How to set up a new Mac from your old one

Updated 8 October 2026

Moving to a new Mac is three separate jobs: your files, your apps and tools, and the dozens of small settings that make it feel like yours. Doing them in this order avoids most of the usual trouble.

1. Back up the old Mac

Make a fresh Time Machine backup before anything else. If a transfer goes wrong, or you later find a file you forgot, you can get it back from there. Time Machine backs up your apps, music, photos and documents, but not macOS itself.

2. Decide: copy everything, or start clean

Copy everything if you want the new Mac to be the old one on new hardware. Run Migration Assistant on both Macs and tick every category. It moves documents, apps, user accounts and settings, wirelessly or from your backup.

Start clean if the old Mac has years of clutter, or you are moving from Intel to Apple silicon and want fresh installs. Set up the new Mac as new, then bring things across on purpose, as below.

3. Bring your files across

If your documents live in iCloud Drive, they arrive when you sign in. Otherwise you can use Migration Assistant and tick only your user files, or copy folders from the backup or an external drive.

4. Reinstall apps and tools

Apps from the App Store are listed under your account in the App Store's Purchased page. For everything else, make a list on the old Mac first:

ls /Applications
brew bundle dump --file=~/Brewfile   # if you use Homebrew

Copy the Brewfile across and run brew bundle --file=~/Brewfile on the new Mac to install the same formulae, casks and taps. Apps from developers' own sites need downloading one by one.

5. Redo your settings

Work through System Settings: Dock size and position, trackpad tap and scroll, keyboard repeat, hot corners, the menu bar, screenshot location and format, and Finder's sidebar and view options. It is the slowest part, because nothing lists what you changed from the defaults years ago.

Doing steps 4 and 5 with Carryover

Carryover does the last two steps for you. Install it on both Macs and pair them with a short code over your own network. It compares the two and lists the apps, tools and settings that differ. Tick what you want: it installs each app fresh from the App Store, Homebrew or the developer, installs Homebrew and your formulae, and applies the settings you picked. It does not move documents, accounts or passwords, so it pairs with step 3 rather than replacing it. See how it compares with Migration Assistant and a Brewfile.