I’m awaiting delivery of new M4 mini, which will replace my 2020 M1 mini. Thinking about how to manage the migration, I recently had a super smooth experience using Migration Assistant to move everything from an Intel Macbook Air to an M3 Macbook Air. Dealing with the Mini migration adds a further level of potential complexity given the presumed need for a monitor, keyboard and mouse for both of the Minis.
I have two displays (both currently connected to my current Mini, and I have a spare mouse that I can use. But I only have a single keyboard. How can I effectively migrate to my new Mini without a second keyboard. I know of Universal Control although I’ve never used it. Can I use this to support the migration? What’s best practice for migrating between Minis?
I like to migrate using an SSD. I create a data clone (via Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper!) on the old machine and then plug it into the new machine as the source for the migration. The keyboard never needs to be shared.
Note: You can create the clone while unpacking the new machine and setting it up.
Yes, or a Time Machine backup would work for this as well. I do have a spare keyboard and mouse myself, so when I get an updated mini I can do migration directly from the old mini, but I’ve also done migrations from a backup drive.
If the KB is wired, you can just swap it from one mini to the other when you need it.
But, as others point out, if you use TM with or have SD/CCC “clones” of your old Mac, MA will copy back from that just as well as it would straight from the old Mac.
Easiest is Migration assistant. Make sure old mini is on, don’t know if logged in is needed but it won’t hurt as long as no apps are running. Keyboard and mouse to new and run MA, s left Mac on this network or however it’s worded and it just works. Ethernet is better of course…but I’ve migrated over WiFi and it works just fine albeit slower.