Upgrading from a 2019 intel iMac to a M4 Mac - Any pitfalls?

[DanoD3314]

Hi,
I will be upgrading the hardware in a couple of weeks and was wondering if people were using the Upgrade Assistant or doing their upgrade manually. I am leaning towards the manual side and not using upgrade assistant. My data files and sources etc are in the iCloud now.
Will the paths change for iCloud and Dropbox if doing it manually? What has peoples experience with this been?
I recently moved all of my files from Dropbox to iCloud and it turned out to be a lengthy process.
Will a clean install change the iCloud path or will it be kept the same using the upgrade assistant?

Thanks,
Dan

[Bob White]

The proper name is Migration Assistant. At the start, it gives you the choice between using your TimeMachine backup or peer-to-peer migration. I just did the peer-to-peer that you are facing, e.g. 27" iMac to a new M4 iMac. Like with iPhone to iPhone or iPad to iPad, it's done wirelessly. For me, the process took most of three hours but I have close to 600 GB of apps and files. Most users would take a lot less time. Recently, I migrated an Intel MacBook Pro to a M4 MacBook Air for my daughter. It took just a bit over one hour.

In both cases, the process went smoothly. Just the usual having to re-log into several servers and websites because they were ones that store the MAC # to recognize you security-wise. (If that is an unknown to you, every computer has an interface controller board which has a unique identifier number. Stands for Media Access Control and is a 12 digit hexadecimal.) And I had to tweek settings on a couple apps; not the fault of the transfer.

Perhaps someone here has used the TimeMachine method and can share their experiences.

[RWells]

Last week, I made a big switch from my Intel iMac to a Mac Mini 4. I used Migration Assistant with my Time Machine backup, and everything went smoothly. I had helped my daughter with a similar migration earlier this year, so I was pretty familiar with the process. I have a bit over a terabyte of data, and it all came over without any issues. I made sure to have a complete backup before starting, using both Time Machine and CCC to make two backups of the system. It took about 4-5 hours, and I had to make a few minor adjustments here and there, but nothing too major. I have files on dropbox, Backblaze, and iCloud. I did have a small problem with one of my email accounts, so I just deleted it on my new Mac and reinstalled it. Since then, I've made a few changes to the layout of my desktop, and I'm really enjoying my new Mac, especially the Writer Assistant. It's been a great experience! This email was enhanced using the Writer Assistant.

[DanoD3314]

Hi All,
Thanks to those who have responded. It looks like Migration Assistant works well. I would like to hear from folks who might have used a manual method and not the MA path. In my original post I was curious as to if the paths might change for the media in Reunion 14.
One thing that I am pretty sure of is that I can always start over from the beginning of the migration process if the manual method doesn't work out.

Regards,
Dan

[KirkS]

I recently bought a new M4 Mac mini and I decided to do a fresh install rather than migrating a bunch of older items I no longer use.

It was fine and I'm not unhappy with my decision. However, do not underestimate the hours and hours you will spend restoring settings and preferences that you haven't thought of in years.

For example, have you ever tweaked your mouse speed? Are you using natural or reverse scrolling? Have you created any text replacements under keyboard settings? Do you have custom paper sizes? Custom document templates in your office applications?

Are you excited about downloading new drivers for all your printers and scanners?

If revisiting all these tasks sounds fun, by all means, start from scratch. If they sound tedious or if you're in a hurry, use Migration Assistant.

[BRC2023]

I always do things manually for my home computers. I do have a few settings -- such as customizing the finder settings, natural scrolling, etc. And of course drivers to install. But I don't find that it takes me too long, and it seems like a good idea to start fresh with each system.

And now that the original poster's items are in iCloud, logging into the account should have allowed the same access to them.

Curious to know how it went!

[DanoD3314]

I am grateful for all of the responses.
was somewhat worried about the path issues that Reunion can have, but it turns out they were all the same from the old mac to the new one - so no issues that I can tell. The new computer setup has gone really great - l prepared by copying the home directory files over to an external HDD, I save many of the app config files to my repository. Just one more major item to take care of and as one of the posters said there are lots of tweaks and items to adjust, but it's cold here so no time like the present.
Dan

[Seagram]

Have fun with your new computer.