Old Intel Mac to brand new M3 migration woes

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Old Intel Mac to brand new M3 migration woes

So I have a 2015 Macbook running OS 10.14.6, which I unfortunately have to retire as the old girl is losing hardware integrity. I bought a new Air M3 which arrived with OS 14.6. I'm a big believer taking the switch between devices as a good time to decide what I really need to keep with me into the future, so I didn't use the Migration Assistant.

Problem is, I can't figure out how to get the two computers to talk to each other now. I put the 2015 one in Target Disk mode but the M3 won't discover it. I put the M3 in Sharing Mode, which is less than ideal, and the 2015 discovered it briefly, then lost connection. I've used different thunderbolt cables to no avail.

At this point I'm as much curious as frustrated. WHY can these Macbooks not talk to each other? ARE there tricks to enable them to talk to each other? At this point I'll probably transfer everything to an external drive and then over, but that does sound annoying.

MacBook, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 21, 2024 3:42 PM

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Answer 1

AJJJoy Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 21, 2024 4:06 PM in response to BDAqua

I think this is what's going to get me, yep. (Started finding actual answers as soon as I posted the question, as per usual.) I'm using recently made USB-C cables, for which I no longer have the packaging, and cannot determine if they are Thunderbolt-capable. The 2015 Mac has a single USB port, which also appears to be incapable of Thunderbolt protocol. I got a big floating USB symbol, not the FW symbol or the lightning bolt.

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