Need a new iMac

[Betty LaRue]

OMG, it’s transferring 12:35pm. Couldn’t figure out why my new password on new Mac wasn’t typing. Wrong keyboard! 😄

[MDM]

Great. Keep us updated. 

[Betty LaRue]

It says 18 hours! SloMo.

[MDM]

38 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

It says 18 hours! SloMo.

Yes very slow but the important thing is it gets done. As I say, I have never used the MA so can’t relate it to any direct experience. I expect it might have been faster if you used an external drive rather than WiFi and it will also depend on how much data you are transferring. 

 

[MizBrown]

Now that you have it in motion, you can go burn more holes in plastic pots and plant more tomatoes.  

[Betty LaRue]

8 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

Now that you have it in motion, you can go burn more holes in plastic pots and plant more tomatoes.  

Now, MizBrown, you must agree I showed some ingenuity, 😂. I can think myself through most problems unless it’s technology.
 

After all, I laid a sand base, graded it perfectly, watered it in multiple times and laid bricks in a herringbone pattern in my courtyard and had never seen it done before. My engineer neighbor across the street wandered over and his eyebrows shot up at my success. I think he was disappointed he couldn’t give advice. When it rained, there was no standing puddles, either. Of course, that was well before my back issue. 

[MizBrown]

57 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Now, MizBrown, you must agree I showed some ingenuity, 😂. I can think myself through most problems unless it’s technology.
 

After all, I laid a sand base, graded it perfectly, watered it in multiple times and laid bricks in a herringbone pattern in my courtyard and had never seen it done before. My engineer neighbor across the street wandered over and his eyebrows shot up at my success. I think he was disappointed he couldn’t give advice. When it rained, there was no standing puddles, either. Of course, that was well before my back issue. 

 

I've hired people to put in a concrete pad for my new washing machine.  Moving that took two people.  It's now sitting in my kitchen and we'll try hooking it up again tomorrow and see if it leaks then.   That thing weighs something like 80 lbs.  They're also going to lower the faucet so it will be easier to get to and put in a standpipe for the waste water.    I didn't tell the landlord, but I suspect in these days, people would prefer a laundry space more than a third shower, and not with a heated shower head at that.  And if anyone wants to reverse that, they can. 

 

The space will still have a toilet, handy for guests.  Two rooms have toilets and showers behind curtains but inside the rooms. 

 

The former washing machine was a double tub thing common in these parts that had a separate centrifuge drum.   I had to lift the laundry back and forth and turn water on and off, nothing automatic.  This one has all sorts of automatic features, but I will still have to line dry or put it on drying racks inside.

[Betty LaRue]

Michael, I left the house for a couple of hours while M/A ran.

When I got home a few minutes ago, the two machines had disconnected. I tried getting it going and it popped up asking my email passwords (2 accounts) Although I checked what I’d copied down per the instruction you gave, it showed POP something in one box, the other box asked for a path. I had no clue what the path is or how to find it. Somehow I managed to close that down and start M/Assistant again. It’s running. It shows 12 hours left.

I thought this was easy. Until it wasn’t.

[MDM]

First of all I have never used the MA myself so I am not clear what happened there. I am pretty much in the dark as well about what is going on. Do you mean the new iMac asked for your email passwords? That would suggest that it had done the main transfer of the operating system. I can help you set up gmail when it is done but the other one I haven't got a clue I'm afraid. Are you transferring image files as well?

 

[MDM]

Assuming that the new iMac did ask you for passwords, then the basic install was probably done. Assuming that is the case, then don't worry about the details yet of setting up email etc. It is really simple to set up gmail. There might well be blips but nothing that can't be sorted. DON'T PANIC. You will not do any damage. The very bottom line is you can do a basic manual install which i can help you very easily with.

Edited May 13, 2021 by MDM

[Betty LaRue]

17 minutes ago, MDM said:

Assuming that the new iMac did ask you for passwords, then the basic install was probably done. Assuming that is the case, then don't worry about the details yet of setting up email etc. It is really simple to set up gmail. There might well be blips but nothing that can't be sorted. DON'T PANIC. You will not do any damage. The very bottom line is you can do a basic manual install which i can help you very easily with.

I have cox mail and gmail. Cox is my provider. You said you didn’t know anything about Cox, as you shouldn’t. It’s a regional provider around these parts.

[MDM]

Ok did the install finish? 

[MDM]

Betty if you want me to help you are going to need to answer my questions which you haven't done so I am still in the dark. Did the basic install finish? In other words, could you log on? If so don't restart the MA again when it finishes again. You are basically there. Setting up email is the icing on the cake. 

Edited May 13, 2021 by MDM

[MizBrown]

43 minutes ago, MDM said:

Betty if you want me to help you are going to need to answer my questions which you haven't done so I am still in the dark. Did the basic install finish? In other words, could you log on? If so don't restart the MA again when it finishes again. You are basically there. Setting up email is the icing on the cake. 

 

Time estimates by the machine at the beginning of some things tend to be estimates.  Can you restart the new machine and log in and check things out? 

 

I used to use POP for Google email (Gmail), but now use IMAP.  Either one works.  IMAP allows you to read your mail on Google's servers if I understand that correctly.  POP saves the mail on your machine (Google saves your mail for you anyway so you can also read your mail through their Gmail web pages).  You may or may not have a choice with Cox. 

 

Here's a good explanation of how email works:  https://www.socketlabs.com/blog/smtp-or-imap/   I can read my Gmail on my phone, my iPad, and my iMac, plus on other machines if I go to the Gmail web site. 

 

Here, we have glitches in electricity (out several hours yesterday, a few minutes today).  Don't know if that happens there. 

 

Migraction Assistant may have disconnected because the install was finished.  If so, running it again is more like reinstalling a program that's not an update.  Will work okay but isn't necessary.

 

 

 

 

[MDM]

15 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

 

Time estimates by the machine at the beginning of some things tend to be estimates.  Can you restart the new machine and log in and check things out? 

 

I used to use POP for Google email (Gmail), but now use IMAP.  Either one works.  IMAP allows you to read your mail on Google's servers if I understand that correctly.  POP saves the mail on your machine (Google saves your mail for you anyway so you can also read your mail through their Gmail web pages).  You may or may not have a choice with Cox. 

 

Here's a good explanation of how email works:  https://www.socketlabs.com/blog/smtp-or-imap/   I can read my Gmail on my phone, my iPad, and my iMac, plus on other machines if I go to the Gmail web site. 

 

Here, we have glitches in electricity (out several hours yesterday, a few minutes today).  Don't know if that happens there. 

 

Migraction Assistant may have disconnected because the install was finished.  If so, running it again is more like reinstalling a program that's not an update.  Will work okay but isn't necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

I think the install did finish as I can't imagine how it would ask for email passwords otherwise.  She should not have restarted the MA if that is the case which I am guessing it is as it is the only thing that makes sense to me. But she has restarted MA so she needs to let that finish again.

 

Then take it from there. I suggest not boggling her mind with details of how email works or about POP and IMAP at this point (or ever for that matter 🤔😀). It is really simple in gmail now on a Mac. I just set up an old account and it took a few seconds.

 

All Betty needs is to relax and finish the install without thinking too much about how things work.  Like driving a car to get from A to B. You don't need to know how an engine works to drive a car. 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by MDM

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, MDM said:

Betty if you want me to help you are going to need to answer my questions which you haven't done so I am still in the dark. Did the basic install finish? In other words, could you log on? If so don't restart the MA again when it finishes again. You are basically there. Setting up email is the icing on the cake. 

No, it didn’t finish. I went to the corner where the apple logo should be and I get nothing.  It is showing it’s still adding files. Sorry, once I got it going again, I caught up on some household chores and also had to put my bird to bed. Cleaning cage, removing food bowl, giving fresh water and what I call “crunchies”, the dry pellets. 
I took a muscle relaxer this afternoon before I left the house, (it’s ok, my daughter drove) and once I got home, it’s making me drowsy. I almost never take one for that reason. 
 

I think it’ll be morning before it’s updated.  The bar on the old machine only shows a tiny bit sent. Like of you had 100 inches, and a half inch was sent.

Edited May 14, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, MDM said:

 

I think the install did finish as I can't imagine how it would ask for email passwords otherwise.  She should not have restarted the MA if that is the case which I am guessing it is as it is the only thing that makes sense to me. But she has restarted MA so she needs to let that finish again.

 

Then take it from there. I suggest not boggling her mind with details of how email works or about POP and IMAP at this point (or ever for that matter 🤔😀). It is really simple in gmail now on a Mac. I just set up an old account and it took a few seconds.

 

All Betty needs is to relax and finish the install without thinking too much about how things work.  Like driving a car to get from A to B. You don't need to know how an engine works to drive a car. 

 

 

 

I don’t think it finished. It said it halted because the connection was lost. Because of that, when I clicked on something, it was the wrong something and wanted my mail. I closed that process.
If it finished while I was gone, it would have done so in about 4 hours from the time I started it.  When I very first started it, it was barely crawling with the transfer. I left after 2 hours, and I checked it before I left. The bar showed very little progress. It would have had to suddenly transfer at 10 times the speed to have been done by the time I came home.

Considering it’s been near the same amount of time after starting it again, it would be finishing up right now.  But it is still barely crawling along.

I imagine it’ll run all night to get the job done. At this rate, probably longer.

And yes, the cable service has been a bit glitchy recently.  If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to buy the cable to connect the machines to each other.

[MDM]

28 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I don’t think it finished. It said it halted because the connection was lost. Because of that, when I clicked on something, it was the wrong something and wanted my mail. I closed that process.
If it finished while I was gone, it would have done so in about 4 hours from the time I started it.  When I very first started it, it was barely crawling with the transfer. I left after 2 hours, and I checked it before I left. The bar showed very little progress. It would have had to suddenly transfer at 10 times the speed to have been done by the time I came home.

Considering it’s been near the same amount of time after starting it again, it would be finishing up right now.  But it is still barely crawling along.

I imagine it’ll run all night to get the job done. At this rate, probably longer.

And yes, the cable service has been a bit glitchy recently.  If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to buy the cable to connect the machines to each other.

Ok. It was a bad idea to use WiFi if the connection is dodgy. If it fails again, then the best thing is probably to make a Time Machine backup of the old machine onto an external hard drive (as Mark said). Let that backup run and wait until tomorrow to go again with the MA if you can get back into it. It’s really late here now.  My sleeping is crazy. 😴

[MizBrown]

Cable connections are shared and so can be very slow if you're in an area with lots of users (or if kids talked their way into your house and looked at the bottom of your router for your password or shared a password you've given one kid (both these have happened to people I know).   Your older iMac won't have a Thunderbolt Three connection (mine is younger than yours and only has Thunderbolt two).  Cox in Virginia used to shut down after midnight for maintenance, so if they're still doing that, you'll get the message again that the connection failed.  

 

See what happens overnight.   All may go well.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by MizBrown
more clarifications.

[Betty LaRue]

All is well. The M/A finished and the new desktop looks like the old. I really liked the new screen color of the new before the migration. Ah, well.

It’s not hooked up to cable, yet. I haven’t finished my morning routine, so I will be finishing my second cup of coffee, feeding Echo and other things before I explore the new Mac.

When I went to bed last night, it showed around an hour left to finish. I couldn’t make myself stay up any longer thanks to the muscle relaxer meds making me sleepy.

[MDM]

4 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

All is well. The M/A finished and the new desktop looks like the old. I really liked the new screen color of the new before the migration. Ah, well.

It’s not hooked up to cable, yet. I haven’t finished my morning routine, so I will be finishing my second cup of coffee, feeding Echo and other things before I explore the new Mac.

When I went to bed last night, it showed around an hour left to finish. I couldn’t make myself stay up any longer thanks to the muscle relaxer meds making me sleepy.

 

Well that's a relief. You can change anything and everything including the screen colour. I'm subscribed to this thread so am getting emails as soon as anything is posted. I should be around on my computer much of the day (and night the way things are at the moment). The weather is like March here at the moment. Once again if you find you can't do something or something doesn't work, don't panic. You are in control, it's only a computer. And again you have the other one to refer to or use if necessary if something is not working,

[Betty LaRue]

I now have Big Sur updated. I have downloaded PS and LrC is downloading now. So far everything is going smooth.

[MDM]

24 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I now have Big Sur updated. I have downloaded PS and LrC is downloading now. So far everything is going smooth.

Great. Did the MA bring your Adobe apps across and you are now updating them or are you installing them from scratch? What about your Nik and Topaz plug-ins?  I am not sure if older versions will work on Big Sur. 

Edited May 14, 2021 by MDM

[MizBrown]

58 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I now have Big Sur updated. I have downloaded PS and LrC is downloading now. So far everything is going smooth.

 

Congratulations.  You truly own the new iMac. 

 

My internet connection today was wonky and I thought of you. 

[MizBrown]

36 minutes ago, MDM said:

Great. Did the MA bring your Adobe apps across and you are now updating them or are you installing them from scratch? What about your Nik and Topaz plug-ins?  I am not sure if older versions will work on Big Sur. 

 

New Nik work fine (I'm running Big Sur).  No experience with Topaz.