Windows Migration Assistant transfers your contacts, calendars, email accounts and more from a PC. It migrates this data to the appropriate places on your Mac. After migrating data to your Mac, authorise your computer for iTunes Store purchases. It’s important to authorise before you sync or play content that you download from the iTunes Store.

Back at the macOS Utilities screen, choose “Install macOS” to install a new copy of macOS High Sierra. This will be the clean macOS install onto the freshly erased hard drive. Click on “Continue” and navigate through the installer screen, selecting “Macintosh HD” (or whatever your hard drive is named) as the destination for macOS. I cancelled the software installation before it was complete, or connected the USB cable before starting the software installation. What should I do? I'm having problems installing the software. What should I do? Can I select a print resolution by indicating a specific dpi (dots per inch) setting? Can I use my product on a network? We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.

If you're migrating from one Mac to another Mac, follow the steps to move your content to a new Mac.

Create Bootable Macos High Sierra Usb Terminal

Before you begin

To prepare for a smooth migration:

  • Make sure Windows is up to date. Migration Assistant works with Windows 7 and later.
  • Make sure you know the name and password of an administrator account on your PC.
  • Connect your Mac and PC to the same network, such as your home Wi-Fi network. Or connect an ethernet cable between the ports on your Mac and PC to create a direct network connection. Some Mac models require an ethernet adapter, such as the Belkin USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter or Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter.
  • If you're using Microsoft OneDrive on your PC, follow Microsoft's instructions for uninstalling OneDrive before continuing. You can reinstall OneDrive after migration has been completed.

Then use the check disc (chkdsk) utility on your PC to make sure your Windows hard drive doesn’t have any issues:

  1. Right-click the Start button, then click Run.
  2. Type cmd and press Enter. Command Prompt opens.
  3. At the prompt, type chkdsk and press Enter.
  4. If the utility reports that it found problems, type the following, where drive is the letter that represents your Windows startup disc, such as D:
  5. Press Enter.
  6. At the prompt, type Y, then restart your PC.
  7. Repeat this process until the check disc utility reports no issues. If the utility can't fix every issue that it finds, you may need to have your PC serviced. Then migrate your data to your Mac.

Move your data

This section guides you through migration, post-migration and what to do if the steps don’t work for you.

How to move your information from a PC to your Mac

  1. On your PC, download and install the appropriate Windows Migration Assistant, based on the version of macOS on your Mac:
    • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Big Sur
    • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Mojave and macOS Catalina
    • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Sierra and High Sierra
    • Windows Migration Assistant for OS X El Capitan or earlier
  2. Quit any open Windows apps.
  3. Open Windows Migration Assistant, then click Continue.
  4. Start up your Mac. Setup Assistant automatically opens the first time you turn on your Mac. If you’ve already set up your Mac, open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  5. On your Mac, follow the on-screen prompts until you get to the migration pane of the assistant. Select the option to transfer your information “From a Windows PC”, then click Continue.
  6. When prompted, enter an administrator name and password.
  7. Click Continue to close any other open apps.
  8. In the migration window on your Mac, select your PC from the list of available computers. Then wait for the PC to show the same passcode that your Mac shows.
  9. When both computers display the same passcode, click Continue on your PC and Mac.
  10. Your Mac will scan the drives on your PC to build a list of information to migrate. When the scan is being completed, select the information that you want to migrate to your Mac and click Continue. Learn about some of the data that you can transfer.

You can watch the progress and estimated time remaining on both the PC and your Mac. They tell you when migration has been completed.

After you've moved your data

When the migration has been completed, close Windows Migration Assistant on your PC. Then log in to the new user account on your Mac. The first time you log in to a user account migrated from your PC, you’ll be asked to set a password. You can use the same password that you used on your PC or create a new password.

After logging in to the user account that you've migrated, authorise your computer for iTunes Store purchases. It’s important to authorise before you sync or play content downloaded from the iTunes Store.

If you have any issues moving your data

  • Quit all open apps on your PC, then try migrating your content again. For example, you can press Alt-Tab to choose an open application, then press Alt-F4 to quit it.
  • If your PC doesn't appear in the Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant window on your Mac, make sure the computers are connected to the same network. You can create a network by connecting a single ethernet cable between your Mac and PC. If that doesn't help, check for firewall software on your PC and turn it off. After the migration has been completed, you can turn firewall software on again.
  • If Migration Assistant doesn’t open on your PC, turn off any anti-virus software on your PC. Then try to open Migration Assistant again. After the migration has been completed. You can turn that software on again.
  • If you still can't migrate your information successfully, you can use an external drive or file sharing to manually copy important data to your Mac.

What data can I transfer?

Create bootable macos high sierra usb terminal

Migration Assistant lets you choose the data to move to your Mac. Here’s what moves over for specific apps and data types:

Emails, contacts and calendar information
Email messages, email account settings, contacts and appointments move based on which version of Windows you're using and which accounts you have.

Outlook1
Data from 32-bit versions of Outlook in Windows 7 and later move as follows:

  • People move to Contacts2
  • Appointments move to the Calendar app
  • IMAP and Exchange settings and messages move to the Mail app
  • POP settings and messages move to Mail2

Windows Live Mail
Data from Windows Live Mail in Windows 7 and later moves as follows:

  • IMAP settings and messages move to Mail
  • POP settings and messages move to Mail2

Windows Mail
Data from Windows Mail in Windows 7 and later (excluding Windows 8) move as follows:

Create Macos High Sierra Usb

  • IMAP settings and messages move to Mail
  • POP settings and messages move to Mail2
  • People move to Contacts

Bookmarks
Bookmarks from Internet Explorer, Safari for Windows and Firefox move to Safari.

Create Macos High Sierra Usb

System settings
Language and location settings and custom desktop pictures move to System Preferences. Your web browser homepage moves to Safari preferences.

Pictures
Photos and other images move to your home folder. You can then add them to Photos, or open Photos and let it search your Mac for photos to import.

iTunes content
Migration Assistant transfers your iTunes media as follows: music to the Apple Music app, videos to the Apple TV app, podcasts to the Apple Podcasts app and audiobooks to the Apple Books app.

Other files
Migration Assistant also moves these files:

  • Files from the top-level folder of the currently logged-in user’s home directory
  • Non-system files located in the Windows or Program Files folders
  • Top-level folders located on the Windows system disc and other attached discs

1. Migration Assistant doesn’t support 64-bit versions of Outlook. You can manually migrate Mail, Contacts or Calendars from Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016 by signing in and entering the content on your Mac manually.

2. Migration Assistant transfers only the Mail or Contacts data that belongs to the logged-in Windows user. To transfer data from another user account, use Migration Assistant again while you’re logged in to another Windows account. Each time you migrate, your Mac creates a new user account.