You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Migrating using ThunderBolt-2

Greetings-

I recently purchased a Mac Studio and wish to connect it to my 2014 Mac mini which uses a TB 2 port while the Mac Studio has a TB 4 port as I want to do a data migration and have read that using a TB cable is the most reliable way of doing so. Are there any 2 to 4 TB cables on the market or adapters that can be used? I've heard that trying to do data xfer via icloud, icapsule or wi-fi can be flakey. Any thoughts/suggestions you may have would be much appreciated.

Thank you!


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac Studio, macOS 14.2

Posted on Apr 28, 2024 7:08 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 28, 2024 7:26 PM

<<. have read that using a TB cable is the most reliable way of doing so. >>


That is ONE point of view.


But you will need a US$50 adapter and a thunderbolt-2 cable at another maybe US$25 to do a one-off transfer that way.


Readers here agree that the best way is from the old Mac's Time machine backup drive. Drag it over to the new Mac and find a way, however slow, to connect it, and let the Migration begin.

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 28, 2024 7:26 PM in response to fullyladenswallow

<<. have read that using a TB cable is the most reliable way of doing so. >>


That is ONE point of view.


But you will need a US$50 adapter and a thunderbolt-2 cable at another maybe US$25 to do a one-off transfer that way.


Readers here agree that the best way is from the old Mac's Time machine backup drive. Drag it over to the new Mac and find a way, however slow, to connect it, and let the Migration begin.

Apr 29, 2024 6:21 AM in response to fullyladenswallow

the only dragging you do is heaving the physical drive around. The rest is a standard Migration Assistant session, OR, if you have not yet created ANY user accounts on your just out of the box Mac, Setup Assistant.


Setup Assistant is a special case where, at FIRST run, you do NOT create a NEW user account, but tell Setup Assistant to use a Backup disk as the source. "All the 'stuff' is over there, on that previous Mac's Time machine backup disk" now attached to your new Mac.

Apr 29, 2024 6:23 AM in response to LexxDataRecSolutions

LexxDataRecSolutions wrote:

Just use a standard Ethernet cable to connect the two Macs. You will achieve a copying speed of about 120 megabytes per second, which allows for copying around 400 GB per hour. However, the actual speed will be lower because copying hundreds of thousands of small files slows down the process.


ThunderBolt-2, used on older Macs, is not plug compatible with ThunderBolt-3. Its use requires a ThunderBolt-3 <-> Thunderbolt-2 adapter, US$50, plus a ThunderBolt-2 cable.

Migrating using ThunderBolt-2

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.