How to use Migration Assistant

Apple includes an awesome app called Migration Assistant that we have used to help customers start over with a fresh macOS but keep all their data and applications. Apple allows a lot of different installation and migration options. We will discuss the main ones here, but if this does not answer your migration question, please contact us for more specific information about the upgrade you are planning.

What is Migration Assistant...why should I use it?
Migration Assistant allows you to transfer applications, settings and data from another Mac. macOS can see "another Mac" as your old hard drive or a Time Machine back up. A mac can boot from an external drive, for example, if you put your old hard drive into an external enclosure, you can boot from it, and run that hard drive and it would be exactly the same as your old mac...because it is!

If you just want a new macOS, start fresh with no legacy upgrade data, then you can use Migration Assistant to reinstall all your data and apps, and you will have the benefit of a new macOS with all the apps and data from your old drive.

How to use Migration Assistant
After you have installed the new macOS, the system starts and asks for generic information: country, keyboard type etc. The next part of the installation setup is Migration Assistant.

If you have installed a new SSD, you can use either your old hard drive in an external enclosure or a Time Machine back up as a source for Migration Assistant.
The example in the image below, a Time Machine disk is connected and to be used

Select the machine you want to restore from in Time Machine

Then select the type of data you want to migrate

That is it! You should have a new macOS with all your applications and data restored back on the system.

Limitations of Migration Assistant
The new Mac can not be on Lion (v10.8) or earlier. If you are migrating to an old version of OSX such as Lion, then you need to use another method.
This method is not recommended if the macOS are too far apart in release. It is ok if you are moving from Sierra to High Sierra. But if your computer is on Lion, your application and core system files will not be compatible with High Sierra or Mojave.

Time Machine: why you should use it

Time Machine has many features that can make your life easier when upgrading to an SSD.

You should be backing up on a regular basis and Time Machine is Apple's built in back up software that is easy to use.

To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you connect the device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.

If you connect a new external drive to your mac you should see this window pop on the screen

If you dont get the pop up you can go to Time Machine app and select disk or add Disk.

The software will set up automated back ups. If you periodically connect the Time Machine, if it does not automatically start you can start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine. 
 
First the most asked question we get: Does Time Machine back up the operating system or macOS?
If your Time Machine is backing up your whole drive, yes the macOS is backed up. You have a complete back up of your Mac. You do not have to download macOS to use your Time Machine. In Sierra and High Sierra we have seen Time Machine go off to the Apple website to verify or update core files. It is not totally understood what is happening, but it is not uncommon for Time Machine to get additional files from the Apple website before restoring a Time Machine back up. Usually these files are to do with the recovery partition on the Time Machine or the Disk Utilities page.

Restore on a new SSD and the Double Clone 
One of the best features of Time Machine is you can you it to restore to a new SSD. We have outlined the process in our Four R Restore from Time Machine. What if you dont have a Time Machine and/or you have not been backing up your data? No judgement here, but here is a way to fix all that. We call it the Double Clone. 

The Double Clone
Instead of ordering a clone cable or an external clone case, you buy an external drive. A 1tb or 2tb drive is a good size, the major brands are Toshiba, Seagate, Verbatim or Western Digital. You dont need the SSD version, just a standard external drive. 
Format the external drive. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your Mac onto the new drive. Install the new SSD. Restart the Mac holding down the Option key. Select the new cloned external drive. You are now running your Mac off the external drive. Use Disk Utilities to initialise the new SSD. Open Carbon Copy Cloner and do a second clone, this time from the external drive to the new SSD. When the clone if finished, shut down the Mac, remove the external clone and restart the Mac. Go to System Preferences and set the start up disk to the new SSD. Open Time Machine, plug in the external drive, if you don't get the pop up window asking to turn teh drive into a Time Machine, then select disk or add Disk and start a new Time Machine. Please note it will erase all the clone data, be sure your new SSD is working as expected before erasing the clone. That is the Double Clone: get a new SSD and a new backup system with Time Machine!!

Rebooting off Time Machine
Time Machine does not have a recovery partition, however you can use it to restore your Mac or install a new macOS. If you want to use Time Machine in this way, plug the Time Machine into the Mac, then restart the Mac holding down the Option key. This loads the boot manager and you can see all drives attached to the Mac. The Time Machine should display as an external drive. Select it and the Mac will build a macOS Utilities page that will have Disk Utility (to initialise a new drive or erase a current drive) and install a new macOS.

How to initialise an SSD

When you get your new SSD it is uninitialised. This means it can be used in a Mac or PC. It needs to be initialised before use. In the PC world they call this formatting the drive. In the Mac world it is called Erase and it is a function of Disk Utilities

Disk Utility is a tool included in many places. It is found in the Utilities directory in Applications. It is included in any macOS install app. It is found in the recovery partition on a drive when a Mac is restarted holding down the keys Command + R. It is also a part of the Internet Recovery boot up. There are many reasons why you would want to erase a drive, this guide is focused on initialising a new SSD, however for readers who are looking at general information we have added the following warning...
Warning: Erasing a disk will delete all data on the disk. Never initialise/erase a drive that has data on it that you want to keep. I know that sounds obvious but you would be surprised with the support calls we get :-). Four steps to initialise a new SSD.

New APFS format
Starting from macOS High Sierra, Apple have a new format called APFS. It is recommended to format your new SSD in APFS if you will be using High Sierra or above. APFS is optimised for SSD drives. If you are using macOS Sierra or below, the recommended format is still Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

How to clone with SuperSuper!

Please note: this process cannot be used to clone a Windows partition created by Boot Camp. We recommend WinClone by Twocanoes Software. It is commercial software requiring a license to use, however it is not affiliated with our company and that is not an affiliate link.

Before cloning, the SSD needs to be initialised, if that has not been done, please follow our instructions above.

The process is really only two steps...download and run. Superduper! is very simple but powerful piece of software.

Simple Questions answered

Is the SSD the same physical size as my current hard drive?
Yes. Both the standard Apple 2006-2012 Macbook and Macbook Pro hard drive are an industry standard 2.5 inch notebook drive. They are physically exactly the same physical size.

Can I use any SSD here to upgrade my 2012 (Retina) to 2017 Macbook Pro?
No. From the Retina 2012 Macbook Pro Apple started using a proprietary version of a M.2 SSD. We recommend the OWC Aura SSD and have listed these SSD's separately.

Does the 2013-2017 Macbook Pro use a standard M.2 SSD?
No. It is only standard in it's physical size. A standard M.2 drive will not work. Apple has made their drives proprietary.

Are the 2.5 inch SSD drives faster or better the larger the size?
All our current SSDs are the same speed and quality. The 250GB is as fast as the 2TB.

Do I need a bracket to install the SSD?
No.

Can I do this install myself?
Yes. We have had customers of every type of experience: students to pensioners do this upgrade. It is only slightly more complicated than a RAM upgrade.

Do I need any special tools?
For the pre 2013 models you need a small phillips screwdriver and a Torx 6 screwdriver. These are standard tools, found in many kits and available at hardware stores like Bunnings. Everything you need is in our screwdriver tool kit. The Aura SSD kits include all the tools you require.

Can I clone a bigger drive onto a smaller SSD?
No. If you have 900gb of data on a 1TB hard drive, you can not clone this onto a 525GB SSD. The cloning software we recommend does not selectively clone. It is all or nothing.

Does the hard drive and the SSD have to be the same size?
No. As long as the source (current hard drive) has less data than size of the new SSD. So 300GB on a 1TB hard drive will clone onto a 525GB SSD.

What size SSD should I buy?
We recommend you look at how much data is on your hard drive and then get an SSD at least 20% bigger than the data you have. We have found the optimal free space for an SSD to work with virtual and swap files is 20%. Aim for 30 to 40%. It all depends on your work flow and how much data you store and delete.

Can SuperDuper! clone a windows parition?
No. We recommend Winclone for this type of clone.

Revision log (what has changed)

If you have read or downloaded this guide in the past, you might want to know what has changed, how have we updated this guide.

December 2020 
Updated macOS USB installer instructions to Big Sur

September 2020 
Big update: we changed our recommendation to use Recovery Mode to install macOS. Add Transcend SSDs. New external clone instructions. New Double Clone technique. Rewrote macOS install and Time Machine section.  

August 2020 
Replaced SuperDuper! software with Carbon Copy Cloner.  

May 2019
Brought back the old cloning method, it is now called the External Clone Method. The reason is a lot of customers like to use third party software to clone.

April 2019
Updated the Aura Pro X to the Aura Pro X2 SSD

February 2019
Updated dates for server download error. Updated how to make a MacOS installer USB details to Mojave. Added work around for the El Capitan corrupt error: "This copy of the install OS X El Capitan application can't be verified." Changed Retina Macbook Pro cloning instructions to use a MacOS USB installer. Added MacOS installer USB to accessories.
Superduper! now have a secure website we can link to, changed link from a Google search to a direct link to their website.

January 2019
Fixed wording that sounded like we give you a free cloning cable. Cables must be bought separate. They are part of SSD kits, but not included in standard SSD drives.

August 2018
Why you can not restore from Time Machine if your Mac has High Sierra on a drive formatted with macOS Extended Journal (part of Time Machine: the good, the bad and the ugly)

July 2018
We now do not recommend using Time Machine to restore on to your new SSD if you have a mechanical hard drive formatted with macOS Extended Journal. You can only clone.

April 2018
Updating How to Install macOS page. We are troubleshooting installs everyday, and updating information on these pages. It appears a lot of issues revolve around updated EFI. Please check your EFI before doing too much troubleshooting. Booting off Time Machine with an out of date EFI now seems to be problematic

March 2018
In Four R method Time Machine: Replaced default format of extended journal to APFS must be used for High Sierra)
Updated the High Sierra create a USB installer script: we had it wrong.
Added two new topics: Using Migration Assistant and Unknown Time Machine features.

February and March 2018
New APFS format structure. We added the Apple recommendation to use APFS for High Sierra. Updated the How to Initialise an SSD and updated the Disk Utilities image to show all the new format options.

January 2018
We added information about Time Machine recovery partition. If you have a Mac that can not use Internet Recovery, then the recovery partition on Time Machine can be used to restore an macOS. Areas updated were Fresh macOS and How to Install macOS.

December 2017
Updated scripts to High Sierra.