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I have a clean iMac to which I would like to transfer from my HOME FOLDER (that was backed up to an EXHD using Time Machine).

I do not want to transfer personal settings, etc. . . just the contents of my Home Folder from the EXHD to the iMac.

Can I just "drag and drop" from the EXHD to the iMac? Or do I HAVE to use Time Machine Restore or the Migration Assistant apps?

I just tried to drag & drop the home folder from a clone into which I was NOT booted to my boot volume, and while the "authorization" dialog box with which I was presented looked promising, following through on it got me this, so that's a no-go.

On the other hand, though, I successfully drug & dropped the home folder from my boot volume in the other direction, i.e. to the clone into which I was not booted.

So, we're apparently once again presented with an OS 9 type situation in which something you can't accomplish from within the OS can be accomplished from an outside location.

Out of curiosity, what's the difference which method you use to import you home folder?

RE: Out of curiosity, what's the difference which method you use to import you home folder?


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I believe that is the essence of my original question.

(Sorry. But the info about boots, clones, and OS 9 went right over my head.)

Thanks for clarifying your original question; I read it as your NOT wanting to use a method other than drag & drop.

Now, clarification on my end: macOS will not allow you to modify a volume into which you are booted by overwriting its existing home folder by dragging in a new one, so you've got four possibilities:

• Time Machine (I know nothing about it, but it sounds as if you do.)
• Migration Assistant
• Drag & drop from an external volume into which you are booted to your internal volume.
• macOS may allow you to drag in a home folder with a different user name, but I think that would introduce complications with which you don't want to have to deal, so I don't suggest it.

So, if the home folder on your external drive is included in a bootable volume you can boot into it and drag & drop the home folder from there to your internal.

But if the home folder is free-standing you'll be best off using Time Machine or Migration Assistant from within your internal volume.

Under any circumstances, though, whichever method you use will be easier if the home folder on your iMac carries the same name as the one you want to import.

Hope that's sufficiently clear now.

Sorry if the OS 9 reference was obscure: back in the early days of OS X when we had both OS 9 and OS X on our Macs we used to boot into OS 9 to trash stuff that OS X refused to allow us to trash for whatever reason...sometimes good, sometimes just balkiness. At todays date, Apple has got macOS locked down, but aspects of the lockdown can be overcome in much the same manner by booting into another macOS volume.

Thanks for trying, but now I am more lost. I am not looking to move the Home Folder, just (some of) its CONTENTS.

I will wait until my new iMac arrives and see if I can find a simpler answer to what I "thought" was a simple question.

Ah, ha, "just (some of) its CONTENTS" changes everything.

Migration Assistant can't import just a portion of a home folder.

Time Machine may be able to do it, but I've got no experience with TM and can't really say one way or another.

At this point I suggest that rather than having that home folder as a freestanding item on your external you have it there as part of a bootable clone, which will enable you to use drag & drop if Time Machine can't do the job.

Yes, generally speaking, both TM and MA are essentially "all or nothing" tools with very limited customization options.

In my original post, I was wondering if drag/drop will move a selected file/folder exactly as found on the EXHD . . . or would the data be compromised in some way (i.e. which would not happen if TM or MA were used).

There's no reason data should be compromised by drag & drop from one volume to another, but without being 100% certain that it's really necessary I'll suggest that the home folder from which it's being dragged has the identical name as the one into which it's being dropped.

I just did some quick experimentation, and I learned that, by way of example, ~/Pictures can't be moved by drag & drop, but ~/Pictures/Coney:Pier:1954.png can.

So it looks like you can do what you'd like to do totally easily.

What was your experimental procedure? Or did I miss something?

I have no problem dragging and dropping ~/pictures from the internal drive to an external drive and, after making the appropriate adjustments in Photos, there is no detectable difference. In fact, assuming the target drive is properly formatted (GUID partition table, and MacOS Extended (HFS+) or APFS) you can drag and drop the entire user folder to another internal or external drive, but you will then need to change the location of the user folder in System Preferences > Users & Groups...

1. After authenticating your ID (clicking on the padlock and entering your administrative account name as password)
2. Right click (^Click) on your user name
3. Select the one item on the context menu (Advanced Options)
4. Choose the new location of the Home directory
5. Click OK

NOTE: the old (perhaps I should say ancient) technique of using symbolic links no longer works because symbolic links are no longer supported (at least for the root folders) in Catalina.

You got your directions reversed.

I had no problems dragging & dropping any or all of my home folder from my boot drive to any other, but MG2009 wants to drag some of the contents of a freestanding home folder on an external drive to hir boot drive, and that works differently.

As I said, ~/Pictures can't be moved from the external to the boot drive with drag & drop, but ~/Pictures/Coney:Pier:1954.png can.

The limitation seems to be that macOS created folders are sacred while their contents are not.

My apologies for overlooking this original question. A direct answer is as far as the contents of your user folder are concerned there should be no difference between drag and drop, Time Machine restore, and Migration Assistant other than the fact drag and drop will be a LOT faster.

That said, after a lot of hardware upgrades and system rebuilds, I use Migration Assistant during the initial setup of a new computer and that is what I recommend to my family, friends, and colleagues. It is easier and although the copy operation takes longer, the total time it takes to get the system up and running is most often less and in some cases much less than a Time Machine restore, or drag and drop. I could go on for pages about the reasons why but I won't bore you with all of that.

I do some a lot of preparation prior to the arrival of the new computer, mostly cleanup including using every tool at my disposal to find and eradicate orphan files, unused applications, etc. There are a number of tools that are helpful in that process.

Migration Assistant doesn't offer a choice of individual files, but it does give you the option of whether or not to include third party applications, user folders, other files and folders, and computer and network settings. If you run Migration Assistant during the initial setup of our new machine I find the results to be clean and easy. The process will even identify any incompatible apps and set them aside during the setup.

RE:

Migration Assistant doesn't offer a choice of individual files, but it does give you the option of whether or not to include third party applications, user folders, other files and folders, and computer and network settings. If you run Migration Assistant during the initial setup of our new machine I find the results to be clean and easy. The process will even identify any incompatible apps and set them aside during the setup.

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Thanks. I am really only looking to transfer photos, files, music . . . and plan just to re-download/install any of the THIRD PARTY apps and utilities I use (i.e. only a half dozen or so of those).

FRESH START . . . less clutter.

Still you might consider using Migration Assistant to transfer "Computer and Network Settings". That alone could save a lot of setup time and aggravation.

All Done.

Did the "drag/drop" method without issue and was able to filter out more of the stuff I didn't want transferred which MA would have dragged along for the ride.

Now, would you please explain your recent post in the "Ad astra: another passing" thread.

Thanks.

Responded in the OTHER thread since that is wherein the original comments were made.

Responded to your response to my original "Huh?" in the OTHER thread quite a while ago.

I realize that . . . but was puzzled that you posted an "off topic" comment HERE for a topic that already was running in the other thread (i.e. LOUNGE). I thought we weren't suppose to do that!

(hehehe)

It seemed like you'd let it slide an awfully long time, so I connected with you where I could, but maybe 3 days isn't so long.

My sense of time has never been particularly good.

Re: " . . . Couldn't that file be drug & dropped from MG2009's external?"

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That is what I tried to do. When I dragged the files from the "old" computer folder to the corresponding folder in the new computer, the process seemed to be successful.

However, when I opened CONTACTS to look for the list of addresses, only mine and Apple's were there.

Duplicate post to which I responded in Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS.

Sorry about the crosspost.

When I "sent" the response in the other thread, it did not appear. I waited and waited, and still no sign of it . . . so I posted again in this thread (as it was related).

I went to bed and woke this morning to find that my first response (eventually) appeared in the other thread. Hence, the two posts.


P.S. I often find that there is a some delay with my posts. The FINETUNEDMAC webpage just sits there looking like it is sending something (in the Address Bar), but I get no indication that it has completed unless I refresh the current page or return to the main forum page. Then I will see my post. Similar issue when I LOGIN as well. A delay. Not sure why it happens, though.

FTM's slow reaction time has been a long term annoyance, particularly, to me anyhow, because it's inconsistent.

Sometimes my posts appear immediately, and sometimes I get a dead-end page that necessitates my backtracking to the original post and refreshing that page.

You can read more in the Feedback forum if you're interested.

I've never run into a delay logging in.

Just to clarify: The DELAYS I mentioned are NOT new to the new computer. The same thing had been happening for a couple of years with the old computer, too.

No, it's not a computer related problem. It goes back to the last time tacit switched FTM's servers, in July, 2018. Back up and running! is his final FTM post.