General Mac software discussions forum: Need programs moved to new Mac, who should I have do it?

I use it to transfer everything including desktop, Icons, Bookmarks and even Gadgets. In windows it will tll you before transfering which programs may not work. You can then either uuncheck them or go and transfer them anyway, some will work even if it said it will not. Your Settings will also transfer. A/V will have to be installed as it will not let it run on another Computer.

My Music, Video and Picture files all transfered. W-7 took about 45 min to over an hour if you use a USB cable vs WiFi. This may answer for Users other than MAC's who may not be aware of this.

1. Via an ethernet cable (straight through, not x-over)
2. Via Firewire Cable (May need an adapter if your new machine has 800 and your old machine has 400)

When Migration Assistant works as designed, as it almost always does, the at the end of the procedure your new Mac has everything in exactly the same place as your old one.

All your Settings, Preferences, Networks, Accounts, Applications (but not those that exist in your new OS version; iTunes,iPhoto,etc.).
All your Music, Pictures, Movies, Documents, all the stuff on your desktop, right down to your desktop picture.

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I tried migration assistant back in the days of 10.4-10.5 and then now from 10.5-10.7 (from an iMac G5 to my current i7 macbook pro) and all I've had were problems.

For me, the best solution is to keep all your files -- documents, music, photos etc. in one place (which would be in your home directory and nowhere else on the computer) and use Carbon Copy cloner to back this up to an external drive. Easier said than done for the average person. But this is precisely what I did before I wiped the computer clean to reinstall Mountain Lion from an absolutely-clean start.

Applications are best to have re-installed from their installer files. If you're savvy enough, you might know where these apps keep their settings data (for example, Pages' templates, MS Words templates, and saved games for your games...). If you don't know where these things are kept though... maybe ask an Apple genius (are they free)? Then again, if that's the case... the 'genius' can do it all for you.

There is an 'easy' option with Carbon Copy cloner... which really takes your entire computer and clones it. However, when transitioning to a new OS, I would imagine there might be plenty files copied over that well... just don't need to be.

I recently had the occasion to assist a friend in migrating from a mini-Mac to a new macbook. It was not a fun experience! The mini-mac is running 10.4.6 and the macbook was the current release. Migration Assistant via ethernet doesn't work between these two versions. Firewire isn't an option as the macbook didn't have a traditional firewire port and Apple doesn't supply a cable. I ended up doing the transfer via file sharing. All in all not a good experience something I hadn't expected from Apple!

As a non-Apple user who has extensive upgrading experience in Ms-DOS and Windows upgrades, i offer the following:
The first thing, I recommend is to first Back Up the ENTIRE system.
2nd is to read the details of you new operating SYSTEM Carefully. See if it is backward compatible with existing programs you are presently using. As one who remembers the experence from the O/S 2 version 3 Warp Windows 95 wars, it was my first big worry was making sure this system allowed me to use such programs as WordPefect dBase and Quattro Pro and a few other programs I had at the time.
As readers of this particular Mac system upgrades have mentioned, you, will need the upgrades to the new Mac, and you should do that, but at the same time until you learn the new upgrades in software you should have at least the old programs you are presently using working to keep you going in your working field of expertise.
My advice is to load in the original software one program at a time and test it ... and then upgrade it.
You should have a general uninstall program in case that software does not work.
If your old Mac machine still works, you may consider keeping your favourite "old" apps on it along with the data you wish to keep there. Your new Mac could contain the upgrade or new software for you to learn and use. Upgrades are usually either fixes or a rearrangement of the previous edition to accommodate new features. For instance, let's say Word 4 for Mac runs on old Mac and new Mac but Word 5 has the new stunning feature of bringing in 7 graphic designs as templates only on new MAC and has been totally revamped the way Word 5 operates, then you better use the Word 4 only on old Mac and Word 5 on the new Mac.
The first concern is that you don't lose your working time in order to learn the way the new software works until you are ready. Barring any unforeseeable emergency, you could continue using your old Mac to make your graphics and copy it into your new Mac to improve it.
With hard drives in the 500 gigabyte range and upwards to 2 terabytes storage space should not be an issue these days, so if your old Mac hard drive is full and you can run an auxiliary hard drive again consider the possibility of using a bigger hard drive inside your old Mac [check with your Mac dealer].
All the above advice could be used in some way by both users of Windows O/S and Mac as a general solution to the common upgrade problems.

Ever since Apple introduced Lion (OS 10.7) and now with Mountain Lion (OS 10.8), the Mac operating system no longer will use Power PC-based programs. It is a virtual certainty that the programs running on your G5 are all PPC based. You can check this by clicking on the application icon once, then going to the File menu and selecting Get Info. In the General portion, you will see a listing for Kind. If it says Application with nothing next to it or a PPC, then it is old-style software and won't run. If it says Universal or Intel, then you might be able to use it on your new machine, but will probably still need to be updated to some degree.

Find the installer discs for the ones you can use and see if you can update from there, or just get the latest version from the software manufacturer.

So rather then go through the expense of having Apple do it with a One-To-One membership (which does have other advantages) or doing it yourself, just to find out the programs won't work, bite the bullet and upgrade your programs. Instead of doing all of them, take a look at what programs you actually use on a regular basis and concentrate on those first. The rest of them will present their needs when necessary.

The past posters were right on with their recommendation of Migration Assistant! I would add one other voice to the discussion. If you have used Time Machine to back up your old machine, that would make it even easier to move all your info to you new mac. Keep in mind, as was stated by previous posters, that some of your apps WILL NOT (not may, but WILL NOT) run on your new machine because it's powered by a different processor that is physically different than your old mac. This means that many of your old apps will not run, but will need to be upgraded to run. Hopefully, many of them are available for easy upgrades. You can check sites like:

lowendmac.com

and

mac.oldapps.com

for more info about the older programs you have.

There used to be a way to connect two macs using a firewire cable and having the old mac startup in what was called "Target Disc" mode. In essence, this allowed you to see the entire hard drive of your old mac as an external drive on the desktop of your new mac and you could drag and drop or even open and run old programs and test them. This isn't as good a solution as Migration Assistant but would work if you only have a few documents or small files to move as it wouldn't work well with programs.

One other thing, as you're in graphics and graphic design and such, you may be able to use programs like GIMP (a freeware version of Photoshop) or Seashore as temporary solutions until you are ready to take the plunge to the professional versions

You have issues to deal with:

First, most of your software is incompatible with the Intel processor.

Second, you have FireWire 400 on the G5 and FireWire 800 and Thunderbolt on the new Mac. You'll need to get a FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 cable to efficiently transfer all you stuff using the G5 in the target disk mode. Ethernet will take forever.

Third, a lot of the files you'll transfer will be superfluous to the new environment and can be deleted; not necessary, but takes up space. Experience and /or software is required.

Fourth, many of the preference files can be corrupt. Anomalies in operation in the new OS can be attributed to preference corruption. Deleting the preference files of the offending app will normally fix the problem.

You are making a large jump in OSs. Perhaps it would be better to get the previously mentioned cable and transfer just your files from the G5 in the target disk mode, copying them to the like spot in your new account directory. This keeps your new OS pure from the start.

If this seems too daunting, seek out an authorized Apple Service Provider, NOT an Apple Store or Genius. good luck

if you choose to recreate your Mail accounts, instead of transferring them from the old machine, you will end up with an empty mail box in all of them except the .Me and .Mac accounts.

Any accounts that you have that are POP accounts will be blank. All those emails will still be on the old machine, they are not usually stored on the mail server.

Just an FYI


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I have been too busy to make the NEW PURCHASE, yet. And, I'm glad I rec'd all this info from the readers! I greatly appreciate everyones knowledge and input - for the past several months I haven't been able to 'upgrade' my programs, not even minor 'standard upgrades' because my G5 is considered too old and it will NOT ALLOW the upgrades. I have to purchase the new MAC to upgrade the programs with-in the machine; it all goes hand-in-hand. There's never a 'good' time...Mac is the only system I've ever known. But it will be soon and it WILL BE A MAC!! Your knowledge will be helpful, I'm sure!! Thank you!!

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4694383

"On behalf of Adobe ...
You absolutely cannot use Apple's Migration Assistant to move Adobe software from one system to another."