For the most part Apple products just work but now and then there is an issue, this was one of those “odd” issues. This was one of those issues that would have made my phone ring when I still worked at Apple tech support.
So here here I was at the Monkey Bar Helpdesk at Lithgeek when the data transfer between two Mac had finished. Everything went according to plan except for when I started the first Time Machine backup. It would run for a few seconds and fail…
Let’s look at my troubleshooting notes….
Probing (Information
- New OS
- No error messages
- Username correct
- permissions correct
- Software updates are current
- old system had anti-virus
- data transfer via Migration assistant
Troubleshooting
- Ran software updater (Same issue)
- Wiped destination drive (Same issue)
- Changed format of drive (Same issue)
- Wiped Mac drive
- reinstalled os
- Migration assistant (Same issue)
So basically what was happening that the migration assistant was moving the anti-virus to the new computer but not installing it.. the problem with anti-virus on a Mac is the is always an issue .. the reason for this is that most of the makers of anti-virus have the mentality of a underpaid overzealous mall cop. In this case the problem was that the anti-virus settings were moved to the new Mac but the software was not. This ment that any permissions that was causing problem could not be reversed because the software was not installed.
So Migration assistant was not the problem with the Time Machine Backup but it was the vector of the permissions issue being transferred.
So this is how I fixed the issue. Being the old Mac was having serious hardware issues any moment could be its last. A regular Time Machine back up and restore would have the potential to cause the same problem. So what I did was move the the user folder and found all the files not on the iCloud Drive
- ~/Photos
- ~/Movies
- ~/Desktop
- ~/Library (NOT COPIED )
Now what I did was copy those folders to an external dive. The idea was that the files was moved to the drive would break any permissions that was on the old computer. This would also make sure that the ~/Library folder would not bring over any of the presences.
I could have gone and tried to fix the permissions issue on the original computer however with that being unstable my first concern was getting the data off that computer and on to a safe drive. Backups were not on the table because until the backup is working we need to not trust any backup just in case that I have misdiagnosed the problem. (Always safeguard the data first and foremost)
Another consideration is that the customer needed to get the computer working ASAP. As much as I would have loved to isolate the issue and resolve it to the very end … for the customer experience just coping the data via a manual transfer was the best option.
Letting icloud do the work
first there are all kinds of reasons to not put your all your data online, but for those who do this can make the moving of data between computers easier. Something to be aware of is that many people assume that iCloud has totally backed up everything or nothing at all. This is dangerous because if they say “Just wipe it I have iCloud backups ” there is a chance they have old backups and nothing current… and trust me they will not blame themselves for that mistake..
Before letting the iCloud do all the work … double check what folders are actually being synced. in this case the photos library was synced but the other folders in the pictures folder were not….. talk about good catch.
PRocess takes forever
The problem with this kind of troubleshooting is that most of the time I push 10 buttons and then I have to wait 3-6 hours before I can tell if they have worked. This because when you wipe a computer like this you have to download the OS then transfer the data … in both cases there is not much that you can do to speed up that process.
The end result was that I was able to get the customers data over to the new Mac
This is why I do not recommend Anti-virus on a Mac .. of all processes to stop Time machine is one of the process that should ALWAYS WORK. When antivirus fails Time Machine is how you would recover! This is like a Gym making sure that all the ambulances have flat tires because there is a chance that one of them would have a donut .