Ask HN: 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".
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...
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.
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.
How about rsync?
Can you boot the old one into disk target mode?
I ended up manually creating several dmg files to get the data I want from my home directory and air dropping each one to the new Mac.
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.
I have a Time Machine external drive that I can't seem to be able to write data to outside of Time Machine. There's a strange permission issue.
I wouldn’t do anything until you figure that out. It sounds like you have no backup right now.
Last time I did something like this, I just drag and dropped the directory out of the time machine drive and it worked flawlessly.
My old Mac can access the data in Time Machine but apparently not the new Mac due to a permission issue.
Are the disk formats the same in all 3 drives?
They are all APFS.
Ethernet and rsync… or an app like Superduper.
Use sneakernet.
Boot as external drive?
tar and rsync
tar