Migrating 2012 mini to 2021 M1 Mini

Hi all - figured I'd hit the collective experience of everyone here. Need to migrate 2 accounts from a 2012 mini to a new mini M1 (2021). I'm hearing that the thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter has problems on the M1. Don't want to do wireless. Can I direct connect the two via thunderbolt 4- network and run migration assistant? Can I plug them both into the LAN? What's the best solution out there. Thanks.

I'm not aware of Thunderbolt adapter problems, and I've used one before. But if you're afraid, then wireless is the easiest way. Ethernet is also an option–connect them directly to each other. Use Migration Assistant no matter how you choose to do it.

I don't think you can use the LAN. I think they need to be directly connected. Apple's instructions are very easy. Don't make it harder than it needs to be.

Dr_Charles_Forbin said:

Hi all - figured I'd hit the collective experience of everyone here. Need to migrate 2 accounts from a 2012 mini to a new mini M1 (2021). I'm hearing that the thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter has problems on the M1. Don't want to do wireless. Can I direct connect the two via thunderbolt 4- network and run migration assistant? Can I plug them both into the LAN? What's the best solution out there. Thanks.

I use the Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter with Apple Silicon Macs all the time and have never had any problem with it.

I've posted this many times over the years.

The easiest way, with the best chances of success, is to migrate from a backup drive.
And that will go fastest if your backup is a "cloned" backup created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

Both are free to download and use for 30 days, so "doing it my way" will cost you nothing.

You want to be careful to do the migration THE VERY FIRST TIME you boot the new Mini -- otherwise, you could end up with multiple accounts and permissions problems.

Quick overview:
a. Just before the new Mini arrives, create your backup (or, if you HAVE a backup already, just run it "one last time")
b. When the new Mini comes, take it out of the box, set it up, and connect the backup BEFORE you press the power on button
c. Now press the power-on button, let it boot, and begin setup
d. At the appropriate moment, setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate from another drive. YES you do
e. "Point the way" to the backup and give SA time to "digest everything" on it. It will take a little while
f. SA will present you with a list of stuff to migrate (apps, accounts, settings, data)
YOU CAN GO TWO WAYS HERE:
1st:
Just migrate everything. But be aware that some apps may require upgrading, or may have no upgrades available.
2nd:
Migrate everything EXCEPT your apps.
Now (again, you need a cloned backup for this) you can "test" your apps by running them from the backup (your preferences will get migrated with your accounts). My guess is that if they run from the backup, they'll run from the internal drive, so now you can "copy them over manually", reinstall them, etc.
WHAT YOU CHOOSE IS UP TO YOU.
g. With the above choices made, let setup assistant "do its thing" with the migration. Again, it will take a while.

When done, you should see your login screen, just as before.

Good luck.

Ethernet has always been my method of choice.
Although thunderbolt is obviously faster, using dongles for migration assistant, which is already sorta flakey, isn’t worth it for me to possibly have to do the migration again.
Also, doesn’t the 2012 Mac Mini have Thunderbolt 1 not 2?

macsound1 said:

Also, doesn’t the 2012 Mac Mini have Thunderbolt 1 not 2?

Yes. Although:

Wikipedia said:

Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use the same connector as Mini DisplayPort (MDP), whereas Thunderbolt 3 and 4 reuse the USB-C connector from USB.

Quoted because I felt it was stated succinctly.

macsound1 said:

Ethernet has always been my method of choice.
Although thunderbolt is obviously faster, using dongles for migration assistant, which is already sorta flakey, isn’t worth it for me to possibly have to do the migration again.
Also, doesn’t the 2012 Mac Mini have Thunderbolt 1 not 2?

Thunderbolt will be tremendously faster than ethernet, and I have never found the Thunderbolt adapter, which I use all the time, to be unreliable. If you already have the adapter and cable, go ahead and do that, and it'll work fine.

Fishrrman said:

Both are free to download and use for 30 days, so "doing it my way" will cost you nothing.

Time has a cost, and this method takes so much longer than just doing a direct migration, while still ending up with the same result.

MacCheetah3 said:

Yes. Although:

Quoted because I felt it was stated succinctly.

The reason I brought it up is because, is the TB3 to TB2 adapter compatible with TB1?
Sorta like how lots of things use the USB C connector, doesn’t mean they all work together.
So using the adapter with the correct looking ports might not actually work.

macsound1 said:

The reason I brought it up is because, is the TB3 to TB2 adapter compatible with TB1?
Sorta like how lots of things use the USB C connector, doesn’t mean they all work together.
So using the adapter with the correct looking ports might not actually work.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT207266

You can also use the Thunderbolt port of this adapter to connect an external hard drive, dock, Mac or other device that uses a Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 cable for data transfer. This adapter supports data-transfer speeds up to 10Gbps with Thunderbolt devices, and up to 20Gbps with Thunderbolt 2 devices.

Thanks all that answered - went surprisingly well over wired network- but I have another problem - something Apple should maybe mention to people... moving a Parallels VM to an ARM processor. I'm going to open another question on it. Doesn't look like you can port an Intel-based VM to ARM. What a mess, and it's not even my computer.