New iMac

Marc

Marc

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Have just ordered a new iMac as my 10 year old one is at death's door. I have the old one backed up to an external hard drive via Time Machine and, as I understand it, I can just plug the hard drive into the new one and all my apps will install? Does that work as far as licensed software is concerned (Adobe, MS Office)? I no longer have the box/key for Office (bought in 2011)

TIA
 
that is correct Marc

when you first switch the ne machine on you will get the hello and the option to set it up as a new machine or you can choose your time machine to install your apps.
the problem might be is if you have an older operating system on your time machine backup and the new iMac comes with Mojave. are you on High Sierra ???? I would assume you are not running Mojave on a 10 year old Mac.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
that is correct Marc

when you first switch the ne machine on you will get the hello and the option to set it up as a new machine or you can choose your time machine to install your apps.
the problem might be is if you have an older operating system on your time machine backup and the new iMac comes with Mojave. are you on High Sierra ???? I would assume you are not running Mojave on a 10 year old Mac.
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El Capitan, iMac is too old for Sierra let alone Mojave. What sort of problem do you envisage?
 
Some if not most of your apps might need updating, in fact the Adobe CC suite will definitely need an update, cannot say about Office as I refuse to have anything Micro$oft on my Macs.

And Mojave will take a bit of getting used to, especially coming from El Cap, I went back to High Sierra as I could just not get on with Mojave and to be honest it did not give me anything that High Sierra gives me.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
Some if not most of your apps might need updating, in fact the Adobe CC suite will definitely need an update, cannot say about Office as I refuse to have anything Micro$oft on my Macs.
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Adobe CC is up to date which is probably why, when I open Lightroom, I can go and have a cup of tea while waiting for it to open! TBH, Office isn't a deal breaker as Numbers will cover me for most stuff, I can use my work Lenovo laptop for the more involved stuff

Nikon f1.8 said:
And Mojave will take a bit of getting used to, especially coming from El Cap, I went back to High Sierra as I could just not get on with Mojave and to be honest it did not give me anything that High Sierra gives me.
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I have to admit, my iMac originally came with Leopard and I had a hard time telling much difference with each of the subsequent updates.
 
I haven't done this for a couple of years but my experience has been that a time machine restore is basically seamless regardless of operating systems. There'll probably be a load of updates to do but it should be very painless.
 
gad-westy said:
I haven't done this for a couple of years but my experience has been that a time machine restore is basically seamless regardless of operating systems. There'll probably be a load of updates to do but it should be very painless.
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Thanks Graham, that's good to know.
 
gad-westy said:
I haven't done this for a couple of years but my experience has been that a time machine restore is basically seamless regardless of operating systems. There'll probably be a load of updates to do but it should be very painless.
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Me too :)

My 2009 died towards the end of last year so I went out the same day and bought a new 27" one - Time Machine took pretty much all day to install but once it had I couldn't tell a difference to how my old one had been the day before, with all apps working perfectly (they were all up-to-date anyway)

Dave
 
Re Adobe software, deactivate on the old iMac before you run on the new. Microsoft Office will not run unless you bought the version with multiple licenses and have one spare. During the new iMac's setup it will prompt to import from your TM backup. Do not attempt to do a TM restore to a new Mac.
 
gad-westy said:
Yeah, you can just activate and deactivate machines from the little adobe manager thing in the task bar from any machine.
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Yep I get that, when its working. Mine broke so TM put it all back fine, Steveb seem to be suggesting you deactivate it before trying to reinstall from TM, which wasn't an option for me and clearly it worked anyway

Dave
 
I've never got on with Time Machine so I use Carbon Copy Cloner instead. It's basically a wrapper around rsync and it works well. If you clone your system drive you can boot pretty well any Mac from the clone which is convenient. As TM is free it's the default solution but CCC has enough benefits to keep me loyal.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I've never got on with Time Machine so I use Carbon Copy Cloner instead. It's basically a wrapper around rsync and it works well. If you clone your system drive you can boot pretty well any Mac from the clone which is convenient. As TM is free it's the default solution but CCC has enough benefits to keep me loyal.
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Yes to CCCloner but I’ve usually used SuperDuper and it’s always been flawless.
 
Probably a bit late, but restoring direct from a TM backup worked well for me when I used Macs regularly. Just one bit of advice though - back up twice on 2 separate drives 'just in case'. I had one occasion when I had to revert back to an earlier version of OSX and the TM backup I restored from had been changed to only work with the later version and was not backwards compatible, losing me a couple of weeks work & emails.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Probably a bit late, but restoring direct from a TM backup worked well for me when I used Macs regularly. Just one bit of advice though - back up twice on 2 separate drives 'just in case'. I had one occasion when I had to revert back to an earlier version of OSX and the TM backup I restored from had been changed to only work with the later version and was not backwards compatible, losing me a couple of weeks work & emails.
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Good shout. The new machine arrives tomorrow but probably won't get around to setting it up until the weekend.
 
You can then set the old one up to play endless Youtube videos of mice and birds for your little horror. (y)
 
Marc said:
So, the Mac has arrived and I've begun the migration. When it started, it showed 2 hours and 50 minutes remaining at 25 MB/s. Half an hour later, its showing 13 hours and 13 minutes at 6 MB/sand still rising! :eek:
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.... Don't take too much notice of the wildly different times remaining it gives - Each is only a live instant snapshot of the time remaining calculated by the machine at that exact second. So if the migration momentarily pauses to catch up etc it will recalculate a time remaining before completion which is usually longer. It's normal for it to fluctuate.

You will find that some third-party (not Apple macOS) software will need its licence deactivating (not trashing) on your old Mac before you are allowed to activate it on your new Mac.

You should find that most software suppliers will be very helpful if you can prove purchase OR show previous emails from them confirming your licence to use.

Also, do not hesitate to call Apple TechSupport for help - They are extremely helpful in my long experience of using them since 1998. Have your Apple order # and Mac Serial # ready which is accessed from top menu > Apple symbol > About This Mac > Overview.

You will be given a case # which you can use for any other ongoing future questions. Be nice to TechSupport people - Apple staff are particularly helpful and it's part of their whole ethos.

HTH
 
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RedRobin said:
.... Don't take too much notice of the wildly different times remaining it gives - Each is only a live instant snapshot of the time remaining calculated by the machine at that exact second. So if the migration momentarily pauses to catch up etc it will recalculate a time remaining before completion which is usually longer. It's normal for it to fluctuate.

You will find that some third-party (not Apple macOS) software will need its licence deactivating (not trashing) on your old Mac before you are allowed to activate it on your new Mac.

You should find that most software suppliers will be very helpful if you can prove purchase OR show previous emails from them confirming your licence to use.

Also, do not hesitate to call Apple TechSupport for help - They are extremely helpful in my long experience of using them since 1998. Have your Apple order # and Mac Serial # ready which is accessed from top menu > Apple symbol > About This Mac > Overview.

You will be given a case # which you can use for any other ongoing future questions. Be nice to TechSupport people - Apple staff are particularly helpful and it's part of their whole ethos.

HTH
Click to expand...

Thanks Robin

I ended up cancelling and just doing the Applications which went through quite quickly. Running the rest in now and will leave it overnight.
 
Marc said:
Thanks Robin

I ended up cancelling and just doing the Applications which went through quite quickly. Running the rest in now and will leave it overnight.
Click to expand...

.... When I migrated mine I just selected the Applications and then I have copied other folders and files manually via Time Machine's backup external drive. This has had the added benefit of a 'Spring clean' to trash what I no longer need or want.

If using the same external Time Machine drive to do the new Mac's backups it gets tricky to find the latest backup folder from your old Mac if copying manually.

You might not want to hear this but Apple released a new iMac a few days ago or is yours one? Although Apple are of course very secretive I had learnt that one was very imminent but decided to go from my 2011 iMac to a 2018 Mac Mini + Eizo 27-inch monitor.
 
RedRobin said:
.... When I migrated mine I just selected the Applications and then I have copied other folders and files manually via Time Machine's backup external drive. This has had the added benefit of a 'Spring clean' to trash what I no longer need or want.
Click to expand...

Which is what I ended up doing

RedRobin said:
If using the same external Time Machine drive to do the new Mac's backups it gets tricky to find the latest backup folder from your old Mac if copying manually.
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Having a problem there as it won't do a backup because there's not enough space (22GB from 500 GB). I've removed most of the previous back ups but it's made no difference

RedRobin said:
You might not want to hear this but Apple released a new iMac a few days ago or is yours one?
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Mine isn't but I'm not too bothered tbh, never been one to worry about having the latest of anything,
 
Marc said:
Having a problem there as it won't do a backup because there's not enough space (22GB from 500 GB). I've removed most of the previous back ups but it's made no difference
Click to expand...

.... I may be telling you something you already know here but just in case it helps : In System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, you can select specific items not to be backed up and so perhaps create more headroom. A Time Machine (TM) drive always needs headroom and that is why it is best practice to choose an external TM drive which is at least twice the storage capacity of your computer's internal HD.

This is also a question which Apple's TechSupport can help you with. They have always helped me even when outside an AppleCare period so don't assume they won't help you. There will also be online help articles about such a problem - Sorry but I don't have time to do a search for you and post any findings here.

Marc said:
Mine isn't but I'm not too bothered tbh, never been one to worry about having the latest of anything,
Click to expand...

.... I'm the same about not always wanting the latest - I'm still happy with my iPad 5, iPhone 7 Plus, and 2015 MacBook Pro. And I'm still in love with my 2005 Mk5 Golf GTI which is heavily performance modified. Toys, eh?
 
RedRobin said:
.... I may be telling you something you already know here but just in case it helps : In System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, you can select specific items not to be backed up and so perhaps create more headroom. A Time Machine (TM) drive always needs headroom and that is why it is best practice to choose an external TM drive which is at least twice the storage capacity of your computer's internal HD.

This is also a question which Apple's TechSupport can help you with. They have always helped me even when outside an AppleCare period so don't assume they won't help you. There will also be online help articles about such a problem - Sorry but I don't have time to do a search for you and post any findings here.
Click to expand...

No probs, I'll work it out.

RedRobin said:
I'm still happy with my iPad 5, iPhone 7 Plus, and 2015 MacBook Pro
Click to expand...

iPhone 6S and gas powered iPad here! :D
 
Marc said:
Having a problem there as it won't do a backup because there's not enough space (22GB from 500 GB). I've removed most of the previous back ups but it's made no difference
Click to expand...

D'oh, remembering to empty trash would have helped! Took all night to do it but got there in the end and everything running nice and smooth!
 
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