A few days ago I recounted my problems during a migration of data from a MacBook Pro to MacBook Air. After many hours stuck on “one minute remaining”, Migration Assistant finally completed but told me that it had not been possible to copy some files. The main purpose of this exercise had been to do a dummy run before the arrival of a new 5K iMac. I suspected problems with Adobe Creative Cloud, which I had not uninstalled before migration, but I felt some of the blame might belong to the older computer, the Air.
Yesterday afternoon the 27-in-retinia-screened iMac arrived and the first thing I did, following my own advice, was to uninstall all the Adobe Creative Cloud apps on the old MacBook Pro and degregister. With this done, I hitched up a Thunderbolt cable to run Migration Assistant. Sadly, this turned out to be a repeat performance of the earlier attempt.
Clearly the problem has nothing to do with Adobe CC nor with the MacBook Air with which I had previously tried to synchronise. After nearly two hours of progress, MA showed the dreaded “one minute remaining” message and just stuck there. I could have waited overnight, as I recommended in the earlier article, but I decided that I should go for a complete new installation.
Big decision
This is a big decision because it can take many hours to sort out even the most frequently used apps and settings. And, from past experience, seldom-used apps are popping up for attention throughout the following weeks.
So far, on day two, I have clocked up nine hours working on this reinstallation and I am not there yet. The work is tedious, but it would be much more difficult, if not impossible, without the aid of applications such as 1Password and Dropbox. Fortunately, I keep all data in Dropbox, including databases and preferences wherever it is possible to do so. iCloud is also useful because it automatically looks after calendars, contacts, reminders and many applications, including Pages, Numbers and Keynote. And the App Store will automatically reinstall your previous purchases. All you have to do is log in using your passwords where necessary.
App downloads, registration
It’s different with applications bought outside the App Store. I have a long list of such programs including Hazel, Omni Focus/Outliner/Presence, Text Expander, Pathfinder, Scrivener, DevonThink Pro and Moneydance. In every case it is necessary to download a trial version, register the licence (safely stored in 1Password, of course) and then set up syncing as necessary. There’s nothing particularly challenging about this; it just takes time. I have had one significant problem, with DayOne, my favourite journal application, and I am working with the developers to resolve the inability to set up Dropbox syncing. This alone has taken up a couple of hours.
Right decision
On reflection, the decision to go for a re-install was the right one. It is too easy to rely slavishlty on Migration Assistant. Until this week, it has served me well over several years. However, even when it does work, there are inevitably many unwanted applications and support files that keep popping up. These problems have provided a good opportunity for a fresh start and so far it feels good to have the prospect of a completely new setup.
In the meantime, not much time for writing as I tackle this on-going installation.
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I really wish that I had found your blog two days ago. Just too, just received my new iMac 5k 27 in retina screen. I was so excited to be moving up from my older 2011 iMac for the larger faster bigger better everything:)
Did the backup in preparation of the arrival, and fired up migration assistant, not anticipating any problems, but lo and behold it hung on less than a minute for over 24 hours. My husband went and purchased a thunderbolt cable, (we were thinking it was a network thing) . Well that seemed to work alright, seemed to have everything moved over, until I realized that creative cloud was not working right, error message popped up immediately on login, and same error message when you try and reinstall, and no matter how many times I tried the install I got the same error message. I was on chat support with Adobe, and someone in another country told me I must create a new user account, which I had already tried, and then download Creative Cloud again. Well, I now have three user accounts, all worthless if I can’t use Creative Cloud. My husband is now on tech support again with Adobe, if this does not work I am cleaning up everything and starting from scratch, I would rather reinstall everything manually than go through this again. It seems that Migration assistant / and or creative cloud is not playing nice together, and I just don’t have time for this. I have photos to edit. So anyway, I am hoping that your blog post finds its way to the next victim, before they do what I did, and Oh, thanks for sharing. You should post in the Adobe Creative Cloud Forums, there are lots of complaints.
Sharon Vallentiny
Thanks Sharon, I sympathise. When something like this happens you tend to cast around for explanations and, often, the imagined solutions (such as a faster connection) turn out to be red herrings. In the past I have not not a moment’s problem with Migration Assistant but I am now coming round to the idea that a fresh install is the best solution. Adobe CC turned out to be a sideshow for me but it does seem essential to delete it from an old computer before running Migration Assistant.
There seem to be two issues with CC. One is registration but they say this has been simplified and all that is necessary is to go the website and deregister the old computer (or do it from that computer before wiping the disk). More worrying is the possibility that CC will not install on the new computer after migration because of old library files. It is a pity Adobe cannot tackle this with a. utility to clean out the old stuff ready for a reinstall.
I hope your iMac is now up and running well. As far as I can tell, all the Adobe apps are fine on my computer.