Note: Digitally rights-managed files like purchased music usually won’t work once copied. Once your migration is complete, you should consider storing your files on the cloud for easier access, as the article “The best way to transfer files to a new Windows PC or Mac” explains. Whether you’re transferring files via an external drive or over a network, I recommend that you use the same folder organization on your new Mac as on your old computer, at least to start. Apple has provided basic information for Windows-to-Mac networked file sharing. You can even transfer from Windows PCs this way, since macOS supports the Windows SMB file-sharing protocol, but the setup can be a bit tricky on the Windows end. You can then open that network drive in Finder and copy folders and files from it as you would from any drive, although you may need to enter a username and password to access the shared Mac’s drives. Next, connect the new Mac to the source Mac over the network: with a Finder window active on the new Mac, go to the Finder menu at the top of your screen and choose Go > Network, then select the source Mac to mount it as a network drive so you can work with it. First, enable file sharing on the source Mac: click the Apple menu at the top left of the screen, choose System Preferences > Sharing and check the File Sharing box. If you’re particularly savvy, you can transfer files from one Mac to another on the same network using file sharing instead of an external drive. SD cards and thumb drives use the same FAT32 format on both macOS and Windows, so if your files fit on those storage devices, that’s often easier than using a hard drive. Tip: If you are transferring files from a PC to a Mac, the external hard drive must be formatted as MS-DOS or NTFS, not APFS. The trick here (besides having enough storage capacity on your transfer drive) is to have your files and folders organized well enough so you get them all. You can connect an external hard drive, SD card, or thumb drive to your old computer, copy your files to it, then eject that device from the old computer, plug it into the new Mac, and copy the files to that new Mac.

Direct file transfer via an external drive or file sharing There are several methods to transfer files locally from an old computer to a new Mac, and most work whether you’re moving from a Mac to a Mac or from a Windows PC to a Mac.

This story includes methods for migrating files and apps two methods can transfer system settings as well. And you might want to transfer more than just files from your old computer to your new one.

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