Like most folks replying here, I took a manual+sync approach to migrating from my old laptop (MBP 2016) to the new one (MBP M1). It was even simpler on my wife’s new M1 MBA. For both, the high-level summary was:
- First boot, follow the macOS onboarding path, log into iCloud, etc. Open Notes and let that sync. (I wanted to keep a detailed log of setup steps in Notes, as well as reference some prep notes I made.)
- Install “critical” apps: 1Password, Alfred, SpamSieve, BBEdit, a few others. For the ones that can sync, sync. For some others, copy configuration details manually. For SpamSieve, I set it up from scratch. (I get plenty of spam for training…)
- A round of “comfort configuration”. Various macOS system and Finder preferences that make the new machine feel like “normal”. This included setting up Mail.app with my accounts (which sync’ed via iCloud, but needed tweaking).
- Download and install “important” apps: these are apps I know I will use, but which weren’t essential to getting started.
- Start up the old Mac in Target Disk Mode, and copy the “real” data from it. Documents folder, some fonts and sounds, etc. Whatever your real stuff is, skipping most ~/Library crap, abandoning some things that won’t work, etc. (For example, I didn’t copy over my Parallels VM images, since it’s going to be a while before those work.)
- I specifically did not copy over any apps. While some of them would have been fine, doing a clean install rather than using Migration Assistant is intended to leave behind problems, weirdness, and forgotten junk. I’ll re-install when I need something.
For apps that sync, I logged in, and let them sync. (1Password, Notes, Messages, Photos, Paprika, One Note, a few others.) I don’t use Dropbox at all, and minimally use iCloud Drive. (Kind of old school, but I like local-only data, at least for Plain Old Documents.)
Depending on your media collection, you might have more or less of that to worry about. I was migrating from a Mojave system with iTunes, and I basically abandoned the entire iTunes Media folder. Somewhere along the way, years ago, my music library got totally borked by either iCloud Music Sync or Apple Music; missing tracks in albums, missing albums, and so on. Not worth copying. I plan to set up a media import system on a Mac mini, and re-import everything in a lossless format. Movies got copied to a home server (where the music will go, eventually), except for the home videos, etc., which did get copied to ~/Movies.
For the rest, the many other apps I have installed on the old machine, I’m waiting to actually need it before I install it. Many things need time to be compatible with Big Sur, if not the M1, so waiting isn’t really a disadvantage.
The old machine will be around for a while, so I don’t need to have a perfect, complete migration in one go. The new machine is now the main machine, but I’ll use the old laptop for Parallels and some other media-specific tasks, at least until there’s nothing Intel-only that I need to do regularly. (An older Mac mini will take over doing that, as soon as I get things moved over.)