Any tips? Caveats? It actually came a week earlier than I was expecting so I will appreciate any advice!
My advice it to do a clean install. That can depend on how you use it though. I just copied my documents to a thumb drive and reinstalled all my apps. It didn’t take anywhere near as long as I thought it would.
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Second that approach.
Start clean, 6 years is a big jump.
Congratulations on new purchase
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I think it depends on how clean you keep your current MBP. If you don’t have a lot of cruft then migration assistant can work well. If not then a clean install. Are you currently running Catalina? Trying to migrate 32 bit apps could cause problems.
Just had similar issue with iPad upgrades. I restored from backup but wife decided to start from scratch.
I run CleanMy Mac regularly and don’t currently have any 32 bit apps. Documents aren’t a problem (all on Dropbox). Reinstalling the apps sounds like a real headache … .
I thought that, reinstalling was a chore but not nearly as much of a chore as I thought: I used CleanMyMac a lot too and think it is a great app. However my stuff had been migrated for 8 years I think, over three Macs. I didn’t regret doing it and there was some weird stuff I think was from legacy stuff.
I also, I admit, rethought my app set up. The ones I really needed were easy enough to reinstall. Some from App Store so that is just a click. Other ones I have kept the original log in emails and so on in one place. Partly because one could need them in case of failures anyway.
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Before you go the “clean install” route, consider how custom your current setup is. How much tinkering have you done over the years with settings and preferences? Do you do any development (it seems it can be messy according to a recent ATP episode)? Do you have large libraries of media with lots of metadata? Do you use a links or utilities like Hazel that depend on specific folder structures or file paths?
Clean install is great in some ways, but depending on your circumstances, be prepared to give lots of time for reconfiguring everything and moving libraries of files and settings. Also, a fun little tip from David a while back, if you select-all your Apps in the finder, and do copy-paste into a text field, it will just paste it as a text-list, so it’s easy to remember what you had installed.
On the flip-side, if you run things pretty stock, it’s less of an issue. Migration assistant works pretty well these days, so it could be worth trying first, and then if you have issues, do a clean install.
Remember to deauthorize any licences prior to moving over to avoid apps getting confused about how many computers are trying to use a license. Have fun! 
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This past year I did a double upgrade, 2014 to 2019 iMac and 2011 to 2019 MBP. Both also involved an upgrade to Catalina simultaneously.
For the iMac, I did a migrate and for the MBP I did a clean install. I’ve always done a migrate but for that MBP. In the iMac case, that’s through older iMacs dating back to a 2006 model with Mac OS Tiger. For the MBP, I wanted to clean out most of the software (I used it for travel and teaching, but I don’t teach anymore and wanted to delete everything related – easier to do a clean install).
Frankly the migrate was easier and much faster. With all the migrations and upgrades I’ve found them nothing to fear.
But some other advice – check out dongles. You will need all new ones. I ended up with a single one, a travel dock that has USB 3, SD, HDMI, and Ethernet. Basically everything I need in one box.
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Very helpful.This brings up another question: My ‘old’ laptop has the most recent version of Catalina and I can be quite certain that the ‘new’ one does not. Will that present any issues if I use Migration Assistant?
I got this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X1J7R34/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It looks like it will be adequate but we shall see!
Looks adequate, indeed!
And for migration assistant, if it isn’t on the most recent Catalina, and Migration Assistant complains, then you can upgrade the version first. I always create a separate administrative account with nothing in it that I use to diagnose problems. By putting that on first, it can be used for the upgrade before migrating the old account.
Really good advice, something I should have thought through. As it happens I really didn’t find reconfiguring a problem. I can imagine it could be though. I took it as an opportunity to clean those things up too though. My idea is really with clean instal to make it a strategic spring clean all round. I even threw out a great deal of unwanted articles and so on from DEVONthink 3 when I did it. It did take some time though if you think of it that way.
What was that dongle?
This one: TOTU USB C Hub,9-In-1 Type C Hub with Ethernet Port, 4K USB C to HDMI, 2 USB 3.0 Ports, 1 USB 2.0 Port, SD/TF Card Reader, USB-C Power Delivery, Portable for Mac Pro and Other Type C Laptops (Silver)
It’s now half the price it was when I bought it back in December.
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thanks for letting me know Tom
I bought one of those too because it will be useful for travel!
Transition to new Mac is going slowly but surely. Lots of log in issues particularly with Quicken but I shall prevail!!
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