Moving apps from iMac M1 to iMac M4

Targets macOS
1

My brother moved apps from iMac M1 to his new iMac 2024.
He reports that all my Xojo-made apps after having been moved by AirDrop or TimeMachine, when opened, show a message saying there are no data to show.
The only way to have them work as expected has been to copy to an external disk each app prefs folder from Library > Containers > myAppName to the the same location in the iMac M4.
Has anyone experienced any problem like this?
Thanks.

2

I never do things like that.

I always download fresh copies of software.
And for Xojo applications, it depends - as you understand - from where in the boot SSD the data for each application résides.

BUT: for the future, you my add a “move my application” feature (if no one comes from a bettet idea):
Earch software moves its associated data into a master “Move Data for ” folder. Then the user (your brother in this case) re)install the softsare from a fresh copy and at the first run the software ask for this folder location; something like “Do you have data to re-install or is-it a first installment ?" and do accordingly.

Of course, his personal data stored in Document will not be impacted by this procedure.

3

Why not use the macOS Migration Assistant?

4

I think it is what he does.

5

This isn’t a problem, it’s a feature. :grin: That’s where your app’s non-document data is stored.

6

If your app relies on data inside its sandbox, and the user chose not to migrate their account (just the apps) this will happen. Your app should be designed to handle a missing / deleted application data folder.

2 Likes
7

It seems the description I gave was pretty confused.

  1. the missing data I talked about, referred to data stored in specialfolder.applicationdata, and the apps are sandboxed.
  2. he (my brother) did not rely on migration since he supposed that migration would have moved also unnceccesary old items to the new machine.
  3. That’s why he first made use of airdrop and then of TimeMachine: unsuccesfuly.
  4. The fact that things got solved when I advised him to move the relevant stuff of each app from old Containers to new Containers is nothing to be wondered at. As I understand it, he expected Airdrop or TimeMachine to do the job.
  5. Conclusion: I too had the wrong impression that airdrop and Timemachine should have done the job automaticaaly, and so posted this somewhat unnecessary post.

I extend my thanks to all.

8

TimeMachine is a backup program and AirDrop is a method of copying files from one machine to another. Neither knows anything about how an application is put together or where it may store data.

The only thing that has that sort of knowledge is Migration assistant. That said I’m pretty sure it doesn’t offer the ability to move a single application. It is by far the best option for moving your account, settings and applications from one machine to another.

1 Like
9

Got it. Thanks.

10

time machine is the same as migration assistant.
it’s just that you move the data twice, one to another (external) drive, and one back to the new mac
instead of one with the migration assistant (direct from the old to the new mac)
with time machine you can exclude the folders you want, so you can only import these data on the new mac
on migration assistant you can only not import some groups of data (apps, user sessions or system prefs)

11

Not true. Time Machine is simply a backup system. What is true is that Migration assistant can read from a Time Machine backup as a source OR from an extant copy of the system on another disk / computer.