manual migration to El Capitan

[John Davidson]

If your mail is imap it should load automatically when you enter your credentials in. Other things come from iCloud syncing. If you haven’t used iCloud yet, go do that and sync the old Mac and hen add it to the new Mac.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Oliver Peters]

I just went through this on a 2009 MP after I put in a new boot drive. You can control the settings in Migration Assistant to custom. I brought over docs, music, etc. but no apps. While this isn’t quite as clean as a totally manual migration, it works well. Most of your settings and authorizations come over this way.Then re-download and/or re-install the apps and plug-ins that you want. I have MS Office 2011 and that was fine. 2008 might be touchy depending on whether it will let you do the proper updates.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[John Davidson]

Sorry, I was on a plane when I gave you that previous comment and couldn’t elaborate.
Nowadays Craig when I set up a new mac I don’t have to sweat too much about all this. Granted, I’m drinking all the apple coolaid but for situations like this it’s great – and offers much redundancy.

1. Photos from Photos app sync to the cloud full res if you have settings right in iCloud and have enough iCloud Photo Library storage space. All photos are available and accessible on your phone, just select ‘optimize iphone storage’ on your phone so it doesn’t fill it up.

2. Music
If you use iTunes Match, all your music is backed up to your iCloud Music Library with Apple Music. Songs or tracks that aren’t matched are uploaded as-is.
When you sign into your account with iTunes on the new mac, it gives yo the option to download all your music back to the new mac, just like Photos, or you can just stream it from the cloud. I have over 35,000 songs up there. $20/yr for Match, $10/mo for Apple music (3 mo free). Everything will stream or download to any phone or device you own.

3. Box/Dropbox/iCloud
All of these services have a free tier so almost all basic type pdf’s and word docs you have can be moved to box and will migrate with you to the new machine when you install them on it. I prefer box because of it’s selective sync capabilities. Our clients love it as well.

4. Word
This one is going to be the biggest challenge. MS wants us all on Office 365 now. I actually prefer using that as it’s cleaner looking and you get 5 devices for $10/mo. If you decide you hate it, pages is tolerable as a free way to open docs and export. I do not love pages though.

5. Messages might come over depending on how long you have them set on your messages preferences to save.

6. If you’re using POP for your email, you should stop doing that. IMAP is better, syncs when you read devices, and brings all folders over correctly. I currently recommend FASTMAIL for macs because you get fantastic server side rules, custom domains, and real PUSH on macs as well as iPhones.

7. For FCPX, copy any custom motion templates over after you install the ProApps on the new mac.

I have done this a hundred times. This solution works best because it doesn’t just prep you for this specific transition, it preps you for new phones, iPads, etc. if your mac blows up due to an alien attack, you lose nothing. Any new photos you add to photos are synced to the cloud at full raw res. Affinity photo gives you all the adjustment elements you need.

All told it’s also much cheaper than a new HD.

Good luck!

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks John,

1. I use aperture and all libraries are on a raid.

Though like FCP 7 it is EOL. I’ll worry about that later.

3. Don’t use drop box but dragging my documents over to the new documents folder is a pretty simple. And a huge collection of docs really don’t take much storage but i do like the idea of having it all synced so might consider it. But I like to have different docs at work than at home. And worry about privacy on the cloud.

4. Really hope I can stay with MS OFFICE 2008. But we’ll see.Mixed reports from fellow 2008 users.

5. Can’t I sync messages on my phone to messages on the new Mac?

6. I’m using IMAP but I don’t know how to bring over the “on my mac” mail folders on El Cap.

In the past a simple search told you what user account library files need to be brought over and export import from Mail.

Also my job uses exchange.

And same question about safari links.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks. I was told migration assistant was all or nothing.

didn’t know there was a custom.

Will 2011 read 2008 docs without messing up formatting?

Will migration assistant bring over mail and – on my mac mail boxes?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[John Davidson]

-Your aperture libraries will come right over with the RAID then.
-Honestly aperture still works so if you’re happy with it then great.
-Box uses 256 bit encryption. You can pick and choose what syncs to your local device. https://sites.box.com/sync4/
-Maybe 08 office will work
-If you’re using iMessages on your phone as part of iCloud, it ‘should’ recreate all your messages assuming you have the phone settings under settings / messages (scroll down) Keep Messages set to ‘Forever’. You open up messages on the new clean mac and put your account credentials in and see what happens after it’s had a bit of time to load. https://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/11/16/sync-imessages-across-ios-os-x/
-drag the ‘on my mac’ folders into or under the ‘inbox’ folder on your old mac mail window. This pushes them all back to the IMAP server for download on a new machine. My IMAP folder structure exists under my INBOX, like this:

Depending on how many emails you have, this might take a while. It’ll go faster if you smart folder search your mail and get rid of any old emails with huge attachments – unless you have blazing fast upload speeds like Fios, in which case, whee!
-Exchange does not provide push email to mac mail, only iOS. What host are they using? if it’s office 365, then you can set up as IMAP. They may also be able to give you an option to have the latest office apps for free with your exchange hosted account. This is only if they have office 365 exchange hosting and your account enables you to have the apps. Please confirm if they host with office 365. There are other options that might be cool if so.
-Safari bookmarks sync with iCloud as do a ton of very useful things. https://www.apple.com/icloud/

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Oliver Peters]

[Craig Alan] “Will 2011 read 2008 docs without messing up formatting?”

It appears to. I haven’t checked it that closely, but the few docs I’ve opened since the update all look fine.

[Craig Alan] “Will migration assistant bring over mail and – on my mac mail boxes?”

Yes, if you select the option to move over the library. The rub in doing that is that your library will include all the old stuff. So if you have apps that you no longer wish to install, the associated application support files will still be there. On the plus side, most of the things like registration files for plug-ins will be there, as well.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

FWIW – Aperture shows up in the App Store if you previously bought it. Therefore, you can download it through the Mac App Store along with the other Apple and third party apps.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Craig Alan]

Thanks John. Taking this all in.

Ran into one snag. My phone and work Mac have the email set at IMAP. My home computer is set to POP stay on server for one month but I could uncheck that box.

1) Does that mean remove immediately? Or not remove at all?

2) Can I just change it to IMAP before doing the manual migration?

Road Runner gives you these options

3) And use the trick you mention above to move the “on my mac” mail folders to the inbox?

————-

“(iPhone settings) under settings / messages (scroll down) Keep Messages set to ‘Forever'”

yes that is my settings but it doesn’t seem to always work on my Macs. If the Mac was shut down, some times it syncs when turned on and sometimes not.

4) Is there any way to sync my messages currently stored on my phone and sync them with messages on my Macs?

—————
Here’s what I find for the exchange office 365.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Yup thanks it’s in there. I feel the same way about it as i felt about FCP 7. Was hoping for a major update and speed boost and instead EOL – there goes the learning curve. Yes I can still use it but getting deeper and deeper dependent on a app headed no where. On the other hand – like when I gave up on FCP 7 – have no idea what to move to.

However, I moved to FCP X a year to early (as it turned out) and I suppose Photos could add all the features back.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.