Photoshop and Transferring to New Mac

[padrepaul]

Apologies if this is too off-topic and feel free to delete if it is, but I'm looking at getting a new Macbook taking advantage of a refurbished deal.

Just wondering for those that have gotten a new one or new Mac, how migration works and is it fairly simple?

I can have them do it at the store or do it myself.

I only use my Macbook for writing and for photo editing with Photoshop CC, Capture One and the Nikon software.

The question is when you do the migration assistant, and then turn on the new Macbook, will it resemble my old one in terms of the aps are there, PS will have it's plug ins of Topaz and Nik, and i'm good to go, or will I have to re-download a bunch of things. Hopefully it won't be too confusing, Im pretty inept at tech - I can edit a photo but when you speak of "code" I assume you mean the Little Orphan Annie Decoder ring.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[Marty K]

Apologies if this is too off-topic and feel free to delete if it is, but I'm looking at getting a new Macbook taking advantage of a refurbished deal.

Just wondering for those that have gotten a new one or new Mac, how migration works and is it fairly simple?

I can have them do it at the store or do it myself.

I only use my Macbook for writing and for photo editing with Photoshop CC, Capture One and the Nikon software.

The question is when you do the migration assistant, and then turn on the new Macbook, will it resemble my old one in terms of the aps are there, PS will have it's plug ins of Topaz and Nik, and i'm good to go, or will I have to re-download a bunch of things. Hopefully it won't be too confusing, Im pretty inept at tech - I can edit a photo but when you speak of "code" I assume you mean the Little Orphan Annie Decoder ring.

Thanks,
Paul

Paul,
The answer is a qualified ‘yes’. After migration your new Mac should have all of the apps and local files migrated. The qualification is that apps like Adobe are registered to a device. You should deactivate your old device to free up your license to run on the new Mac. Some apps may ask you to re-enter your license key. Make sure you back up your LrC catalog (to an external hard drive, preferably to a cloud account) before migrating. It is a very straight forward process. It can take a few hours depending how much data you are moving from the old to the new machine.

I have migrated my system a few times utilizing the Apple Migration Assistant, (w/ iCloud and Time Machine). Most recently from a 2017 iMac to a new M1 Max Studio without issue.

Congrats on the new computer.
Marty

 

[padrepaul]

Paul,
The answer is a qualified ‘yes’. After migration your new Mac should have all of the apps and local files migrated. The qualification is that apps like Adobe are registered to a device. You should deactivate your old device to free up your license to run on the new Mac. Some apps may ask you to re-enter your license key. Make sure you back up your LrC catalog (to an external hard drive, preferably to a cloud account) before migrating. It is a very straight forward process. It can take a few hours depending how much data you are moving from the old to the new machine.

I have migrated my system a few times utilizing the Apple Migration Assistant, (w/ iCloud and Time Machine). Most recently from a 2017 iMac to a new M1 Max Studio without issue.

Congrats on the new computer.
Marty

Thanks, most of my photos are on external drives. Hopefully it'll be fairly smooth. Maybe i'll have them wipe it clean or deactivate the old device at the Apple Store.

Thanks!
Paul

 

[BirdDogDad]

Marty was right on with the need to deactivate certain apps and then reactivate them on the new machine. To elaborate a bit, you can find instructions how to deactivate/activate on just about every software company's website. Not difficult at all once you find the procedure, as the procedures can vary a bit from app to app. As for the migration process itself, Apple makes this virtually painless and impossible to mess up. It is essential to follow their migration procedure, because merely copying from one computer to another will not result in workable apps. There are too many app files hidden in nondescript locations, plus, most current software simply will not function by copying it, to prevent piracy. The Apple migration process avoids all of these issues.

There is certainly no harm in letting the store do your migration for you, but I doubt they will touch your apps for relicensing. Not their job, and you really don't want anyone else messing with your license codes and passwords. Only once or twice have I ever had to call a company's help line for relicensing assistance, and I've had a lot of Macs over a lot of years. It's pretty straightforward.

I strongly advise AGAINST having the store wipe your old computer ("restore to factory default" is the usual description), unless you want to make two trips to the store. Make sure your old machine remains completely functioning, even after setting up your new one, because there is always the chance you may need to refer to something on your old machine when doing the license transfers. There is also the slim chance that something might not transfer properly. You'll want to test everything on the new machine thoroughly before wiping the old one. If everything is gone from your old machine and you find you need something, it is a sinking feeling. Again, Apple makes the "wiping" process very simple. Complete details are on apple.com > support. If you have the store do it, do it only after living with your new machine for a couple of weeks and being sure everying is functioning properly.

Your new machine, if it is current, will probably come with the latest Mac OS installed, so if you are using an older OS some things you're used to might have changed, and it will take you a few days to get comfortable with it. Yet another reason to keep your trusty old computer handy and functioning until you're confident everything is up and running on the new one.

One last thing a lot of folks overlook--if you use iTunes (now "Music" on the Mac), be advised that Apple will allow a maximum of five computers in a household to use a family account. If you do use iTunes/Music, open the app and do a bit of searching (possibly under "my account") and deactivate your old machine, then activate your new one. It's a one-click process. If you only have one Mac, no biggie. My wife and I, however, share a family account. I have two of my own Macs activated, and she has two PCs activated. Once she disposed of some old PCs without deactivating iTunes, and we went over the limit. Fixing THAT problem is not one click!

Congrats on the new machine. I've purchased several refurbished Apple products and had great success with them. They are truly as good as new. Good luck!

 

[padrepaul]

Marty was right on with the need to deactivate certain apps and then reactivate them on the new machine. To elaborate a bit, you can find instructions how to deactivate/activate on just about every software company's website. Not difficult at all once you find the procedure, as the procedures can vary a bit from app to app. As for the migration process itself, Apple makes this virtually painless and impossible to mess up. It is essential to follow their migration procedure, because merely copying from one computer to another will not result in workable apps. There are too many app files hidden in nondescript locations, plus, most current software simply will not function by copying it, to prevent piracy. The Apple migration process avoids all of these issues.

There is certainly no harm in letting the store do your migration for you, but I doubt they will touch your apps for relicensing. Not their job, and you really don't want anyone else messing with your license codes and passwords. Only once or twice have I ever had to call a company's help line for relicensing assistance, and I've had a lot of Macs over a lot of years. It's pretty straightforward.

I strongly advise AGAINST having the store wipe your old computer ("restore to factory default" is the usual description), unless you want to make two trips to the store. Make sure your old machine remains completely functioning, even after setting up your new one, because there is always the chance you may need to refer to something on your old machine when doing the license transfers. There is also the slim chance that something might not transfer properly. You'll want to test everything on the new machine thoroughly before wiping the old one. If everything is gone from your old machine and you find you need something, it is a sinking feeling. Again, Apple makes the "wiping" process very simple. Complete details are on apple.com > support. If you have the store do it, do it only after living with your new machine for a couple of weeks and being sure everying is functioning properly.

Your new machine, if it is current, will probably come with the latest Mac OS installed, so if you are using an older OS some things you're used to might have changed, and it will take you a few days to get comfortable with it. Yet another reason to keep your trusty old computer handy and functioning until you're confident everything is up and running on the new one.

One last thing a lot of folks overlook--if you use iTunes (now "Music" on the Mac), be advised that Apple will allow a maximum of five computers in a household to use a family account. If you do use iTunes/Music, open the app and do a bit of searching (possibly under "my account") and deactivate your old machine, then activate your new one. It's a one-click process. If you only have one Mac, no biggie. My wife and I, however, share a family account. I have two of my own Macs activated, and she has two PCs activated. Once she disposed of some old PCs without deactivating iTunes, and we went over the limit. Fixing THAT problem is not one click!

Congrats on the new machine. I've purchased several refurbished Apple products and had great success with them. They are truly as good as new. Good luck!

Thank you for the advice.

Basically I only use Pages for writing, and PhotoShop - I canceled capture one but still have the software, but can do much of that with the Nikon Studio software, and prefer PS for RAW editing with what they've done. So I'll have to figure out how to de-activate it.

The only last dillema I have is on hard drive size. I have a 1 TB drive which frankly fills up fast, and have 4 external hard drives for storing all my photos. I'll keep some on the computer that i have to edit, so perhaps 2 TB might be better but not necessary. I was also torn between 32 and 64MB of RAM but get the feeling the more you can get the better; but not sure it matters as much with the M1 processor. As long as it smoothly can edit files from RAW through Topaz and Nik and PS to the finished product i'm happy; even my current one is fine though at times a little more speed might be nice but it functions well, main reasons for the upgrade are a "shift" key is beginning to get sticky and i do not want to replace the keyboard and while new Macbooks are coming next spring, the refurbished prices are a great deal, and can take advantage of a spend $1000 get $200 credit card offer which is nice too, and I can get slightly more for my existing Macbook at a local shop now then I would when another generation is out in front of it.

As long as I can figure out how to fire up the new one and not have issues loading PS and getting my email I'll be happy.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[Ralph]

Marty was right on with the need to deactivate certain apps and then reactivate them on the new machine. To elaborate a bit, you can find instructions how to deactivate/activate on just about every software company's website. Not difficult at all once you find the procedure, as the procedures can vary a bit from app to app. As for the migration process itself, Apple makes this virtually painless and impossible to mess up. It is essential to follow their migration procedure, because merely copying from one computer to another will not result in workable apps. There are too many app files hidden in nondescript locations, plus, most current software simply will not function by copying it, to prevent piracy. The Apple migration process avoids all of these issues.

There is certainly no harm in letting the store do your migration for you, but I doubt they will touch your apps for relicensing. Not their job, and you really don't want anyone else messing with your license codes and passwords. Only once or twice have I ever had to call a company's help line for relicensing assistance, and I've had a lot of Macs over a lot of years. It's pretty straightforward.

I strongly advise AGAINST having the store wipe your old computer ("restore to factory default" is the usual description), unless you want to make two trips to the store. Make sure your old machine remains completely functioning, even after setting up your new one, because there is always the chance you may need to refer to something on your old machine when doing the license transfers. There is also the slim chance that something might not transfer properly. You'll want to test everything on the new machine thoroughly before wiping the old one. If everything is gone from your old machine and you find you need something, it is a sinking feeling. Again, Apple makes the "wiping" process very simple. Complete details are on apple.com > support. If you have the store do it, do it only after living with your new machine for a couple of weeks and being sure everying is functioning properly.

Your new machine, if it is current, will probably come with the latest Mac OS installed, so if you are using an older OS some things you're used to might have changed, and it will take you a few days to get comfortable with it. Yet another reason to keep your trusty old computer handy and functioning until you're confident everything is up and running on the new one.

One last thing a lot of folks overlook--if you use iTunes (now "Music" on the Mac), be advised that Apple will allow a maximum of five computers in a household to use a family account. If you do use iTunes/Music, open the app and do a bit of searching (possibly under "my account") and deactivate your old machine, then activate your new one. It's a one-click process. If you only have one Mac, no biggie. My wife and I, however, share a family account. I have two of my own Macs activated, and she has two PCs activated. Once she disposed of some old PCs without deactivating iTunes, and we went over the limit. Fixing THAT problem is not one click!

Congrats on the new machine. I've purchased several refurbished Apple products and had great success with them. They are truly as good as new. Good luck!

Great advice Tom. Especially about not wiping Pauls old computer. Paul, keep that old computer intact. Paul migration assistant works great and since all your photos are on an external drive should make things go quickly.

 

[cdcnpilot]

I would add a couple of things: depending on the age of your old computer, moving to a new Mac and latest SW - some of your older apps may not run and require an update. Also, if you are running the CC version of Adobe, no need to de-license it. You get 2 computers and I consistently run it on about 4 or 5, it tells me when I boot up that I need to deactivate one other computer. But, deactivation does nothing other than deactivation. All the bits are still there, and next time you run it you can deactivate a computer not being used.

I have two Macs with the M1 chip, and they have been a little problematic. The driver for my HP DesignJet shifts the image and Apple says it is an HP problem and HP says it s an Apple problem. So, I just print from another machine. To be honest, I have not tried for about a year so that may be fixed.

 

[RichF]

Enjoy your new mac. I moved from a Mac Pro to a Mac studio earlier this year. Followed the advice above and everything basically worked. a few minor hiccups, but not that could not be easily corrected

 

[padrepaul]

Appreciate the input. Is there any reason to get a 2 TB drive over 1 other than convenience? And now having 16 GB RAM on my 2019, I was leaning 64 but any reason to just go 32? They have a special $500 off a 2 TB and 32 MB RAM but am still leaning the 64.

 

[BirdDogDad]

Appreciate the input. Is there any reason to get a 2 TB drive over 1 other than convenience? And now having 16 GB RAM on my 2019, I was leaning 64 but any reason to just go 32? They have a special $500 off a 2 TB and 32 MB RAM but am still leaning the 64.

Traditional wisdom says you can never have too much RAM or too much hard drive space. However, Apple charges dearly for both. On both my desktop and laptop I have 1TB SSD startup drives, and a lot of apps--including the full Adobe suite. Even so, my 1TB startups are never more than half full. I regularly go through all files on them and delete anything not absolutely necessary, such as old update installers (which will proliferate greatly over time), plus outdated software or even some Apple apps which I never use. This practice has kept my SSDs at about the same level of used space for years. While I use external drives for all file storage, including video and photo editing, keeping 500GB open on each machine still leaves plenty of space to temporarily work with huge files if necessary.

My old laptop (13" 2018 MacBook Pro) has only 16GB of RAM, but it is still capable of running all Adobe apps and editing photos. I rarely use it for those purposes, however. My desktop--a 2017 iMac Pro--has 64GB of RAM and is fully capable of all work I need to do, including editing 4k video.

If I had to choose between more RAM or more SSD space, I'd go with the RAM. You can manage drive space, but you can't manage the amount of RAM you have (unless your machine is upgradable). In my experience (I got my first Mac in 1985), more RAM "future proofs" a machine to a greater degree than hard drive space.

Bottom line? IMHO, no, there is not a reason to go 2TB vs. 1TB other than convenience, as long as you use high-quality, fast external drives for editing and storage. 32MB of RAM would be adequate for your needs, but 64 would be worth the cost, as every new software update tends to demand more and more RAM to function smoothly. If money is no object, opt for both. $500 off the 2TB is a great deal.

Don't be afraid of the migration process or any of the other "techy" stuff. It is not difficult, you will learn something, and realize (like all of us have at one time or another) that we are still smarter than the computers, even if sometimes it may not seem like it. Should you encounter a problem, Apple support, both by phone and online, is excellent. And if you make a total mess, which is unlikely, the store can figure it out. Complete your migration and get your new machine up and running, and you'll have a sense of accomplishment as a bonus.

Last bit of advice (which goes for all of us)--always do a full backup of your existing machine before doing a migration, a major software upgrade, or anything that could corrupt your current device, even if the possibiity is highly remote.

ou get 2 computers and I consistently run it on about 4 or 5

I had forgotten that. True. Some software does not allow two machines, however. SoftRAID is one of those. As you mentioned, it is just a matter of deactivating one machine while using the other. I still prefer to deactivate all software on any computer I will be selling or giving away, though, because I have encountered cases where the software company still thinks I have two machines licensed, even though the old one is long gone. Hard to delicense a machine I don't have any more. Maybe that problem is easier to solve these days.

 

[padrepaul]

Thank you - I think I'll go with more RAM. Typically I like to edit files on my hard drive then transfer them to the external drive if possible for convenience. Should be a nice bump in speed of processing files I'd imagine, and as long as all is running well when I fire it up I'll be happy.

 

[BirdDogDad]

Thank you - I think I'll go with more RAM. Typically I like to edit files on my hard drive then transfer them to the external drive if possible for convenience. Should be a nice bump in speed of processing files I'd imagine, and as long as all is running well when I fire it up I'll be happy.

You're welcome, and you will never regret the extra memory. I often do the same as you--edit on my internal and offload to my externals as soon as possible. Have not had a problem. Your new machine will leave my older ones in the dust regardless, which is saying something because I have had no speed issues with my well-used computers. Every couple of months take a good look at everything on your internal drive, particularly the "Downloads" folder where things have a way of accumulating quickly, and prune everything that you know you won't need any more. If there is any doubt, simply copy the file in question to an external before deleting it permanently from your startup. Should you ever decide to trash a software program, use its "Uninstall" option (if it has one) which will remove all files it installed. Merely deleting a program will leave installed files in many obscure spaces that all take up space. This is good practice regardless of the size of your internal drive, since no drive will function well when it is almost full. Eventually it will reach a point when it says "no mas." I also highly suggest running Time Machine if you are not doing so already. I have an inexpensive 8TB drive connected to my desktop for that purpose. Computers never fail when you have completed a project--they only fail when you are in the middle of one and have no backup. Time Machine does incremental backups (you determine how often), so even if a computer goes belly up after you've invested several hours in a critical project, you can at least recover a recent version from Time Machine and all is not lost. Just set it and forget it, until disaster strikes. Keep in mind that Time Machine is designed only for incremental, on-the-fly backups. It is not archival, as when its dedicated drive gets full Time Machine will overwrite the oldest files. The "full drive" problem is not relevant to Time Machine because of that. Enjoy!