How to Migrate to a New Mac with Migration Assistant

Migration Assistant moves your accounts, applications, files, and most system settings from an old Mac (or a Time Machine backup) to a new one — this walks through the process and what’s worth checking afterward.

Step 1: prepare the source Mac

Make sure the old Mac is updated to a reasonably current macOS version, and connected to the same network as the new Mac (or connected directly via a cable, for the fastest transfer).

Step 2: choose your transfer method

Option A: Mac-to-Mac, both machines on and connected
          (fastest, most complete option)
Option B: from a Time Machine backup
          (useful if the old Mac isn't available, but the
           backup is)
Option C: from a Windows PC
          (a more limited transfer — primarily files and
           certain data types, not full application migration)

Step 3: launch Migration Assistant on the new Mac

During initial Setup Assistant: choose "Transfer from a
                                  Mac, Time Machine backup,
                                  or Startup disk"
Already set up:  Applications → Utilities → Migration Assistant

Running this during initial setup (before creating a new, separate user account) generally produces the cleanest result — migrating afterward, onto an already-configured account, is supported but has more edge cases to be aware of.

Step 4: select what to transfer

Migration Assistant presents categories:
  ☑ User accounts (and their files)
  ☑ Applications
  ☑ Settings & preferences
  ☑ Other files & folders

Deselecting Applications is worth considering if you’re moving to different Mac hardware (Intel to Apple Silicon, for instance) and would rather reinstall key applications fresh, natively, than transfer older versions that may run through Rosetta 2 translation unnecessarily.

Step 5: let the transfer complete

Transfer time depends heavily on how much data is involved and the connection method — a direct cable connection between two Macs is meaningfully faster than transferring over Wi-Fi, worth using for a large migration if the cable and ports are available.

Step 6: check for applications needing reinstallation or re-authorization

Some applications — particularly ones with hardware-tied licenses, kernel extensions, or DRM — don’t function correctly after a Migration Assistant transfer and need to be reinstalled fresh or re-authorized directly from the developer, rather than simply carried over as files.

Step 7: verify iCloud and other account-based services signed in correctly

System Settings → [your name] at the top →
  confirm iCloud, and check Internet Accounts for
  Mail/Calendar/other services

Account-based services sometimes need re-authentication after a migration even though the underlying local data transferred correctly — worth checking explicitly rather than assuming everything reconnected silently.

Step 8: check Migration Assistant’s own log if something seems to have not transferred

log show --predicate 'process == "Migration Assistant"' --last 2h

Reviewing the transfer log can clarify whether a specific expected item was actually skipped during migration (and why) versus simply being somewhere unexpected on the new machine.

Why choosing what to transfer deliberately beats accepting every default

Migration Assistant defaults to transferring everything, which is usually the right call for a straightforward like-for-like Mac replacement — but deliberately reviewing the categories in Step 4, particularly when changing Mac architecture or doing significant cleanup, avoids simply recreating years of accumulated clutter and unused applications on a fresh machine that was also a good opportunity to start cleaner.