Apple provides a transfer service in their retail stores for free, which could save you time. There is no clear guideline on what data they can transfer, but they will do their best to get as much moved over as possible. Set an appointment with the Genius Bar and bring in both of your computers.
Apple has created a program called Migration Assistant to help Mac users move their data over from a PC. This program is simple to use and can help you make the process easier. Start by first creating a migration plan and then following the instructions to complete the migration.
Apple Migration Assistant
This program is installed by default on all Macs running OS X Lion or later. If you want to copy data from your PC, you will need to install the Windows version of the program.
Now, open the Windows Migration Assistant program and click on the “Create a migration project” button. You’ll be asked to name your project and select a destination computer from the list of available computers. Next, you’ll need to decide what data you want to move. You can choose individual files or folders, or you can select an entire folder hierarchy. Once you’ve made your selection, click on the “Next” button. You’ll now be asked to specify how many copies of each file or folder you want to move. Click on the “Select files” button and select the files or folders you want to move. Then click on the “Next” button. You’ll now be asked how you want to migrate your data: as a single file, as a series of files that are compressed using Windows’ default compression algorithm, or as a series of files that are uncompressed. Click on the “Select files” button and select the files or folders you want to move, then click on the “Next” button. Finally, you’ll be asked how often you’d like your migration project updates sent: once every day, once every two days, once every week, or never. Click on the “Select frequency” button and choose one of the options listed below it (every day is usually best). Then click on the “Next” button. ..
If the assistant doesn’t start automatically, you can click on Start and it will be listed in All Programs or All Apps.
Disable automatic Windows updates to ensure the transfer process doesn’t get interrupted by a sudden restart due to updates. In the Control Panel, find and disable the “Windows Update” check box.
If you want to migrate your data from your old Mac computer to your new one, you’ll need to open the same program on your new Mac computer. ..
If you’re using a Mac, open the Applications folder and then scroll down to Utilities. You should see Migration Assistant with the smiley faces.
When you open Safari, go ahead and click Continue. You may get a message stating the firewall is turned on and that you should turn it off. Follow the instructions to turn off the firewall on your Mac.
If you’re having trouble starting your Mac, follow these steps:
- Close all applications and restart your Mac.
- Open the System Preferences application and select the " Startup" tab.
- Scroll down to the bottom and check the box next to “Macintosh System Preferences” to open it automatically on startup.
From a Windows PC, click on Continue. Make sure your PC and Mac are connected to the same network, otherwise the two computers won’t be able to find each other. It may also be worth turning off the Windows firewall also if you are running into problems. ..
If you have a Windows PC, follow these steps to get your security code: -First, make sure your computer is turned on and connected to the internet. -Second, open the Settings app on your computer and click on System. -Third, under Security & privacy, click on Update & security. -Fourth, under Windows Update, click on Change settings. -Fifth, under Security settings, click on Get started. -Sixth, under Sign in with Microsoft account (or sign in with a different account), enter your email address and password. -Seventh, under Sign in with another account (like a work or school account), enter the security code that was emailed to you when you registered your computer. ..
If you’re having trouble connecting to the assistant on your Mac, try restarting your computer. ..
Second, for some reason, on my setup it showed a different code on the PC than the one of the Mac. I clicked Continue on my PC anyway and it worked just fine, but not sure why that happened. It could have been because I restarted the assistant program on the PC. Either way, it worked with the different codes. ..
If you are having trouble with the assistant app on your PC, try restarting it. ..
When you click Continue on the PC, the program will tell you that it is ready to transfer data and that you should choose the data on your Mac.
If you go back to your Mac, the code screen should be gone and you should now see a dialog where you can pick the data to transfer. ..
The Windows 10 Photos app defaults to finding and copying data from your main hard drive, but you can easily change this to a location where you want to store your photos. The app also tells you how much data is available on the selected hard drive and how much is left over.
When you click Continue, the data transfer will begin. You should know that the Mac will create a new user account and import all the data there. It does not modify any settings for your current user account, which is nice. Once completed, you’ll see a Cleaning up message and then a Quit button. ..
On the Mac side, you’ll see a Finishing Migration message followed by a message indicating that the transfer was completed successfully.
When you restart your Mac, the new user account will be created and all of the data that was in the old user’s profile will be transferred to it. That’s all there is to it! ..
Migration Assistant cannot help you transfer any applications from your PC to your Mac for obvious reasons. Most applications have a PC and Mac version, such as Office and Adobe. If you need to run a Windows only app on your Mac, you can read my previous post on different programs you can use to run Windows on Mac.
Manually Transferring Data
If you want to manually transfer data without using Migration Assistant, you can do so, but it requires a bit more work. You have to create a shared folder on your Windows machine and then connect to it from your Mac. ..
If you have a lot of data to transfer, it might be easier to use a portable hard drive, flash drive or network attached storage device.
If you’re looking to share files and folders with your Windows computer, you’ll need to connect to the Windows shared folder first. Here’s how:
- Open the Start menu and type “cmd” (without the quotes)
- Type “netstat -an” to see all active network connections on your computer
- If there is a shared folder connected to your Windows computer, it will be listed in the results of netstat -an. To share that folder with your Mac, simply select it from the list and click “Share.”
In order to get data like contacts, email, bookmarks, etc., you would have to manually export the items and then import them into the appropriate program on your Mac. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!
