Recovering Everything *except* macOS from a Time Machine Backup

[britechguy]

The client I'm currently working with has just purchased a brand new Mac. We took a full Time Machine backup on the "second oldest" Mac which is running macOS High Sierra (10.13.6).

These are the instructions from Apple about doing this:
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Before you begin, make sure your Time Machine backup disk is connected and turned on. If your disk is on a network, make sure your Mac is on the same network.

Start up your computer in macOS Recovery:

On a Mac with Apple silicon: Choose Apple menu > Shut Down, press and hold the power button until you see “Loading startup options,” click Options, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.

On an Intel-based Mac: Choose Apple menu > Restart, immediately press and hold Command-R until you see the startup screen, then follow the onscreen instructions.

To reinstall the version of macOS stored on your computer’s built-in recovery disk, including any installed updates, select Reinstall macOS Ventura in the Recovery window, then click Continue.

See Reinstall macOS.

After macOS finishes installing new system files, Migration Assistant asks if you want to transfer information from another Mac or a Time Machine backup. Select Transfer from a Time Machine Backup, then click Continue.

If necessary, enter the name and password you use to connect to your backup disk. You may also have to enter the password you used to encrypt the backup.

Select the date and time of the backup you want to restore, then follow the onscreen instructions.
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My question is whether Step 3 is absolutely necessary, or just optional if you wish to keep the most current version of macOS, which, of course, I do.

It's been years since I last did a Time Machine restore, and things are certain to have changed in the interim. If I need to explicitly perform step #3 to avoid having macOS High Sierra get plopped on to the new machine, I will. But if I don't . . .

I figure someone here has been doing a lot more Mac work over the years than I have and can probably answer this in a heartbeat.

 

[Markverhyden]

Has the machine been powered up yet? Make sure both machines are on the same LAN. All the steps above are doing is setting up a clean base system to work with. Run the Migration Assistant on the new machine, pick the source, might go through some code typing stuff including possibly running it on the source as well. This is not a situation where you want to run TM restore.

 

[britechguy]

Yes, the new machine has been powered up. I doubt that it's been used very much at all since, but perhaps a little.

Both machines are on the same LAN.

I'll happily try Migration Assistant. I was basing Time Machine on several things said on my previous (and related) topic asking about the default filesystem on Apple.

Time to start looking at the Migration Assistant pages.

 

[britechguy]

Just curious if using this Migration Assistant method: Restore your Mac from a backup
might be faster than doing it over the air on WiFi since we do already have the Time Machine backup from the old machine made?

I really don't care which way I go, other than preferring that the one that will accomplish the task most rapidly, and with the least problem(s) as well, is the one I use.

The via LAN instructions, Move content to a new Mac, are what pointed me to the above.

 

[timeshifter]

I’m lost. Don’t you have a hard drive with that Time Machine backup on it? If so then you plug it in to the new Mac, run Migration Assistant.

It won’t restore the old operating system to the new machine. The new machine needs to have the same or newer OS for this to work.

 

[Markverhyden]

Both of the link are, in essence, the same steps. If you're doing it from the old machine it'll ask for a code. If you're doing it from a TM store you don't use a code. Just pay attention to step 8. If you created a use with the same name as the old user it will prompt rename or over write. Personally I usually create a generic user - user - login as that then then run the migration assistant.

 

[britechguy]

Don’t you have a hard drive with that Time Machine backup on it? If so then you plug it in to the new Mac, run Migration Assistant.

Yes, and that's what I intend to do now that this has been made abundantly clear.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm not sure if a profile migration also brings over the keychain. Which is where cred's are stored in macOS. Similar to Credentials Manager. So make sure to check that. One can manually migrate it over if needed.

Copy keychains to another Mac

Use Keychain Access on your Mac to transfer your keychains to another Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[britechguy]

OK, Mark, I think what you identified in your last message is coming into play, but I'm going to lay out the scenario. Every time I touch a Mac it seems that 90 plus percent goes without a hitch, but, in the words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, "It's always something! If it's not one thing, it's another."

First, some quick background: Old Mac has 500 GB HDD, new one 256 GB SSD.

Before we started the Migration Assistant, we successfully added the client's desired e-mail address to her Apple Account and then set it as her Apple ID. The old email address was left as an alias. The password for the old address differed from the new one, and during Migration Assistant we needed to use each respective email address's password, and all was happy.

Initial try of Migration Assistant barfed because what was backed up via Time Machine on the old box included 2 copies of iCloud libraries along with other material that just "won't fit" on the new machine. Nothing appeared to have been transferred EXCEPT a window that showed a series of keychains. We gracefully exited Migration Assistant, and restarted the new Mac, and began Migration Assistant again, this time unchecking certain items that are in the cloud from being copied to the new machine. Since this was going to take a while, and I don't sit and watch while recoveries are going on as I can't in good conscience bill for that, I left while the Migration Assistant restore was completing.

After completion, we're getting the following, and we definitely logged in using old and new Apple IDs prior to Migration Assistant (at least on the iPhone and Apple's site):
On Computer:




On iPhone (I think):


I do not believe that what is now the Apple ID email address has been used to log in to the iPhone, so that may be at play.

But I am at a loss as to how credentials that worked, repeatedly, suddenly don't work.

I'm also wondering, post-re-alias-ing the Apple ID, whether it's all collapsed to ONLY using the "new password" (which I suspect is true).

 

[carmen617]

What a mess. Do you have the old Mac in your office, or just the Time Machine backup? If you have the old Mac, I would suggest trimming the contents down so it's less than 256GB (probably have old iPhone backups and an unnecessary migrated iPhoto library, along with a lot of unneeded downloads including some OS upgrades that were never installed, sitting in the applications folder). Then, on the old Mac, make sure you are logged into the correct Apple ID. After that, do a fresh Time Machine backup. Meanwhile, on the new Mac, in the recovery environment wipe and restore the OS from the cloud. Then attempt the migration again from the fresh TM backup.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm not sure where to start on the questions. Did you complete 2 migration assistants, each with a different Apple ID? What did you do with usernames? Are you able to access/use the hotmail apple ID nowhere or on something specific? I briefly looked into that AOS error and it appears to be a cert which could certainly an issue on the old machine. But should work fine on the new one.

I would only use one Apple ID. And then manually copy everything from the other ID manually.

 

[britechguy]

The client called Apple on my request and it appears that all is resolved.

Believe me, this situation is as confusing/mystifying to me as anyone. I followed Apple 's own instructions to the letter while keeping in mind potential pitfalls mentioned here. Nothing prepared me for the earlier results.

 

[Markverhyden]

All's well that ends well.

 

[britechguy]

Just so it's clear for the record, I did not use 2 different Apple IDs. What ended up being used was 2 different e-mail addresses aliased to a single Apple ID. We started out with the "old address of record." Added in the newly desired address then switched the default alias to it.

We were, however prompted at various points under each of those respective e-mail addresses. I took this to akin to what can happen under Windows if you change a Microsoft Account password (or account alias, for that matter). Until the "new one" is used for the first time, and supplants the old one on any given machine after cloud verification, the old one still works. The Migration Assistant was presenting the old default alias initially, and later switched over to the newly defined default alias. A different password had been being used for the old and new aliases, and each was, respectively, being accepted when prompted.

But, in the end, Apple Support worked a few moments of magic and all went right with the world.

 

[Greg Kristy]

The client called Apple on my request and it appears that all is resolved.

Believe me, this situation is as confusing/mystifying to me as anyone. I followed Apple 's own instructions to the letter while keeping in mind potential pitfalls mentioned here. Nothing prepared me for the earlier results.

I just went through a controlled nuke and pave situation involving most of the issues you've had plus many others. One rule I started applying that helped immensely has been: Completely ignore Apple's documentation on anything. Just scroll right past it, straight to stackexchange or any youtube guru.
Apple thrives on its 'air of mystery' even when advising its own technicians.
The AppleID stuff I had a lot of very very mysterious contradiciting situations.

 

[britechguy]

Completely ignore Apple's documentation on anything. Just scroll right past it, straight to stackexchange or any youtube guru.

While I won't *quite* go that far, I actually follow your practice as a general rule. And I do it in regard to most Microsoft documentation, too. If I need a "quick and clear" explanation I turn here or to other online resources where people who have come up against the same issue(s) give focused, and practical, advice about working through them.