[Mac]Explain how to migrate data without using Migration Assistant! – OTONA LIFE

When you give away your old Mac and buy a new Mac, you have to do the data migration work. It’s easy to use Migration Assistant in Mac, but if you manually migrate data to an external hard drive, you can specify precisely the data migration.

I will explain how to migrate data without using Mac Migration Assistant.

[Mac]How to migrate data without Migration Assistant

How do you migrate data when you buy a new Mac? Apple’s recommended way to migrate data is to use Migration Assistant.

Migration Assistant for Mac is a dedicated application that comes standard on Macs to seamlessly migrate data between Macs or between Macs and Windows.

Using Migration Assistant is convenient because you can migrate your old Mac environment to your new Mac as is, but it may take some time to complete the data migration, or the process may become slow or unstable after the data migration.

In particular, when transferring data from an Intel-equipped Mac to an Apple silicon-equipped Mac, it seems that the work may not go smoothly. Also, if the source macOS for migrating data is the latest version of the destination macOS, there is also the disadvantage that Migration Assistant cannot be used.

Therefore, it may be best to migrate the data without using the Migration Assistant. In this article, I will show you how to migrate data without using Migration Assistant for Mac.

[الخطوة 1]Copy your old Mac data to an external hard drive

The way to migrate data to a new Mac without using the Mac’s “Migration Assistant” is to copy the old Mac’s data to an external hard drive, and then paste the copied data on the external hard drive to the new Mac.

As a way to migrate data to an external hard drive, there is a way to create a backup on an external hard drive using TimeMachine, which is a standard function of the Mac OS.

However, if you use TimeMachine to transfer data to an external hard drive and then transfer the data to a new Mac, you will end up transferring unnecessary data, which is inconvenient.

By connecting your old Mac to the external hard drive and migrating only the necessary data directly from the Mac to the external hard drive, it is very convenient because only the necessary data can be migrated very precisely. You can also transfer photos, videos, or data on your desktop to your new Mac.

Let’s see how to transfer data from Mac to external hard drive.

When your Mac and external hard drive are connected with a USB cable, the external hard drive icon will display at the top right of your Mac desktop screen, so click on it.

All data stored on the external hard drive will be displayed. You can transfer data by dragging and dropping the files you want to transfer to the external hard drive.

[الخطوة 2]Copy data from your external hard drive to your new Mac

Once you’ve copied all the data you need from your old Mac to your external hard drive, the next step is to copy the data you copied to your external hard drive to your new Mac. The method is basically the same as the previous procedure.

When your new Mac and external hard drive are connected using a USB cable, click the external hard drive icon displayed on the right side of your new Mac’s desktop screen.

All files saved to your external hard drive are displayed, so drag and drop necessary files and data to your new Mac.

[ملاحظة]A conversion adapter is required depending on the type of external hard drive.

So far I have presented how to migrate data using an external hard drive without using Migration Assistant. You may have found it very convenient to manually migrate data from your old Mac to your new Mac using an external hard drive because it’s quick and easy.

However, there is an important caveat to keep in mind when migrating data manually using an external hard drive. Depending on your external hard drive, you may need a conversion adapter. The USB ports are USB-C.

Since many external hard drives use USB-A, a conversion adapter is required to convert to USB-C to connect to your Mac. USB-C to USB adapters have different prices, but some can be purchased for around 1,000 yen. Buy it if you need it.

Also, if you’re using an iMac, buying an iMac-compatible USB-C docking hub that works with any USB port is a convenience, but it costs over 6,000 yen. They are quite expensive, so think carefully before you decide to buy.