Most Mac migrations can be completed using the Migration Assistant built-in to Mac OS, but some will require a manual migration.

Procedure

When to use this procedure

This procedure is to be used when migrating from a Mac to either the same Mac (after a reload, for example) or to a new Mac. If transferring from a PC to a Mac, follow steps on “PC Restore from Backup” and generalize where necessary (obviously there won’t be a 1:1 translation from PC to Mac- just make sure to get all the documents, pictures, etc at the very least).

Full-manual migration

Note: If you receive an “Operation not permitted” error while running terminal commands, follow Procedure - Fix “Operation not permitted” on Mac

To manually migrate a user profile:

1. Create a temporary administrator user profile named temp with password temp, and login as the temporary user.
2. Move the user profile folder from the backup on the server to the desktop of the temporary user profile.
3. Create a new user with the same username as the folder copied in step 2, and the same password as the original user if possible.
4. Run the following commands, in sequence, substituting any bracketed items with the appropriate replacement (ie, replace <username> with the name of the user profile, sans brackets):
   1. Sudo su
   2. mv /Users/<username> /Users/<username>.bak
   3. mv /Users/temp/Desktop/<username> /Users/<username>
   4. chown -f -R <username>:staff /Users/<username>
   5. rm -f -R /Users/<username>.bak
5. The user profile should now be configured and ready for login.

Semi-Automatic migration

To reduce the number of steps required for a manual migration, we have a script available on the Data server. Connect to \192.168.0.100 and grab the script macmigrate.command from the data\Mac\Scripts folder (or grab it from the Mac folder in RemoteCare client), then:

1. Create a temporary administrator user profile, and login as the temporary user (as described in step 1 in Full-Manual migration).
2. Move the user profile folder from the backup to the desktop of the temporary user profile.
3. Create a new user with the same username as the folder copied in step 2, and the same password as the original user if possible.
4. Move the macmigrate.sh script to the temporary user desktop, then run the following command:
   1. sudo /Users/<temp-username>/Desktop/macmigrate.command
5. Follow the instructions as prompted and the script will execute the necessary commands to finish the manual migration.

Final steps

After finishing either the full-manual or semi-automatic migration, login to the user profile that was just migrated and confirm that:

1. The data was transferred. Check Documents, Pictures, Music, etc.
2. That the permissions were set properly. Ensure that the migrated user can open and modify files located in the various user folders. If the user used Mail and Messages, make sure those are present and accessible as well.
3. That there are no keychain popups- you may have to reset the keychain if that is the case. Keychain popups usually indicate that the user profile was created with a different password.

Additional Information

Migrating manually in this way does not transfer applications or application settings. The customer will need to be made aware of this before the manual migration takes place in order to avoid any confusion about what they expect to see on the computer when they receive it.

References

Procedure - Fix “Operation not permitted” on Mac