# Upgrading to new Mac



## joespringfield (Nov 6, 2017)

Running Pro Tools 10 and Logic. I have an external ssd with a lot of VI's. I am sure a lot of VI/Plugin files live also on the Mac harddrive so I am hesitant on reinstalling everything. Not sure if the new Mac will ask me...Do you want to transfer files from older Mac? I've heard an IT person say I should click "no" and do a clean install on everything. I am ditching a lot of 32 bit stuff so it may be a good time to reinstall stuff but I am technically limited. Any advice would be appreciated. I will be upgrading to Pro Tools 12


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## sourcefor (Nov 6, 2017)

Just clone the hard drive and make sure its working fine and load on to new machine aside from some random re-authorizations it should work fine. That being said, clean installs are always a better option.


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## Vik (May 31, 2018)

I have a similar question. Can I move a system SSD from an 8-core Mac with El Capitan over to a 2010 Mac, and expect things to work?

And - do I need to deauthorize Kontakt, Logic, Cubase, my sample libraries etc _before_ I install the SDD in the 2010 Mac?


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## Nick Batzdorf (May 31, 2018)

joespringfield:

The Mac will ask you when you set it up. What's actually going on is that Migration Assistant (in your Utilities folder) runs, and it puts everything where it belongs. It does an excellent job, but of course you want everything backed up in a working state just in case.

You can also "restore" everything from a Time Machine backup of your old machine into your new Mac that's running a newer macOS version.

Vik:

I don't think you'll have to re-authorize anything, at least I didn't when I upgraded from/to the same Macs you're dealing with. My suggestion is to use Migration Assistant.

Again, be sure to back everything up in a working state before you do anything!


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## Vik (May 31, 2018)

Thanks, but I’m not upgrading to from the same Mac - this Mac is new for me. I’ll plan to remove the hard drive and boot from the SSD of my old Mac (once I have installed it in the new Mac


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## Nick Batzdorf (May 31, 2018)

Vik said:


> Thanks, but I’m not upgrading to from the same Mac - this Mac is new for me. I’ll plan to remove the hard drive and boot from the SSD of my old Mac (once I have installed it in the new Mac



You can probably do that, but I'd suggest the other way. Why import cruft when you have a chance to start with a new installation.

And yes, I'm talking about changing Macs too. I had the same machines you have: first a 2008 8-core 3,1, then I moved to an upgraded 2009 12-core 5,1 a year and a half ago.


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## Vik (May 31, 2018)

Thanks again, Nick. The reason I consider moving the ssd over to the new Mac is that the new Mac doesn’t have a ssd, only a normal hard drive.


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## gamma-ut (Jun 1, 2018)

I've found Migration Assistant in the past to cause subtle issues down the line. One curious one is that it can give the new primary user account on the new machine a different ID number to the default. This shouldn't have an effect but it can mess with things in odd ways. Installers can assume a certain ID that causes a plugin to crash or fail to start up. And it's a really difficult problem to track down.

On a DAW, personally I would use a clean install and using a clone drive to pull in applications and user data on to the new device.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 1, 2018)

gamma-ut, don't you set up your primary user account on the new machine before Migration Assistant does its work of importing everything?

Vik, definitely move the SSD to the new Mac! Why get rid of perfectly usable storage, especially SSD storage. I'm just talking about how you set up your system drive.

Now, if you're going to use that SSD as your system drive, of course the first step is to have at least two backups of it. I have a bootable clone and a constantly updated Time Machine backup, or actually two alternating Time Machine backups.

Then there's no harm in just putting it in the new machine and seeing how it goes. If it works - and it probably will - you're done; if you have problems, you can wipe it, install a new system, and use Migration Assistant or restore from a Time Machine backup (which I believe does the same thing, but I could be wrong).


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## Vik (Jun 1, 2018)

The SSD is now in the newest Mac, and at first things looked OK. I updated the drive to High Sierra, finally updated Logic to 10.4.1 (the 2008 Mac Pro could run Logic). So far, so good.

But when I moved my Sonett Tempo card with an SSD (and all my samples) on, I found that the Mac simply doesn't see it. The result if of course that I can't access any of my libraries.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 1, 2018)

Well, for now you can just put the drive on the internal bus. You won't notice any difference even though it's SATA 2. That'll probably solve the problem.

But I wonder whether the Sonett card's problems are related to High Sierra. It automatically installs a new file system - APFS - on SSDs.


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## Vik (Jun 1, 2018)

Maybe not High Sierra, and I probably can make it visible by getting another adapter so I can put it into one of the regular hard drive slots. That SSD doesn't have AFPS, since I hadn't installed that card/SSD when I updated to High Sierra. Maybe that could be part of the problem.


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## tmhuud (Jun 1, 2018)

We had a devil of a time getting High Sierra onto a 4TB OWC Aura Pro X Complete SSD Upgrade Drive from Mac sales. We ended up contacting support. It was a 4 step process to get it to stick.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 2, 2018)

tmhuud said:


> We had a devil of a time getting High Sierra onto a 4TB OWC Aura Pro X Complete SSD Upgrade Drive from Mac sales. We ended up contacting support. It was a 4 step process to get it to stick.



Oy.


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## jcrosby (Jun 2, 2018)

MacOS comes with drivers in place for all machines and has since they dropped DVDs. (At least as far as I know...) When I moved to 10.9 (maybe 10.10?) I made my clean install OS drive on my Mac Pro and cloned it to my Macbook. When I upgraded to 10.11 I did the opposite, Clean installed on my Macbook, cloned the drive overnight to an external and coned it to my Mac Pro... No issues either time...



gamma-ut said:


> I've found Migration Assistant in the past to cause subtle issues down the line. One curious one is that it can give the new primary user account on the new machine a different ID number to the default. This shouldn't have an effect but it can mess with things in odd ways. Installers can assume a certain ID that causes a plugin to crash or fail to start up. And it's a really difficult problem to track down.
> 
> On a DAW, personally I would use a clean install and using a clone drive to pull in applications and user data on to the new device.



Interestingly I tried Migration assistant last time around and had a TON of permissions issues in Sierra. So although I normally clone I'd agree. Personally I'm never wasting my time with M.A. again. (Have had similar issues trying time machine.) Cloning, on the other hand, has never failed for me. Take what you want from it but CCC will remain the only way I fly... Mac options always seem to break something, at least for me....


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## gamma-ut (Jun 3, 2018)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> gamma-ut, don't you set up your primary user account on the new machine before Migration Assistant does its work of importing everything?



This was something like five years ago so my memory is fuzzy on the details but IIRC this was a Firewire/USB "suck the data off the old laptop onto a new laptop" situation during initial setup. MA seemed to be the easiest way to go at the time rather than setting up a machine and then using MA (and I can't remember if that was available as an option).


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## Shad0wLandsUK (Jun 3, 2018)

I always install all the applications again. Over the years you can get files lying around that you no longer want and left-over extensions of files/drivers that are no longer needed.

I also use CCC to clone the installation and then put it somewhere as a backup. For what CCC does for £30, I don't think it can be beaten. There is also Superduper as an option. You can try Carbon Copy Cloner for a month all, before purchasing it


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 3, 2018)

Shad0wLandsUK, you're absolutely right that installing the programs over again is the best way to do it.

The problem is that it would days. So as you say, I keep bootable clones of my system in a working state and just do it the quicker way (not that I need to set up new machines or revert to backups very often).

At the time I bought SuperDuper - years ago - it had some advantages over CCC, but I'm sure things have changed. Both will do the job, as you say.


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