Mac Migration Checklist: Move Passwords & Apps Safely

Changing Macs is one of the few tech chores that feels both routine and terrifying. You have spent years accumulating passwords, app licenses, browser sessions, two-factor codes, half-finished downloads, and folders you have not opened since 2021. Most people assume the Mac will simply sort it out. Often it does, but the gaps tend to show up three weeks later, when a subscription has silently lapsed, a password manager is locked to a device you no longer have, or a photo library is missing a few thousand files that were only ever stored on the old machine.

Here is a number worth sitting with. In our informal survey of readers who wrote in after switching Macs over the last two years, nearly six in ten reported at least one thing they had to recover after the fact, and the most common losses were not files but access: two-factor authenticator entries, app logins tied to a single device, and licenses that could only be re-activated by contacting a vendor. Files are usually easy to restore from a backup. Access is where people get stuck for days.

This guide is a practical migration checklist for moving passwords, apps, and data without losing anything that matters. It is written from the perspective of someone who has done this several times, including a rushed migration that taught us what not to do. You will get a pre-migration audit, a method comparison, a worked example with real numbers, step-by-step walkthroughs for the trickiest parts, and a post-migration verification pass. Along the way, we will point to a few tools and resources where they genuinely help.

Key Takeaways

Do an access audit before you touch any data. List every password manager vault, authenticator app, and license key, and confirm you can log in without the old Mac.

Prefer a Migration Assistant transfer over Time Machine restore for most users, but only after confirming your critical apps are compatible with the new chip architecture.

Export your password manager and authenticator secrets separately, store them encrypted, and verify them on the new machine before you wipe the old one.

Deauthorize software licenses and app-bound accounts on the old Mac, not after you have sold it.

Keep the old Mac intact and unwiped for at least 30 days. Most "lost" data turns up in that window.

What Is a Mac Migration, and What Actually Moves?

A Mac migration is the process of transferring your user account, applications, settings, and files from one Mac to another. Apple provides a built-in tool called Migration Assistant for this, and it is the right starting point for most people. But it is not a complete backup, and it does not move everything equally well.

Understanding the categories of data helps you plan. Each one moves differently and fails differently.

User files: Documents, Desktop, Downloads, and Pictures. These generally transfer reliably.
Applications: Some move intact, some need reinstalling, and some require license reactivation.
Keychain and passwords: The iCloud Keychain syncs automatically if enabled, but third-party password managers do not.
Two-factor authenticator data: Often the most fragile category, because the secrets are device-bound in many apps.
Browser sessions and extensions: Profiles usually move with Migration Assistant, but extensions and saved logins depend on sync settings.
System settings and preferences: Mostly transfer, though some security settings (like Full Disk Access grants) must be re-approved.
Licenses and activations: Entirely dependent on the vendor's licensing model.

How Do You Audit Your Mac Before Migrating?

The single most valuable hour you will spend is the one before you start the migration. The goal of the audit is to find everything that cannot be recovered by simply copying files. Work through these steps on your current Mac.

Inventory your password managers. Note which one you use (iCloud Keychain, 1Password, Bitwarden, KeePassXC, Dashlane, or another), whether it is synced to a cloud account, and whether you have the master password written down somewhere safe.
List every authenticator app. Open each one and note whether it supports cloud backup or export. If an app has no export, you will need to re-enroll each account on the new device before you lose the old one.
Collect license keys. Check your Applications folder, the App Store purchase history, and your email for purchase receipts. Note which licenses are device-locked.
Identify app-bound accounts. Some software requires an account tied to a specific machine for activation. Make a list.
Check your storage. Use Apple menu, then System Settings, then General, then Storage to see what is taking space. Large libraries (Photos, music, Final Cut or Logic projects, virtual machines) will shape your transfer method.
Note your chip architecture needs. If you are moving from an Intel Mac to an Apple silicon Mac, identify any apps that are Intel-only and check whether they have Apple silicon versions or run under Rosetta 2.
Confirm your backup is current and restorable. A backup you have never tested is a hope, not a backup.

A Worked Example: 47 Passwords, 12 Services, and One Hidden Trap

Consider a freelance designer we will call Priya. She has 47 saved passwords spread across 12 services she uses for work: a domain registrar, two hosting accounts, a cloud storage provider, Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, a banking app, an email provider with two-factor enabled, a client portal, a project management tool, a payment processor, and two social accounts. She stores passwords in iCloud Keychain and has authenticator codes for seven of those services in a dedicated authenticator app.

On her old Mac, everything works. On the new Mac, the iCloud Keychain syncs within minutes, so the 47 passwords are fine. The problem is the authenticator app. It stores its secrets locally, offers no cloud sync, and was never configured with a recovery export. When Priya set up the new Mac, she moved the app by copying its data folder. The app launched but reported that its vault was corrupted, because the encryption key was tied to the old machine's hardware identifiers.

Priya lost seven two-factor enrollments in one afternoon. Recovering them meant using backup codes for three services, contacting support for two, and re-enrolling two accounts from scratch. Total time lost: about four hours spread across two days. Had she run the audit in step 2 above, she would have caught this in advance and exported the secrets or re-enrolled while the old Mac was still available.

Which Migration Method Should You Choose?

There are three realistic ways to move to a new Mac. Each suits different situations. The table below compares them on the criteria that matter most in practice.

Criterion	Migration Assistant (direct transfer)	Time Machine restore	Clean install and manual setup
Speed	Fast over Thunderbolt, slower over Wi-Fi (often 1 to 4 hours for 500 GB)	Depends on backup drive speed, often similar	Slowest, but you control every step
Carries over app licenses and settings	Usually yes, with some re-approvals needed	Usually yes, same caveats	No, you reinstall and reconfigure everything
Handles authenticator secrets	Unreliable for device-bound apps	Unreliable for device-bound apps	Requires deliberate export and re-enrollment
Clears out old junk	No, it carries clutter forward	No, it restores the snapshot as-is	Yes, a natural cleanup opportunity
Best for	Most users switching to a similar setup	Recovering from a failed or partial migration	Users switching architecture or who want a fresh start

For most readers, our recommendation is Migration Assistant over a direct connection if you can get a Thunderbolt or USB-C cable between the two machines. Wired transfers are dramatically faster and less prone to interruption. Use Time Machine restore as a fallback rather than the primary route, because restoring a backup also restores whatever state the machine was in at the backup time, including any corruption you did not notice.

Clean installs make sense if you are moving across processor architectures, or if your old Mac has accumulated years of cruft. They take longer but produce a cleaner, more predictable result. If you are considering a fresh start, our guide to how to vet any project before installing it is worth reading before you reinstall, since a clean setup is also a good moment to reconsider what you put back on the machine.

How Do You Move Passwords Safely?

Passwords are the highest-stakes category in a migration, and they are where people most often make the mistake of copying a file they should not copy. The safe approach depends on which manager you use.

If you use iCloud Keychain

On the new Mac, sign in with the same Apple ID.
Open System Settings, go to your Apple ID, then iCloud, and confirm that Passwords and Keychain are turned on.
Wait for sync to complete. Open the Passwords app and count your entries against your old Mac.
Spot-check five or six logins that you rarely use, to confirm the sync delivered them and not just the frequently used ones.

If you use a third-party password manager

Install the password manager on the new Mac from its official source, not from a third-party download site.
Sign in using your master password and, if applicable, your secret key or recovery code. Do not rely on memory for these; check your stored copy.
Confirm that vault sync completed. Compare total item counts.
Only after verifying, deauthorize the old device if the manager has a device limit.

If you use a local-only vault like KeePassXC

Local vaults are excellent for security but require you to move the database file deliberately. Copy the .kdbx file via an encrypted transfer method, install KeePassXC on the new Mac, open the database with your master key or key file, and confirm entries. If you sync the vault between devices without a cloud provider, our walkthrough on setting up offline vault sync without Syncthing covers the sync mechanics in detail, which translate well to a desktop-to-desktop move.

Never move your password database by emailing it to yourself, dropping it in an unencrypted cloud folder, or copying it to a USB stick that you leave in a drawer. The migration is a window of exposure, and the vault is the crown jewel.