Move your data from a Windows PC to your Mac

Use Windows Migration Assistant to transfer your pictures, documents, and other data from a Windows PC to your Mac.

Windows Migration Assistant transfers your contacts, calendars, email accounts, and more from a PC. It migrates this data to the appropriate places on your Mac. After migrating data to your Mac, authorize your computer for iTunes Store purchases. It’s important to authorize before you sync or play content that you download from the iTunes Store.

If you’re migrating from one Mac to another Mac, follow the steps to move your content to a new Mac.

Before you begin

To prepare for a smooth migration:

• Make sure that Windows is up to date. Migration Assistant works with Windows 7 and later.
• Make sure that you know the name and password of an administrator account on your PC.
• Connect your Mac and PC to the same network, such as your home Wi-Fi network. Or connect an Ethernet cable between the ports on your Mac and PC to create a direct network connection. Some Mac models require an Ethernet adapter, such as the Belkin USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter or Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter.
• If you’re using Microsoft OneDrive on your PC, follow Microsoft’s instructions for uninstalling OneDrive before continuing. You can reinstall OneDrive after migration is complete.

Then use the check disk (chkdsk) utility on your PC to make sure that your Windows hard drive doesn’t have any issues:

1. Right-click the Start button, then click Run.
2. Type cmd and press Enter. Command Prompt opens.
3. At the prompt, type chkdsk and press Enter.
4. If the utility reports that it found problems, type the following, where drive is the letter that represents your Windows startup disk, such as D:
5. Press Enter.
6. At the prompt, type Y , then restart your PC.
7. Repeat this process until the check disk utility reports no issues. If the utility can’t fix every issue that it finds, you might need to have your PC serviced. Then migrate your data to your Mac.

Move your data

This section guides you through migration, post-migration, and what to do if the steps don’t work for you.

How to move your information from a PC to your Mac

1. On your PC, download and install the appropriate Windows Migration Assistant, based on the version of macOS on your Mac:
   • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Big Sur
   • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Mojave and macOS Catalina
   • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Sierra and High Sierra
   • Windows Migration Assistant for OS X El Capitan or earlier
2. Quit any open Windows apps.
3. Open Windows Migration Assistant, then click Continue.
   
4. Start up your Mac. Setup Assistant automatically opens the first time you turn on your Mac. If you’ve already set up your Mac, open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
5. On your Mac, follow the onscreen prompts until you get to the migration pane of the assistant. Select the option to transfer your information “From a Windows PC,” then click Continue.
   
6. When prompted, enter an administrator name and password.
7. Click Continue to close any other open apps.
8. In the migration window on your Mac, select your PC from the list of available computers. Then wait for the PC to show the same passcode that your Mac shows.
9. When both computers display the same passcode, click Continue on your PC and Mac.
10. Your Mac scans the drives on your PC to build a list of information to migrate. When the scan completes, select the information that you want to migrate to your Mac and click Continue. Learn about some of the data that you can transfer.
    

You can watch the progress and estimated time remaining on both the PC and your Mac. They tell you when migration is complete.

After you move your data

When migration completes, close Windows Migration Assistant on your PC. Then log in to the new user account on your Mac. The first time you log in to a user account migrated from your PC, you’re asked to set a password. You can use the same password that you used on your PC, or create a new password.

After logging in to the user account that you migrated, authorize your computer for iTunes Store purchases. It’s important to authorize before you sync or play content downloaded from the iTunes Store.

If you have issues moving your data

• Quit all open apps on your PC, then try migrating your content again. For example, you can press Alt-Tab to choose an open application, then press Alt-F4 to quit it.
• If your PC doesn’t appear in the Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant window on your Mac, make sure the computers are connected to the same network. You can create a network by connecting a single Ethernet cable between your Mac and PC. If that doesn’t help, check for firewall software on your PC and turn it off. After migration completes, you can turn firewall software on again.
• If Migration Assistant doesn’t open on your PC, turn off any antivirus software on your PC. Then try to open Migration Assistant again. After migration completes. You can turn that software on again.
• If you still can’t migrate your information successfully, you can use an external drive or file sharing to manually copy important data to your Mac.

What data can I transfer?

Migration Assistant lets you choose the data to move to your Mac. Here’s what moves over for specific apps and data types:

Email, contacts, and calendar information
Email messages, email-account settings, contacts, and appointments move based on which version of Windows you’re using and which accounts you have.

Outlook 1
Data from 32-bit versions of Outlook in Windows 7 and later move as follows:

• People move to Contacts 2
• Appointments move to the Calendar app
• IMAP and Exchange settings and messages move to the Mail app
• POP settings and messages move to Mail 2

Windows Live Mail
Data from Windows Live Mail in Windows 7 and later moves as follows:

• IMAP settings and messages move to Mail
• POP settings and messages move to Mail 2

Windows Mail
Data from Windows Mail in Windows 7 and later (excluding Windows 8) move as follows:

• IMAP settings and messages move to Mail
• POP settings and messages move to Mail 2
• People move to Contacts

Bookmarks
Bookmarks from Internet Explorer, Safari for Windows, and Firefox move to Safari.

System settings
Language and location settings, and custom desktop pictures move to System Preferences. Your web browser homepage moves to Safari preferences.

Pictures
Photos and other images move to your home folder. You can then add them to Photos, or open Photos and let it search your Mac for photos to import.

iTunes content
Migration Assistant transfers your iTunes media as follows: music to the Apple Music app, videos to the Apple TV app, podcasts to the Apple Podcasts app, and audiobooks to the Apple Books app.

Other files
Migration Assistant also moves these files:

• Files from the top-level folder of the currently logged-in user’s home directory
• Non-system files located in the Windows or Program Files folders
• Top-level folders located on the Windows system disk and other attached disks

1. Migration Assistant doesn’t support 64-bit versions of Outlook. You can manually migrate Mail, Contacts, or Calendars from Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016 by signing in and entering the content on your Mac manually.

2. Migration Assistant transfers only the Mail or Contacts data that belongs to the logged-in Windows user. To transfer data from another user account, use Migration Assistant again while you’re logged in to another Windows account. Each time you migrate, your Mac creates a new user account.

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The 5 Things You Must Know When Converting From Windows to Mac

Converting from the Windows to Mac ecosystems can be a bit of a challenge. Some things will feel familiar, while others may not. Even the most basic of tasks have very small, but very noticeable differences. In this tutorial I will demonstrate the five things you must know when making the leap from the Windows to Mac operating systems.

In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to:

• Find and open applications
• Properly close those applications
• The “Dock” and how to use it
• “Spotlight” and all of its powerful search features
• The “Dashboard”

Let’s get started!

Screencast

I will demonstrate each of the aspects, listed above, in this screencast which may be view in conjunction with the rest of this tutorial.

Finding and Opening Applications

In Windows, opening an application means going to the start menu in the lower left hand corner of the screen, then to the application menu.

Opening an application in Windows

On a Mac, everything has its place within the file system. You access the file system by clicking on the Finder icon.

So I’m going to click on Finder and then Applications. Here is the complete list of every application on my Mac. To launch one, I will simply double click on the icon of the app I would like to launch.

Closing Applications

In Windows, closing an application usually means clicking the red x in the upper right corner of the screen. Even though this same idea of “click the red button to close» does carry over to the Mac, there are a couple of key differences worth learning:

1. On a Mac, the red close button is in the upper left corner of the application window, not the upper right.
2. Also, clicking that aforementioned button will only close the window; not the entire application.

To close the application completely, you need to either:

1. Click on the name of the app in the top left corner of your screen, then choose the quit option. Or
2. Use the handy Command Q shortcut

I would recommend learning the shortcut, as it is much more efficient

Properly closing applications you are not using will free up system resources and allow the apps you are using to run much faster.

What Is the Dock?

Now that you understand how to open and close applications, I want to show you how to identify the applications that are currently running. Any application that is currently running will most likely appear in your dock with a small white dot below it. Based on this screenshot, you can see I have Open Office and Screenflow running. I also have Finder running, but Finder is always running. It is a key part of the Mac OS.

Apps running the dock have a little spotlight beneath them

As well as showing me what apps I have open, the dock also acts as a bit of a shortcut bar. If I know I use a particular application more than others, I can simply click on Finder, navigate to my applications folder, and drag that app from my applications folder to the dock. This has effectively ‘pinned’ that application to my dock for easier access.

How to pin an application to the dock

Later on, if I decide I’m not using that application as much, I can remove the pin by clicking and holding down on the icon until a menu appears. From there I will go to options and then click to remove the check next to keep in dock.

Alternatively, I can just click and drag the icon over to the trash can where a remove from dock option will appear. By letting go, I have removed the application from my dock.

Spotlight

Spotlight is the Mac’s built in search feature. Entire trainings could be devoted to all of its different uses, but for now, I will point out just a few.

First, imagine that I would like to find a document on my Mac, but I can’t remember what folder it was saved to. Well, I would simply launch spotlight with the Command Spacebar shortcut and begin typing the title of that document.

Notice that, as I type, suggestions already begin to appear. I can simply arrow key down to the document I’m looking for and hit enter. Just like that, the document has been found and opened for me.

Using Spotlight can improve your efficiency

Suppose I have an application I would like to launch, but I don’t want to go to the trouble of clicking on Finder, then Applications, then searching for the app. I can simply do a Command Spacebar shortcut to bring up spotlight, then begin typing the first few letters of the app. As soon as it appears in the search results, I can arrow down to it and press enter to launch.

Spotlight can also be a great way to quickly search the web. Suppose I would like to see what a bitcoin is. I’ll just Command Spacebar to bring up spotlight, then type what is a bitcoin and arrow down to search the web for «what is bitcoin». Spotlight fires off a web browser with the search results already open.

Searching the web from Spotlight

The Dashboard

Last, but not least, I want to show you around the dashboard. The dashboard can be accessed a multitude of different ways. On my macbook air, I use the shortcut fn + f12. On a magic mouse or trackpad, a four-finger swipe to the left will most likely get you there as well. It may be a bit different for you depending on the year and model of your Mac.

Once there, I find a set of four existing live widgets that show me date, time, a simple calculator and a seven-day weather forecast. These are not the only widgets I can have on my dashboard though.

Widgets — oft underused functionality on your Mac

By hitting the plus button in the lower left corner I can add even more widgets ranging from ski reports to digital sticky notes. If these aren’t enough, I can even click the more widgets button to be taken to the Apple site. This site contains many widgets that I may download and install. I can really make this Dashboard my own.

Discovering new widgets

Conclusion

Any change can be a bit scary at first, but learning these basic differences will make the transition from Windows to Mac a breeze! With a little practice, and the information in this tutorial, you will be opening applications, managing them, closing them properly and enjoying your personalized dashboard in no time!