MacOS – MacBook Pro not noticing all files after cancelling and retrying Migration Assistant

macbook promacosmigrationmigration-assistant

I bought a new MacBook Pro and tried to transfer all of my files from a 5-year-old MacBook Pro using the Migration Assistant. Both of them are running OS X 10.9.3 (Mavericks).

It seemed to be working fine but it told me that I had to wait 20 hours and I didn't want to wait that long. It said that plugging in an ethernet cable would speed up the transfer. I tried that (via a Thunderbolt adapter on the new Mac) and it didn't seem to do anything. I then cancelled the migration by pressing command + Q.

I am trying it again and it doesn't seem to notice all of my files. On the new Mac, it says I only have 157 KB of data on the old one, even though I have a lot more than that. I tried transferring it anyway and it just restarted right away while the old one said it was trying to reconnect with the new one. I don't see any of my files on the new one.

I tried booting with Command + R and reinstalling the OS on the new Mac but that didn't seem to do anything.

Here is what I see on the new Mac:
strange message from migration assistant

What can I do to properly transfer my files?

Best Answer

I recently experienced this issue as well. I hypothesize that the backup is being staged in a cached folder while it completes at which time it'll write the dirs into the proper file structure. To reclaim the diskspace, simply quit migration assistant. Login as a user and restart your Mac. By doing this it cleared out the cached migration and i could start again.

Related Solutions

Mac – Files on new computer are locked after using Migration Assistant and Time Machine

Sounds like the permissions are "wrong" or rather the owner is. Click on the folder, press Command+i, in the "Sharing & Permissions:" section (on the bottom) and check if it shows your new user-account on the MBP as owner (first icon) and if the privileges are "Read & Write".
Probably it will show a different user as owner. You could then try to fix the permissions by running Disk Utility, selecting you OS X partition on the left and click "Repair Disk Permissions" - but maybe this won't fix it, then you have to do it using the Terminal.
Maybe someone else can elaborate on that.

Edit 2011-12-18: Ok, I'll try myself:

Something I didn't know yet but found now looking for an easy fix:

From Troubleshooting permissions issues in Mac OS X

Note: In Mac OS X 10.5 and later, while started up ("booted") from the Mac OS X 10.5 installation disc, a user's home directory permissions can be reset using the Reset Password utility.

But in Lion they removed the option form the menu, so if you boot (holding "alt ⌥") into Recovery HD
- Wait for “Mac OS X Utilities” menu to appear, indicating that you are booted into recovery mode
- Click on the “Utilities” menu and select "Terminal"
- Type the following: resetpassword
- Confirm the user account and then the password change and reboot Mac OS X 10.7 as usual with your new password

Copied from Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password

I didn't try it myself, but hopefully this should reset/repair your home directory permissions.

Maybe even better solution using Finder in normal OS X:

In Finder select the folder
Press Command+i
Expand "Sharing & Permissions" section (Unlock if necessary 1)
If you're not in the list of owners, press [+] 2
In the upcoming list, select your new user
Finally click the gear 3, make your new user the owner, apply to enclosed items
- and delete the old user by selecting his name from the list and clicking [-]

test_not_owner_arrows

Easiest way, if you're not afraid of the terminal:
Assuming your new user is named harmen

sudo chown -R harmen /Users/harmen

This will make you the owner of everything inside /Users/harmen
Read more here

Good luck.

MacOS – Not showing user after Migration Assistant

Did you happen to have FileVault enabled on the target (new) machine before initiating migration assistant? I've run into where I needed to go into the FileVault section of the security system preferences and explicitly enable the migrated user before they would appear as a login option...

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