- Reference 8.1 User Home Folders
- Reference 8.2 Delete User Accounts and Preserve Their Home Folder Contents
- Reference 8.3 Migrate and Restore Home Folders
- Exercise 8.1 Restore a Deleted User Account
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Reference 8.3 Migrate and Restore Home Folders
Migration Assistant enables you to copy settings, user accounts, and content from a Mac or Windows computer to your new Mac.
You can copy content over Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or an appropriate cable. If you have a lot of content, the copy could take several hours. If one or both computers are notebook computers, be sure to plug them into a power source before you start.
You can copy your content from a Time Machine backup too. If you don’t have a Time Machine backup of the original Mac content, create one. Connect the external storage device that contains the Time Machine backup to your new Mac.
When you migrate content from another Mac, a Time Machine backup, or a startup disk, Migration Assistant scans the local network for Mac computers that are running Migration Assistant and are ready to transfer content.
Migration Assistant scans locally mounted disks and the local network looking for Time Machine backups. It scans locally mounted disks for a previous system as well. Previous systems include external disks, or Intel-based Mac computers in target disk mode, that are connected with an appropriate cable or adapter. Using target disk mode is detailed in Lesson 11. Refer to Apple Support article HT204350, “Move your content to a new Mac,” for instructions.
When you migrate content from a Windows computer, Migration Assistant scans the local network for Windows computers that are running Windows Migration Assistant and are ready to transfer content. This enables you to migrate content from Windows 7 or later if the Windows computers are running Windows Migration Assistant. You can download Windows Migration Assistant from the Apple Support website. Refer to Apple Support article HT204087, “Move your data from a Windows PC to your Mac,” for detailed instructions.
Migration Assistant runs as part of macOS Setup Assistant on new or newly reinstalled Mac computers. You can use Migration Assistant at any time. It’s in /Applications/Utilities. You can search for it with Spotlight or Launchpad.
Before you use Migration Assistant, check for Apple software updates on the source and destination computers.
This ensures that you’re using the latest copy of Migration Assistant.
If any other users are also logged in, log out all other users.
Open Migration Assistant.
Click Continue to start Migration Assistant.
Authenticate as an administrator user.
Migration Assistant quits running apps and logs out users.
Select how you want to transfer information:
From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or Startup disk
From a Windows PC
To another Mac
If you select “From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or Startup disk” or “From a Windows PC,” Migration Assistant scans attached disks and the local network for migration sources. If you select “To another Mac,” open Migration Assistant on the destination Mac as well.
The rest of this list addresses the scenario where you select “From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or Startup disk.”
Select the source external storage device. When you select a Time Machine backup, you can select a backup from a specific date and time.
After you select a source, Migration Assistant scans the contents and presents you with a list of items you can migrate.
Migration Assistant doesn’t create new volumes or partitions on the destination Mac. It creates folders that include the contents of the migrated source.
Select the information you want to transfer; this includes user accounts. Then click Continue.
After you make selections, record the temporary, random password that Migration Assistant assigns to all standard users that you will migrate. If you don’t record the random password, you’ll have to reset each user’s password, which resets their login Keychain. This is covered in more detail in Reference 10.2, “Reset Lost Passwords.” When a user first logs in using the temporary password that you provide them, macOS prompts them to change their password. If they provide their old password, their login Keychain will not be modified.
Click Set Password for an administrator user account.
Enter and verify a password for the administrator account that you’re migrating, then click Set Password.
Repeat steps 10 and 11 for any additional administrator accounts.
If you want to promote a standard user to an administrator user, click “Promote to Admin” next to the user, and then set and verify a new password for that user.
Click Continue.
If any user account that you selected to restore already exists on your Mac, Migration Assistant displays a prompt for each conflicting user account. You can replace the user account, optionally keeping its home folder, or keep both user accounts by entering a new name and user account name.
To add new users to your Mac, Migration Assistant must collect a password from an existing administrator user who is authorized to create new users. Next to an administrator user, click Authorize.
Enter the password for the user you selected, then click OK.
Click Continue to begin the transfer. The more content you transfer, the longer it takes.
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Manually Restore a User Home Folder
See Exercise 8.1, “Restore a Deleted User Account,” to learn how to restore a user’s home folder after you delete that user.