concerned?

Also, there are a few plugins that are no longer available (various Accusonus plugins for example). These are 64 bit intel plugins, so I should be able to run them in rosetta, yes? (Is that still a thing?) If so, what is the best way to bring them over? I don't suppose migration assistant allows very much granularity, so manually locating the plugins plus the various folders and associated com files is what I need to do?

As always, thank yopu for your suggestions.

[HCMarkus]

Your approach sounds like what I would do (and did when I moved from Intel to AS)... install all Apps and Plugins from scratch. Move the old Intel ones you want manually. Data can just be transferred.

[mikehalloran]

Run the updater on your old machine to the latest version of Sonoma first (14.7.4, I think) and let Time Machine run one more time—you don't want to transfer any of the many bugs that have been squashed since 14.4.

Use a USB4 or TB3/4 cable for the fastest transfer time with Migration Assistant.

Data can just be transferred.

User data and your Network settings. Check the boxes for (User Name), Network Settings and Other Files and Folders but leave Applications unchecked.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102613

You can leave Other Files and Folders unchecked but I don't recommend it. It will save space by not including many Library files (those will be rebuilt by installing your Applications manually). It will also increase the transfer time by quite a bit, however. If so, a) zip your work file folders first (Documents, Music etc.) on the old Mac, move those over to the new Mac, unzip the contents inside the new folder, drag the contents into the containing folder, then trash the new folder you created and archives to make room or b) find the contents of each folder in your Time Machine backup and drag them into the new folders — no zipping necessary. Not doing one or the other will mess up your Permissions big time.

It's still possible to mess up some Permissions this way. I recommend running this when done.

How to reset all User Permissions. Open Terminal and run the following (copy and paste):

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

<Enter or Return key>

(enter Admin password when prompted)

Reboot

[nk_e]

Run the updater on your old machine to the latest version of Sonoma first (14.7.4, I think) and let Time Machine run one more time—you don't want to transfer any of the many bugs that have been squashed since 14.4.

Use a USB4 or TB3/4 cable for the fastest transfer time with Migration Assistant.

Data can just be transferred.

User data and your Network settings. Check the boxes for (User Name), Network Settings and Other Files and Folders but leave Applications unchecked.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102613

You can leave Other Files and Folders unchecked but I don't recommend it. It will save space by not including many Library files (those will be rebuilt by installing your Applications manually). It will also increase the transfer time by quite a bit, however. If so, a) zip your work file folders first (Documents, Music etc.) on the old Mac, move those over to the new Mac, unzip the contents inside the new folder, drag the contents into the containing folder, then trash the new folder you created and archives to make room or b) find the contents of each folder in your Time Machine backup and drag them into the new folders — no zipping necessary. Not doing one or the other will mess up your Permissions big time.

It's still possible to mess up some Permissions this way. I recommend running this when done.

How to reset all User Permissions. Open Terminal and run the following (copy and paste):

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

<Enter or Return key>

(enter Admin password when prompted)

Reboot

Thank you both!

Mike, if I leave the box checked for Other files and folders, do I still have to do ‘a’ or ‘b’? Or is one of those options required only if I uncheck that box? Just making sure I’m tracking…

Thanks.

[mikehalloran]

Mike, if I leave the box checked for Other files and folders, do I still have to do ‘a’ or ‘b’? Or is one of those options required only if I uncheck that box? Just making sure I’m tracking…

Thanks.

Checking Other files and folders transfers all of your work files (Documents, Music, Movies, Desktop etc.).

Since Sequoia has messed with Permissions for many users, I'd still run that Terrminal Command when you are all done.

[nk_e]

Since Sequoia has messed with Permissions for many users, I'd still run that Terrminal Command when you are all done.

I’m on it.

Thank you Mike.