Apple documents transfer conundrum?

[DuckRyder]

Ok, we got new computers nearly a year ago or maybe over a year ago. I transferred all my stuff immediately, but Mrs Duckryder wanted to start fresh and work through her old documents on her old computer. This proved to be a daunting task.

I would like to move all her user files from the old computer to an external drive in a format that will be accessible to the new Mac keeping the organizational structure intact to the extent possible. The photos library seems to be a particular problem.

She's very anti cloud and will not use iCloud after a few bad experiences. I strongly suspect this would wreck her notes in contacts and so forth as well.

My questions to the extent i know what to ask:

• Is there a user level folder that will get all of her stuff and can i rename it to keep it separate.
• How to deal with 2 Photos libraries and keep then from intermingling.

Thanks in advance for any direction.

 

[Rand]

Might want to fix your typo. "Mrs DXckryder"

Eww MAC question maybe @OVERKILL could answer it.

 

[Hall]

She's very anti cloud and will not use iCloud after a few bad experiences. I strongly suspect this would wreck her notes in contacts and so forth as well.

You can select which apps use iCloud and turn it off for others. I won't use iCloud for Photos as it royally sucks to the core (I saw to the core because issues with its original design continue to make things worse every year Apple doesn't fix it). That said, I do have Notes, Messages and a few other apps sync'd to iCloud, including Files. Files only has a handful of files in it as I only use it for convenience. I use Dropbox for real work.

 

[Hall]

Do you each have your own user login on the old machine and the new machine ? If not, you should.

 

[OVERKILL]

• Is there a user level folder that will get all of her stuff and can i rename it to keep it separate.

Yes, just navigate to the primary drive, go into the Users folder and copy her user folder to an external medium.

• How to deal with 2 Photos libraries and keep then from intermingling.

You can open the 2nd photos library with photos, as long as you don't copy one over the other, you'll be able to manually navigate to it and open it.

 

[DuckRyder]

To clarify do i need to rename anything?

her user folder from the old mac can be named the same as her active user folder on the new mac? And photos library does not need to be named "photos 2" or anything?

 

[DuckRyder]

Sigh Error 8084 > off to google...