Poll: Do you do a Fresh install or Migrate?

When you get a new Mac, do you do a fresh install or a migration?

  • I generally do a fresh install

    Votes: 9 56.3%

  • I generally migrate from an older device or a backup

    Votes: 7 43.8%
  • Total voters
    16

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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I just got my M4 Mac Mini, upgraded from my ancient 2012 Intel iMac. Did a fresh install and it doesn't seem that difficult. On Reddit I see lots of people making their "migration" post. I wonder why they choose to do that instead of a fresh start.

(Mods - how do I start a poll ?)
 
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Jimbeam3678 said:
Migrate, why wouldn’t you?
Click to expand...

Because...it doesn't really take long, I store nothing in the internal drive. I only need to back up my download folder really. I use Safari so all my bookmarks and login and on iCloud. Even my Lightroom library catalogue is external.

I also don't need to set up the 2nd system to have both online.

I did migration once from a 2015 MBP to a 2020 Mac Mini once. Perhaps it was the early days of Apple Silicon and Adobe didn't have native apps and needed a translation layer but the migration broke Adobe suite to a point where no amount of uninstall and reinstall fixes it. Ended up having to restore the Mac back to factory setting and do a fresh install.

So that's why wouldn't I do a migration, I had a bad experience and I work in a way that mitigates the problems that come with a fresh install.
 
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Yea migration is becoming less necessary with the majority of stuff being cloud synced.
 
Seems an unnecessary manual step for me. Couple of clicks leave it to do its thing and then happy days. Each to their own, guessing you manually set up a new iPhone as well? :p
 
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Fresh install, gives you a clean slate and prevents app or bodged config issues that can arise during migration. I'm the same with major updates, i do a fresh install as i've had similar issues plus it cleans out all the unused caches/prefs/crud that builds up over time.

I await the usual "I've never had this issue/these issues" type reply :cry:
 
Unless I’d recently done a fresh install, I would not normally migrate. Over time things do build up. Probably more my experiences with Windows and Linux over the years influencing that.

I think it would be an interesting idea for MacOS to offer some kind of immutable system approach like many other operating systems. If they did that, then fresh installs would be even rarer.

That said, I’ve never had issues with running any version of OSX/MacOS for extended periods for about the last decade or so. It’s a really reliable and stable OS.
 
alex24 said:
think it would be an interesting idea for MacOS to offer some kind of immutable system approach
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Isn’t it partly there already with the system partition? If anything is bastardised, the system won’t boot.
 
Feek said:
Isn’t it partly there already with the system partition? If anything is bastardised, the system won’t boot.
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(My understanding is that...) You have the System volume and then a signed snapshot of that which is booted from and mounted as read-only; as you say, if there's integrity issues here, hash changes etc, then it'll typically throw the Mac into Recovery.
But it depends on the definition of 'immutable'; certainly some of the *nix/hardcore OS/kernel folk would argue MacOS isn't.

Howard Oakley (Eclectic Light Co) had good article on this a few years back that's worth a read.

Edit - ELC article - https://eclecticlight.co/2021/10/29/how-macos-is-more-reliable-and-doesnt-need-reinstalling/
 
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Feek said:
Reads like it's pretty immutable to me!
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But this is only for the System volume, as the article mentions, "The Sealed System Volume (SSV) addresses the integrity of those system components on the System volume, but doesn’t currently extend its cover to system components stored on the Data volume, nor to user files there".

It's definitely not a bad thing but i can see why some argue it isn't especially as there doesn't seem to a hardline on the 'immutable' definition - plenty of lively discussions on forums and Reddit posts about what it exactly entails.
 
I tend to fresh install purely because I tend to use it as a good opportunity to dump apps etc I don't actually use as pretty much everything I have is synced to my nas/icloud/whatever I don't lose data
 
Tythus said:
I tend to fresh install purely because I tend to use it as a good opportunity to dump apps etc I don't actually use as pretty much everything I have is synced to my nas/icloud/whatever I don't lose data
Click to expand...

Me too, I don’t think it’s required with macOS but I still do it. I’ve only ever upgraded twice though.
 
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