HACKER Q&A
📣 amichail

How do I copy a large directory from an old Mac to a new Mac?


I tried air drop but it fails with large directories.

I also tried looking at the Time Machine backup of the old Mac but the new Mac doesn't have permission to see it for some reason.

As for migration assistant, I don't think it allows you to copy a home directory from your old Mac to a subdirectory of your home directory in your new Mac.

So what should I try?

P.S. It seems that I can't use a Time Machine external disk to copy files back and forth, even manually using "cp -rp".

  👤 runjake Accepted Answer ✓
Don't use AirDrop. It's designed for single file transfers and it's not particularly fast.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/transfer-files-mac-...

If one or both Macs are Apple Silicon, try this: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/transfer-files-a-ma...

👤 al_borland
Why not use Finder? Connect to the old Mac from the new one (or vice versa) in Finder, then drag the folder from on window (remote) to another (local).

If it’s extremely large and this will take too long over the network, use an external hard drive, again just using Finder. No need to mess with Time Machine or any of this other stuff people are talking about. It’s just files, that’s what Finder is for.

👤 i_don_t_know
Last time I got a new Mac, I restored my old user account from Time Machine / Migration Assistant on the new Mac but with a different user name, something like „me_old“. Then copy files between user accounts on the new Mac. You might have to change file permissions.
👤 stop50
How about rsync?
👤 Tabular-Iceberg
Can you boot the old one into disk target mode?
👤 cpach
ditto is quite good for this. If you have an external hard drive. The tool is built-in. Run man ditto for documentation.

rsync is also good.

👤 mackatsol
Ethernet and rsync… or an app like Superduper.
👤 ksherlock
Use sneakernet.
👤 48864w6ui
Boot as external drive?
👤 hilti
tar and rsync
👤 chrsw
tar