Can i undo migration assistant

It moved the already present data to a deleted user folder,…. Normally, I use the version of Migration embedded in Setup Assistant. However, if that fails, or if I want to first get the machine running and then bring over my stuff, I make sure that the adminstrative user I use for the initial setup is NOT one of users that I will migrate. That keeps me from having conflicts when I eventually use Migration Assistant.

So it was never perfect. Note much of this is done through the terminal, but it can be automated in a simple script if desired. A clearly written one was posted earlier this year here.

By combining the scripts listed above, you can create one script that will do just the steps you want, and quickly get a clean install back to feeling like your own computer.

Like beatrixwillius I only use those for convenience and perhaps redundancy, never as sole storage location. To me the most important consequence of that is I have to ensure rock solid backups. I use TM, but I never want to rely on just one safety net so I also clone with SD to a set of rotating drives both at work back when I was still allowed to get on campus without a hazmat suit and at home.

I have a whole list of things I have to go through after this process. Truthfully, I have this nagging suspicion that I probably would be well off one of these days starting from scratch and manually restoring specific items. I simply dread the colossal amount of work it would take to migrate by hand until I reach the point where my new Mac works and feels like my old Mac. And yes, I am very specific about how I set it up. Probably something that would require some professional attention.

While there are more and faster cores, better graphics, and benchmarks show a clear 2-fold increase, in everyday use I notice hardly a difference at all. But something went very wonky after migrating to a refurb Mac Mini running Mojave. After days of working with Backblaze tech support which was very patient and helpful.

I had to reseed everything but it went much faster than I anticipated. My Backblaze logs were forwarded to some experts on their end but they were never able to figure out what went wrong. Fortunately, I still had Crashplan running along with my local backups. Once I had Backblaze squared away I allowed my Crashplan account to lapse. I elected to use the same name for my new Mac as the old and I was concerned that might cause problems.

I agree with most of the Dropbox comments. Dropbox is not designed to be a Cloud backup. And even though I have never needed it, Time Machine accesses a partition on an external mechanical drive should I ever want to locate a file that is deleted by mistake. Like others here, I tend to like having a fresh start. So rather than going with a direct migration of my old data, I usually clone my current user folder with SuperDuper, and then gradually start pulling stuff over from my backup as needed.

However, this last time - just a few days ago, as it happens - I tried SuperDuper twice, and wound up with an empty user folder - very mysterious! Just about everything is back to normal - with the bonus of my MacBook Pro feeling brand new again. The media is still safe on a local drive, so allowing it to rebuild itself got me back up and running. Maybe a smidge off topic although I also enjoyed the amazingly seamless transfer from the old Mac to the new one.

Since then however I have been experiencing major interruptions as the Mac shuts down and restarts, I finally took a look on the web this am and find that I am far from alone with this problem. If you are interested in solving your little mystery, I suggest contacting the developer via the SuperDuper user forum.

Dave Nanian monitors the discussions and he quickly responds to queries about SuperDuper. I think that Dave provides the best customer tech support that I have experienced in 25 years using Macs. Long before I attempted the migration, I did replace bit apps and Kexts with bits capable software. But that was far from enough to perform a smooth migration. The migration of off-loaded users was also a surprise, the Migration Assistant does not care for them…. I also have a bunch of Unix style command line apps which I mostly compile myself, some of them required a recompilation.

Last but not least I have also background tasks e. After maybe 80 to 90 hours almost everything is working again. What is not working pertains to global Unix configuration files that are removed or read-only on the System part of the boot disk. I am sad to realize that these features are going slowly away as will be gone the native Windows.

I do not take the security feature of macOS lightly, nor do I underestimate the complexity of the system. To prevent losing access to older backups, I copy the Time Machine file to another disk when Time Machine threatens to restart a backup. Disk space is cheap, being able to recover old files is priceless. I have the problem that I cannot readily access Time Machine backups created under Mojave. I was never given an option to inherit backups when I did the first Time Machine backup under Catalina.

They are physically on my external hard drive. I checked another Time Machine backup drive as well—same issue. Is there some easy way to force inheriting to happen? My question: will all of my old email messages that I save in various folders I have created in Mac Mail transfer over?

Am I all right as long as I log out before deleting any files on the old iMac? I generally recommend allowing the logout process to delete the local copy of the data. It also depends a little on what you plan to do with the Mac. The glitch we hit was Messages.

Makes sense- thanks for that, David! Share Facebook Twitter Reddit. Email Address. Notable Replies. This included Subversion, Git, Eclipse, and the toughest, Java. Dropbox : Not everything was in iCloud. I was using Dropbox. Reinstalling Dropbox got me back all the files there. I had to reinstall that. Microsoft Office : That was gone. I decided to screw it, and not bother to install Office. PathFinder : Another app I decided not to bother with. When I first got PathFinder, the Finder was pretty bad.

Such as making directories that were invisible visible or peering into App packages. By the time I got my new Mac, Finder had many of the things I needed. It even had tabs. BASH came around much later. Installing Kornshell once again was a bear, especially since I had to change the Unix configuration to make it work as a shell. Install dotfiles in the home directory. Install homebrew Install Homebrew from the command line Check for Homebrew to be present, install if it's missing if test!

This used to be a very manual process, but homebrew comes to the rescue here too. See homebrew-cask — Homebrew Formulae for a full list. This can be done by looking in the Mac App Store Purchased section under your account. But again it can be automated thanks to a little open source utility and a small amount of prep.

A great references is available here , and a very thorough listing of many settings was created by Mathias Bynens. I use dnsmasq for local web development, so anything like that. Fantastic Angus so much work involved to make things easy for us, much appreciated. They absolutely should. I have never had MA bungle my locally stored mail. Various laws around the world require us to tell you that fact, so consider yourself informed, if not nourished.

By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of these cookies. As this is a user-to-user peer technical discussions area. Thought I'd post a reply even though I have not considered your recent post here nor have I formulated. However an Apple Store retail with Genius staff can be helpful and. A reservation for an appointment is advised. The computer need not be new, to have a genius look into issues and offer advice on resolving them.

An Apple Store genius could resolve the issue, and use the internet to install a completely new OS X. Internet Recovery is part. The trained staff may also have other options we don't have.

However the services they provide would usually be considered at the standard technician shop rate. Does the computer you have, qualify for an AppleCare or other service plan, warranty, or help from the.

Jan 23, AM in response to lovenlight13 In response to lovenlight Time for another cup of coffee. Then I'll reconsider this: If no action is done on status un-.

Jan 23, AM. This did it! Thank you for your time! Jan 24, PM in response to lovenlight13 In response to lovenlight Jan 24, PM. Question: Q: Undo migration assistant transfer More Less. Communities Get Support. Sign in Sign in Sign in corporate. Browse Search. Ask a question.

User profile for user: lovenlight13 lovenlight Question: Q: Question: Q: Undo migration assistant transfer I used migration assistant and time machine to transfer everything from my old mac to my new mac.

Many thanks! More Less. Reply I have this question too I have this question too Me too Me too. Helpful answers Drop Down menu.

Jan 24, AM in response to lovenlight13 In response to lovenlight13 Hello, again: Ideas such as the process covered by this macworldUK article are fairly easy if you do not wish to backup anything, and simply restore the original content. Since you aren't wanting to save the mess that is in the Macintosh HD partition in the computer hard drive; you can ignore advice to backup and make clones.

Sometimes the included apps may not appear with the OS X installation so it may be necessary to revisit the App Store, after the system is reinstalled, to see your Purchase History, the included applications should appear as would the date they were originally activated. They should be free to reinstall.

Note the part where you choose to erase a specific section in the hard drive Macintosh HD via the Disk Utility within the recovery's startup utilities In any event View answer in context. Loading page content. Jan 18, PM in response to lovenlight13 In response to lovenlight13 The use of OS X Recovery can help return the computer to its original state; it will download the as-shipped software set if still available from the Apple servers, or other from App Store. You can restore fully from a updated clone.

Or use one as your own time-capsule. Some partitions may be destroyed if you use Disk Utility to erase a hard drive completely; if so the recovery partition won't be on the hard drive.

Reply Helpful Thread reply - more options Link to this Post. Jan 22, PM in response to K Shaffer In response to K Shaffer I'm sorry I've been having trouble responding for some reason, and I don't know why it says that my problem was solved because it's not! Any other ideas? Thank you and many blessings to you! User profile for user: K Shaffer K Shaffer. Happened to check my email and noticed a link from Apple support regarding this thread, so I sought to see what was going on.

As this is a user-to-user peer technical discussions area it does not see much interactive Apple staff; most who reply here are not representative of Apple, Inc. Thought I'd post a reply even though I have not considered your recent post here nor have I formulated any thought on what that may be.