backup/restore or migrate settings and content

[DonOtuseGH]

Hello,

is there an easy way, to transfer data (settings and content) from an old Mac to an new one without using Apples migration assistant? Signal messenger for example works really smoothly by compressing ~/Library/Application Support/Signal, transferring and extracting the archive on the new system.

Thanks and best regards Don!

[hantu85]

As your are mentioning compression of directory on the old Mac and transferring it to the new Mac as an "easy way", then there is!

Beagle IM stores all files related to its operation (including data and application settings) in following directory ~/Library/Containers/BeagleIM (or ~/Library/Containers/org.tigase.messenger.BeagleIM in the terminal), so you can compress it and move to the new Mac.

[DonOtuseGH]

Hm, seem to be not working for these kind of "special" directories. Tried it with Finder compress context menu and tar, gnu-tar on the command line ... without success.

[hantu85]

That's weird. I did that 3 months ago to transfer my data and it worked without any issues. I've compressed data on old Mac (from those directories and subdirectories) and decompressed on a new Mac. I was moving from Intel to AppleSilicon, so I wanted to have a clean install.