[Closed] Setting up a new iMac question..

I’ve just done exactly the same thing (old iMac to new M1). I just used the latest Time Machine backup, which worked perfectly. The main thing I wanted was all my logins and other settings to carry across, which they did. I guess it depends whether you have a complete Time Machine backup to hand though.

Restore from Time Machine backup is insanely easy, and will get you up and running with zero fuss. However, if you have a few hours to spare, I'd set it up as a new machine. Choose a fresh new wallpaper, make it feel new. iCloud and TimeMachine backups are amazing, but they'll make your new machine feel exactly like the old one!

I Did a fresh install with mine, and manually copied over files that I needed, (And Apps). Having said that I had circa 14 years of crap building up so wanted a fresh start anyway. i would say everything runs smoother, but then it's more down to going from 2014 MBP to m1 MBP.

Thanks all. I do have a TM backup on my NAS.  Not in a rush tho, so I think I'm going to go fresh to make it feel fresh.  If I do I guess I'll need to create a new set of TM backups for the new Mac. That's not exactly a chore tho.

Over a cable from the old machine is faster than over Time Machine, but obviously physical proximity is needed. You get to pick on restore whether to restore the users or the entire system.

I can connect them together. Think that's what I did last time. I need to delete myself off the original one as it's going to my better half. Wonder if I'd be better off with a fresh OS install?

I moved to an M1 earlier in the year and ended up doing a fresh install, copying over files as required.

I found that a fair few of my old apps were incompatible with the new OS anyway, so no point in syncing them over to the new machine.

Thanks. That's useful. Fresh install it is. Come on DPD....

For future reference, the startup sequence really wants you to migrate from another MAC or TM. I ended up plugging in my old Mac over ethernet and then unticking any of the boxes (docs, settings, apps, etc)

Most of the stuff I need is in iCloud so it wasn't much of a chore to add the extra stuff.

I thought my old iMac was pretty fast but this one renders video about 4 times quicker from what I can see 🙂

Fresh installing the old one before handing it over makes a lot of sense. Modern macOS is a lot more resiliant to idiot users breaking things but why not just clean it entirely. You can do a factory reset on power on to do that easily.

Thanks. I'll be doing that. It definitely needs a good clear out when I compare what I have on the new one.

I just connected my new iMac to my old one with a network cable (didn't have a Thunderbolt 2 to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 cable) and used Migration Assistant. So easy. I didn't have huge amounts of photo/video files etc, as I store them on USB drives. Unchecked Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Movies and Music folders, so it was just settings and Applications. Took 45 mins or so? My previous OS was 10.15 Catalina, as that's the latest my old machine could run. No issues at all. Very pleased.

I've subsequently bought a new dual-bay G-Raid Thunderbolt 3 drive enclosure, and a LaCie Thunderbolt 3 portable SSD drive, and I'd highly recommend doing so if you want the fastest file transfer speeds, as Thunderbolt 3/4 is much, much faster than USB3 etc. Very expensive though, compared to USB2/3 drives. Very noticeable increase in access speed as well.

In short, it's a much faster, slicker, more capable machine (old iMac was 2013 so pretty 'old' now). Highly recommend one to anyone considering purchasing.