Public Service Announcement: Apple Migration Assistant fails

Just so you don't think I'm a totally blind-and-gullible koolaid-swallowing Apple fanboy, here's a bit of bad news for users of Apple's Migration Assistant (which means any non-first-time-buyer). I wrote about this disparagingly last Spring, when I got my newest Mac Mini and tried to use the MA to import my data from the old one.

Well, I found some new and exciting borkage in the current MA while trying to set up Sis' new laptop. Be warned, Apple users: DO NOT use wifi networking when migrating data between computers! If the signal ever drops, as wifi signals inevitably do, the migration never recovers. Normally dropped signals are not a problem, your browser (for example) just tries again. Migration Assistant doesn't, it panics. Worse still, you cannot cancel the migration because NewMac has to contact OldMac to disconnect — but since it already was disconnected, it cannot do this. So you end up rebooting both computers, losing the copied data (from the new machine) in the process.

Boo and hiss, Apple. This is not NEARLY good enough.

And how was your Boxing Day?