Switching from a 27-inch iMac to a 14-inch MacBook Pro: A Fresh Start
At long last, I have replaced my 27-inch iMac. I bought the original 2014 27-inch iMac shortly after it was released because it combined impressive power with an astonishingly crisp 5K Retina display for a thoroughly affordable price. When that Mac suffered an SSD failure in early 2020, I limped along with an external boot drive for a few months but replaced the Mac as soon as Apple introduced the 2020 27-inch iMac later that year. Little did I know that would be the last 27-inch iMac model. 2020 was also the year I swapped my 2017 MacBook Air for an M1 MacBook Air shortly after it was released—I had been avoiding the previous models with the infamous butterfly keyboards.
The M1 MacBook Air is still going strong, but the 27-inch iMac has been struggling. Its fans were running more regularly, Photos frequently paused iCloud syncing for the Mac to cool down, some actions were taking longer than they should, and the scroll wheel of my Contour Designs RollerMouse Pro was becoming increasingly flaky. And, of course, it’s an Intel-based Mac, so I couldn’t test Apple Intelligence on it or use certain apps that require Apple silicon. It was only a matter of time before I would switch my primary Mac to one with Apple silicon, and the time finally arrived.
The Decision Tree Leading to a MacBook Pro
My upgrade decision hinged on three key requirements: support for dual 27-inch displays, compatibility with my standing desk setup, and maintaining my preferred pointing device position. I work at a standing desk that places the keyboard at an ergonomically correct typing height and holds a pair of 27-inch displays approximately 13 inches (33 cm) higher, so they’re at the ergonomically correct viewing height for me. To start, whatever Mac I chose had to support two 27-inch displays, and I felt that I had to make that decision first.
The Apple Studio Display was the obvious choice, but it’s expensive and didn’t meet the high expectations we had for Apple’s consumer-level display when it finally arrived. I flirted with the idea of one of those ultra-wide curved displays, but they lack the pixel density of actual 5K displays, and I’ve never been able to find a store where I could test one to determine if its display quality met my needs. I also debated whether I should save some money and opt for one of the newer 5K 27-inch displays from Asus or BenQ, but most lacked webcams, and the build quality of the Apple Studio Display was superior, so the lower price wasn’t as compelling as it might have been. In the end, I decided it was best to stick with the Apple Studio Displays despite the cost so I would have Apple-native displays that will probably last for at least the next decade (I’ve used the same 27-inch Thunderbolt Display since 2014, and it still works fine).
Initially, only the higher-end Apple silicon Macs could drive two external displays, but Apple gradually enhanced these capabilities, enabling the M3 MacBook Air to support two external displays with the lid closed and subsequently providing the M4 MacBook Air with sufficient power to manage two external displays in addition to the built-in display. Any one of the M4 MacBook Air, M4 MacBook Pro, and M4 Mac mini would meet my needs. But which to choose?
I’ve always maintained a strict desktop/laptop split, with powerful desktops for most work and light laptops for travel. That pointed toward the Mac mini, but there was a problem. Because I’ve used a Contour Designs RollerMouse Pro or a MacBook Air for so many years, I prefer my pointing device to be in front of my keyboard, not off to the side. Although a Mac mini would be cheaper than the other options, I’d need to buy an Apple Magic keyboard (Touch ID was a must-have) and another RollerMouse, which would increase the price by about $500. (I would prefer a trackpad, but it’s tricky to get a Magic Trackpad positioned in front of a Magic Keyboard—a custom tray is necessary to get them at the right level.) With the input devices, the M4 Mac mini would cost about $1800 and the M4 Pro version about $2100.
The cost and fuss associated with input devices, combined with the allure of a third screen, were sufficient to push me back to laptops. Although a standard M4 MacBook Air or 14-inch MacBook Pro would provide more than enough power for everything I do today, I decided to future-proof my decision with an M4 Pro 14-inch MacBook Pro configured with 24 GB of memory. It also offers more pixels than even the 15-inch MacBook Air, an SDXC card slot, an HDMI port, and an additional Thunderbolt port with support for Thunderbolt 5. At $2200, it was $600 more than the M4 MacBook Air ($1600) and only $200 more than the equivalent M4 14-inch MacBook Pro ($2000). Since I already have an M1 MacBook Air that I’ll probably continue to use for lightweight tasks away from my desk, the extra money seemed worth it for a notably more powerful MacBook Pro.
The final check before ordering the M4 MacBook Pro was to rebuild my IKEA Jerker desk to see if I could get it to provide a larger typing surface. Previously, the shelf under the displays held my keyboard and RollerMouse Pro fine, but lacked space for a laptop with the lid open. By cannibalizing the main surface from Tonya’s previous Jerker desk, I was able to give myself plenty of room for the MacBook Pro with the lid open.
When I switched from the 2014 27-inch iMac to the 2020 model, I simply removed the old iMac from my desk and replaced it with the new one, using Migration Assistant to transfer everything. Apart from faster performance, the experience was nearly identical. This move has involved much more adaptation and new ways of working, not least because I decided to do the cleanest of clean installs, transferring data and settings from my old Mac in only a few controlled situations. I wanted to see how I’d do things when given the option to start from scratch. And it proved quite interesting.
A Completely Clean Install
Unlike some, I have no particular complaints with Migration Assistant. However, during an investigation into what was taking up space on my iMac, I discovered that I had significant quantities of data in my user’s Library folder that hadn’t been modified in over 4 years because it was associated with apps I hadn’t used during that time. In ~/Library/Containers alone, I found nearly 400 old folders that occupied over 2.6 GB of space. Migration Assistant would have blithely transferred all that unnecessary crud along with data and settings I actually care about. And I don’t even want to think about the 2400 items occupying nearly 19 GB in my iMac’s Downloads folder.
That made me decide to set up the new MacBook Pro fresh. I knew it would take a bit longer because I would have to download and configure apps as I needed them, but it was worth doing to eliminate cruft. The iMac has 170 apps in its Applications folder, but after installing the apps I’ve needed in the past few weeks, I’m at only 100 on the MacBook Pro. (Lots of those were pre-installed by Apple.) I have reconfigured nearly all of those apps from scratch, although I manually transferred settings or support files for a couple that would have been tedious to set up again, such as Dejal’s Simon monitoring tool, which tracks changes on approximately 15 webpages for me.
The only notable hiccup associated with the migration came with a Nisus Writer Pro macro I use to convert a folder of RTF files to DOCX. After the migration, it failed with a completely inscrutable error, even while I could use it on the same data on the iMac with no problems. After a lengthy conversation, ChatGPT made a comment that set me on the right path—I needed to install the Rosetta 2 translation environment, which enables Intel-based apps to run on Macs with Apple silicon. Normally, that happens when you open an Intel-based app on an Apple silicon Mac, but launching the Nisus File Converter utility (buried within the Nisus Writer Pro app package) from a macro didn’t trigger macOS to get Rosetta. Once I manually launched Nisus File Converter, macOS downloaded Rosetta, and the macro started working again.
The two configuration tweaks that required a bit more effort were displaying the Library folder in the Finder’s Go menu so I didn’t have to press Option to see it each time (see “Dealing with Lion’s Hidden Library,” 20 July 2011) and getting proxy icons to appear all the time (see “TipBITS: Always Show Window Proxy Icons,” 26 March 2022).
The remaining question revolves around how to bring over documents and other files in my home folder. For the moment, I’ve decided to treat such data like settings and bring it over manually as needed. At some point, I’ll probably copy the remaining data in each folder in my home folder to the new Mac or archive completely unused folders to an external drive. Additionally, I may keep a duplicate of the iMac’s drive around indefinitely, just in case I need to restore something I missed in the more distant future.
Cloud Storage Proves Helpful
Part of the reason I could get away with not migrating all the data in my home folder is that a significant amount of it came over automatically once I set up iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox. I use iCloud Drive’s option to sync my Desktop and Documents folders between devices, and Tonya and I share certain personal files in Google Drive and Dropbox, although we’re moving away from Dropbox to avoid the additional cost. In particular, I was pleased that I could access my Keyboard Maestro macros and BBEdit text factories instantly, as they sync via Dropbox.
After setting up all the cloud storage services to sync and turning on iCloud Photos, I have so far only needed to bring over one or two folders from the iMac. I was initially surprised by that, but upon reflection, the vast majority of what I do is either entirely online in Web apps like Google Docs and Lex or synced among my Macs by one of the cloud storage services.
Honestly, I can see why cloud storage is so popular with those who have grown up with constant high-speed Internet and aren’t perturbed about storing personal or corporate data on servers outside their control. It’s undeniably helpful to be able to access all your data on any device, and it makes spinning up a new device vastly simpler.
A Third Screen for Ambient Apps
Since I have long been accustomed to having two 27-inch displays, I wasn’t quite sure how I’d end up using the MacBook Pro’s built-in display. It’s too low for ergonomic use—I’d end up craning my neck down too much to use it for long. However, I’ve found it handy for apps that I want running at all times but that occupy my attention for only moments at a time, currently Messages, Slack, Music, BusyCal, and 1Password. I think of them as ambient apps—just as I’d glance at the wall to see the current month’s calendar grid, I can switch to and glance at BusyCal with the tap of F5 or a three-fingered swipe.
Previously, I layered these ambient apps under others on my left-hand screen, accessing them with an F-key. There was nothing wrong with that approach, but I’m liking having them in a known space on the MacBook’s screen. In fact, while I keep Messages and Slack together, each of the others gets its own space so I can interact with it full-screen.
I have experimented with some different window positions for my main apps on the two Apple Studio Display screens, but having Arc left-justified on the right-hand screen and Mimestream right-justified on the left-hand screen keeps my Web browsing and email front and center. (Refer back to the photo at the top to see that arrangement.)
MacBook Trackpad Requires a Wrist Rest
Part of the reason that Spaces works well for my ambient apps is that I can switch between them fluidly using three-finger swipes on the MacBook Pro’s trackpad. I’m familiar with trackpad gestures from previous laptops, but without a trackpad on my iMac, I never quite appreciated how easy they are to use. It’s also nice to have essentially the same keyboard as on my M1 MacBook Air. Previously, I was using a big, clicky Das Keyboard, which was so different from the thin Apple keyboards that my fingers had trouble switching back and forth at times. It will take some time to retrain my muscle memory for the new input devices, but I think it’s worthwhile.
The main problem I’ve encountered with mousing on the MacBook Pro is that its front corner is so sharp that it’s actively painful to rest my hands on it. There’s nothing new about this—I think every Mac laptop has had too-sharp corners since the polycarbonate white iBook. It’s not an issue when typing because my palms naturally come down on the palm rests on either side of the trackpad. But since I primarily use the trackpad with the index finger on my right hand, I have to pull that arm back, causing the right palm to rest on a surface in front of the laptop. When the laptop is in my lap, my thigh provides that surface. I wasn’t sure what I’d do when the MacBook Pro was on a standing desk.
Initially, I tried aligning the front of the MacBook Pro with the edge of the desk surface to encourage myself to hover my palm in the air. I hated that approach instantly. I spend a lot of time reading text with my right hand’s fingers on the trackpad to scroll or position the insertion point for editing, and I need somewhere to rest my palm while I’m doing that. I experimented with a few items I had on hand—a square Kensington trackball palm rest and a promotional hand squeezer from Datto that resembles a large Lego block—but ultimately settled on several layers of a bubble mailer encased in some old T-shirt material. (That’s the green thing in front of the MacBook Pro in the desk photo above.)
My homemade wrist rest works acceptably, but I don’t intend for it to be a long-term solution. Now that I’ve seen how it works, I can look for a commercial wrist rest in the correct dimensions for my setup.
A Laptop That Seldom Sees a Lap
I do feel a little weird working on a MacBook Pro that rarely leaves my desk. In fact, I’ve disconnected it from the Apple Studio Displays only once, and the immediate complaint from macOS about how I had forgotten to eject my Time Machine backup drive first reminded me that if I were going to do this regularly, I’d need to get a copy of St. Clair Software’s Jettison, which simplifies the process of dismounting drives (see “AppBITS: Jettison Solves macOS Disk Ejection Annoyances,” 28 May 2025).
The other oddity of treating a laptop like a desktop Mac is that it needs to remain plugged in at all times. I’m using the MagSafe 3 power adapter purely because it shows a green light when the MacBook Pro is 100% charged and an orange one otherwise. Having it at 100% would be ideal only if I were planning to leave on a trip. Otherwise, it’s much better to use Apple’s Optimized Battery Charging option and let macOS try to keep the battery at 80% most of the time. To find it, open System Settings > Battery and click the ⓘ next to Battery Health.
As has been discussed extensively on TidBITS Talk, optimized battery charging does a fine job of minimizing the impact of keeping a MacBook Pro plugged in all the time. In short, there’s no need to be concerned that you’re limiting the battery’s lifespan.
Apple Studio Displays Are Solid, If Uninspiring
Perhaps I’m jaded from working on 27-inch iMacs with 5K Retina displays for the last 11 years, but the Apple Studio Display just isn’t that impressive. It’s exactly what I expect to see in terms of size and quality, although I do greatly appreciate the fact that I now have matching displays of equal quality.
Most people probably don’t know or care about this, but screenshots reflect the resolution of the display on which they’re taken. As a result, if I took a screenshot of a 300-by-200-pixel window on the iMac’s screen, it would be 600-by-400 pixels in size. (The same screenshot taken on the non-Retina Thunderbolt Display would be 300-by-200 pixels.) Even if you shrink a screenshot down to its original dimensions, the pixel-doubled version usually looks sharper, and if a TidBITS reader zooms it on our website, it gets bigger. The practical upshot of this is that I no longer have to pay attention to which display contains a window I want to capture.
One benefit of attaching two Apple Studio Displays to my MacBook Pro is that they each provide three additional USB 3.2 ports (10 Gbps), which are sufficient to connect my Time Machine backup drive and the Audio-Technica ATR2100x USB mic I use for podcast appearances, plus another external drive on which I plan to store virtual machines. My two external archive drives aren’t currently connected, but since I turn them on only occasionally, it’s no hardship to connect them manually. I have a Thunderbolt 3 hub in the closet but haven’t seen any benefit to connecting it yet.
The only quirk is that I just remembered that I used to connect my iMac via Ethernet for the ultimate speed and stability, with Wi-Fi as an automatic fallback. I have a two-part dongle (Thunderbolt 2 to Gigabit Ethernet and Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3) that can provide wired Ethernet to the MacBook Pro, but it only works when connected to a Thunderbolt port, not to one of the USB 3.2 ports on the Apple Studio Display. Since each Apple Studio Display must be connected to a Thunderbolt port, that leaves only one open for Ethernet, but I’m not sure I want to dedicate it to that purpose forever. Perhaps I’ll try that Thunderbolt hub after all.
Finally, both the Apple Studio Displays and the MacBook Pro boast 12-megapixel Center Stage cameras, which are vastly better than the 720p FaceTime HD camera in the Thunderbolt Display and the 1080p FaceTime HD camera in the 27-inch iMac. I haven’t had a chance to compare the video quality of the Apple Studio Display with the iPhone 16 Pro’s rear camera using Continuity Camera, but I appreciate not having to dedicate my iPhone to the task for video calls.
A Fresh Start Indeed
Moving from my beloved 27-inch iMac and ancient Thunderbolt Display to the 14-inch MacBook Pro with a pair of Apple Studio Displays has been more than just a hardware upgrade—it has been an opportunity to reconsider some long-standing ways of working. Starting fresh without Migration Assistant, although more time-consuming, has helped me create a cleaner, more intentional setup that should reduce quirks for years to come. Even without Migration Assistant, cloud storage significantly reduced the potential headaches of migrating much of my data. The addition of a third screen to hold ambient apps has proven welcome, and although I’ve liked the MacBook Pro’s keyboard and trackpad overall, I’m still addressing some ergonomic challenges of using it on a standing desk. In the end, what’s important is that the new MacBook Pro feels fast and fresh while still retaining the most essential aspects of my everyday Mac experience.
My! That setup looks purty!
Two studio displays? I’m envious! I just have one (which I like a lot even while grumbling about the price).
In December, I moved from a 2017 27" iMac to a M4 mini & Studio Display. What a difference 8 years makes!
Very interesting to read your expert thinking process. I’m sure it will be helpful to people who are contemplating a new system.
Dave
We got my wife the same computer with a single Studio Display along with the Apple Magic Keyboard with 10 key number pad (which is a requirement for her) and an Apple Trackpad. She is very happy with it. Sometimes she uses the laptop by itself when laying down and hasn’t tried using the Macbook screen at the same time as the Studio Display. She is also coming from an iMac but a 2015. At some point, I may see if using the laptop as a second screen helps her. That might open a whole new world for her.
I suspect your old iMac was full of dust which is why the fans were running and it was overheating. For the pre-2012 iMacs, you could open them up easily to clear out all the dust, an essential after a couple of years. For later iMacs it was a pizza cutter with the risk of cracking the glass front and new adhesive strips to fix the screen afterwards. Not exactly Right to Repair friendly.
That was a good read. Whilst I used 3 screens at work (laptop, 27" and 24") at home I feel much more comfortable with a 32" and laptop. I use the laptop for ‘ambient’ apps (Mail, Music or a TV station) and the 32" is enough for pretty much everything else. I think 2x 32" would be overkill.
I also have a Mac Mini next to me with a 27" monitor so if I want to have a movie running in the background I do it on the separate machine.
I just did a quick count of machines I have here - 8 Mac Minis, a few laptops, two Synologys and enough external drives to sink a small freighter. It’s a sickness
Great upgrade! Congratulations!
I really loved the 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display. In fact, I still haven’t donated it because I have home movies that I haven’t transferred off yet. Okay, that’s just an excuse for sentimentality.
In 2021 I upgraded to the 16-inch MBP. I started with an LG Ergo display, but I hated it compared to the beautiful screen of my iMac. Then, in 2022 the new Apple Studio Displays were released!
I like having one beautiful display directly in front of me, so I positioned the LG display vertically to the side. I also use a split keyboard and trackball at my desk.
A little different take, but I use my newer M4 14" MacBook Pro for lightweight tasks or when I travel. I find that if I’m going to work somewhere nearby with a desk, I’ll bring the 16". At my desk I’ll close it and plug in a single USB-C and an HDMI.
I switched from the largest MBP (25"? 27"? I forget) to the 14" last year. I also use two 27" desktop displays, but I leave my MBP closed. I would use three 27" displays if my desktop had room for them – that is what I used back when I was working (I am now retired).
I switched to the smaller display due to travel. Now that I am retired, we travel 4 to 6 months per year. The larger MBP was just too heavy and bulky. Instead of my earlier 27" iMac (before the larger MBP) I can now just unplug my MBP, put it in my camera bag, and head out. When I come back, I only have to copy the new photo files to my home RAID 96TB drive (I have 8TB on the MBP).
System works like a charm, and is much easier than my earlier iMac with external 8TB SSD that I had to migrate back and forth.
I’m in the process of switching to a MacBook Air and Studio Display. I’m considering whether I might update my Windows under Parallels to 11 and then create an ARM version. That solves the problem of what to do with the small number of Windows apps that I use. Alternatively, I can get rid of them and then getting rid of the Parallels yearly fee would be nice.
I still have a few Intel only applications which it seems I now have a year or maybe two to get rid of. It is nice knowing that Helicon Focus, a focus stacking program that I can’t live without will be updated to Apple Silicon. The developers are Ukrainian and there have been other things going on in their lives.
I went from a 2019 27-inch iMac to a Mac Studio M4 Max with Studio Display. It’s not the most economical option, but I figure that one should last me a long time. Because Rosetta is going away in macOS 27, I decided to get a head start and I have removed all Intel-only applications. It’s been less than a week, but so far I’m not missing anything.
2025 has seen me migrate from my beloved 2019 27” iMac with a Studio Display to my MBPro 16” M1 Max with same Studio and an older NEC 24” which I will replace, finance permitting, with another Studio.
My experience matches yours, @ace, almost exactly. A clean install and adding as needed with extensive Cloud transferring of data. Relatively painless. I have the 16” on the right. A mix of ‘ambient’ and toolbars and palettes for Capture One mainly there and I do like reaching my hand out for TouchID.
Can’t imagine the Magic Trackpad not being my main input. Ditto for my Logitech Craft keyboard. I slide these over a tad when I use my drawing tablet with C1.
I have a huge amount of local data over numerous drives and a raid, video from productions and my photography. Took a while to get all of them, various USB hubs and my Caldigit T4 hub to work. Still have to optimise that.
Thanks for the reminder – on how to always show the ~/Library folder in the Go-menu.
But nowadays you have to write sudo in front of the command you revealed to us your tip-article: “Dealing with Lion’s Hidden Library ,” 20 July 2011)
And after that one needs to restart Finder.
I will never, ever, ever perform a clean install on a Mac I intend to use. I have customizations on configurations on machinations. Luckily, I’m old and I don’t have to be productive anymore.
I went from a 2017 iMac 27-inch to an M3 MacBook Air at the end of last year. I opted for a clean install then used iCloud to sync both devices for a few weeks while I set up the Air and manually transferred over data and settings.
I’ve not opted to get an external display, partly on cost grounds, so I’ve had to adjust my workflow a bit for the smaller display, but with the addition of a laptop riser plus new USB hub and adapters I’ve got a nice docking system to connect the Air to my old Microsoft 4000 keyboard, Blue Yeti mic and my external drives.
Great article, but I have a request:
I’ve been using 3 screens for the last 15 years. On Intel Macs there was a utility called Wraparound which would wrap the cursor (moving to the left on the left monitor would have the cursor appear on the right edge of the right monitor).
This is super useful when using so many screens, but Wraparound doesn’t work on Apple Silicone.
My request: anyone interested in writing a small utility for M4 Macs to do this?
I greatly enjoyed this article. I like to read why people made their Mac buying decisions that are in a different position from me.
I finally gave up on my 2017 iMac – since moved to my father in law – and bought a MacStudio 2 with the StudioDisplay. Asus had not yet come up with its 5K display and it wasn’t hard to find the StudioDisplay for $1,350. I would have had to wait a year for the Asus to come out and there was no way I was going to buy the LaCie. My only complaint on the StudioDisplay is the lack of built in KVM. I bought my new setup the same time I gave up my iMac at work and moved to a MacBook, with a lesser Dell monitor. At home I use the display both with my MaStudio and my work MacBook Pro, so lots of cable swapping. I’ve been told that building a KVM that will support Thunderbolt and 5K from both computers is daunting. There is one out there but too many people are unhappy with it.
For me the switch to a MacBook at work was great. I was using my home iMac for home and work stuff and separating work and home computer stuff by carrying the MacBook to and from work has made life easier than I expected. I don’t have any issues (1) using a mouse at work, (2) using the MacBook’s trackpad at home and (3) using the Magic Trackpad for my MacStudio. Though sometimes I am using the MacBook and expect the Magic Trackpad to work with it.
Back to your article. I appreciate how you describe your desk setup and how you set up your Mac.
I wonder if you can get a free trial of Parallels to see if the app works? I paid for Parallels for a decade, but never felt I used it enough to warrant the cost, but it was really nice.
I now use a discontinued free VMWare Fusion Player and I still run Windows ARM on it to validate web app work.
I remember trying VirtualBox some time ago but not sure of its state.
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Excellent article, Adam, thoughtful and informative.
I have been using two Apple Thunderbolt monitors with my laptop-on-stand monitor plus external keyboard/trackpad/mouse devices for years. Thunderbolt monitors are older with big ugly bevels, but they are big, bright, have built-in cam/mic/speakers, and can be purchased inexpensively used. It requires a single USB-to-Thunderbolt device, and the 2nd monitor is daisy-chained.
I have been on the laptop-as-a-desktop train for a decade now, and in earnest since the pandemic caused me to bring all my work home. For me, one of the bonuses of this arrangement, combined with Thunderbolt, is that I can use my home office setup with either a company-owned work laptop or my personal laptop just by swapping a single cable.
I also chose the 14" Macbook Pro to maximize power and portability on the road, with the Studio Display to give me room to work while at home. A small(-ish) laptop and a big screen make for the Best of Both Worlds (BOB W, as the PowerBook Duo was codenamed).
The Studio Display is a fine productivity monitor, in spite of its eye-watering price. If I had to do it today, I’d probably buy the Asus 5k, because $750 is no small chunk of change, but at the time it was the only Retina game in town, and I don’t regret it.
As always food for thought. My 2019 27-inch iMac with maxed-out memory and extra GPU power is currently chugging away, but appears poised to miss the cut for MacOS 26. I purchased the same 14-inch M4 MBPro as you in April, preparing for some upcoming travel gigs, and at the same time a single Dell 27-inch 4K (not 5K) display that still keeps up with the Retina display next to it.
I used the MBPro’s predecessor as my office computer since I moved from job to job every couple of years. Leaving a display, keyboard, trackpad, and docking station at the office meant I could just plug in and go. I still have most of those components, except for the display.
It’s going to be a while before I give up the iMac. I’ve not had the fan and pausing problems you experienced, likely because of the way-too-much RAM. But eventually I know I’m going to hit an app wall for something I really want to adopt or something I need to upgrade. At that point the MBPro will become the primary machine with the addition of a second display.
Of course, you can handle the keyboard-trackpad issue with an external Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. I have my input devices on a pull-out tray about 2.5 inches below the armrests on my desk chair. I can rest my forearms on the armrests and let my fingers work with the input devices without putting any pressure on my wrists or palms. Since the armrests on my particular chair lack cushioning, I have folded towels over the armrests to relieve any pressure.
I too, just moved on from my 2019 iMac with that lovely large screen.
However, I went for an M4 Mac Mini.
Beefed it up a bit with 24 GB RAM and 1 TB of storage.
I purchased a 32" LG monitor to go with my 27" 2nd monitor.
Have now had this set up for about a month now, and frankly, I could not be happier!
The Mac Mini is quiet, runs cool, and I can leave it on much of the time.
Unlike my iMac that ran hot with fans blowing much of the time.
Also, this M4 Mini is very fast…
It was time to move on.
I’m lucky things have started to change there. I recently ordered the Asus 5K because for my use, where full adjustability and non-glossy surface are must-haves, the price difference to the Studio Display is a staggering $1374 even factoring in my Apple higher ed discount. And I just won’t pay a +167% Apple tax for essentially a webcam I do not care about. I’m anxious to see how the Asus 5K holds up and how it compares to the Dell 4K 27" I’ve become used to (U2720Q and U2723QE).
Dockability is indeed a huge plus. Thanks to Thunderbolt this has become ever so convenient: you attach one cable which immediately takes care of charging, large external monitor, extra disks, other peripherals, ands heck, even Gigabit if you like. My desks at work and my desk at home are equipped with various types of TB hubs/docks, and these days I couldn’t image being without them.
I think people sometimes don’t realize just how convenient and inexpensive such solutions have become. And without compromise — you still get great external video and super fast external disks, unlike pure USB-C (as in pre USB4) solutions. This bare bones TB4 hub is $96 and comes with both a TB4 host cable and an HDMI dongle for your screen. If you need Gigabit, add this $10 dongle (or this one if you prefer retaining an open TB4 port over USB-A) and you’ll still have a TB4 and USB-A port left for other peripherals. Done. There are for sure fancier dock solutions with lots of additional ports and slots etc. (I love my CalDigit!) but if all you just need is an simple/inexpensive solution that allows you to turn your MBP into a proper desktop computer with just a single cable, this gets that done.
I don’t seen any mention of the lack HDR on the apple studio display. For photographers the ability to see HDR effects would be especially nice. Apple portables have this ability and it is amazing. I think this would lead me to getting a third party display.
I’ve been delighted with the performance of Intel Windows apps running on Windows ARM in Parallels on my M1 MacBook Air. The main issue is whether your Windows 10 license will work on the new machine. I don’t know if you can directly convert an Intel Windows installation to an ARM installation in Parallels. That’s not as much of an issue as it once was, because it seems that Microsoft has removed some of the limits on non-activated Windows installations.
As mentioned in an old thread, I have an M2 Macbook Air and 32" LG monitor. A USB-c cable between the two provides video, power and access to external drives via a USB port on the monitor.
Previously I had powered hard disks but when I replaced them with SSD I found it needed a powered USB hub plugged into the monitor.
The only tricky thing about this setup is remembering to eject external drives before unplugging the Macbook.
Webcam … I use the Macbook in clamshell mode but open it up if I need a webcam. It means the camera is at the bottom of the monitor screen which makes me look a bit odd(er) but that is not an issue
Those instructions are way out of date. For many years now all you have to do is open your home folder, then Finder > View > Show View Options > Show Library Folder. It is at the bottom of the options list.
Note, however, that after you enable this, Library doesn’t appear on the Go menu (even when Option is pressed) until you restart the Finder (or log out/in, of course).
Toggling the option in Ventura immediately changes the Go menu.
Thanks for that info.
On Sequoia, turning Library visibility off immediately changes the menu. But turning it on again does not. Sounds like a bug. (I just left a bug report via Feedback.)
I’m really pleased that people are enjoying my thought process—I was worried that my situation is too unusual to be interesting. But then again, I’m also really liking the other upgrade stories people are sharing, so perhaps we all like hearing about such major tech life events.
Parallels is working on that, but it has significant limitations.
Thank you! I had a vague memory Apple had moved that into the interface, but I couldn’t find it in System Settings or the Finder’s Settings, so I did a search in TidBITS, found the original article, and used the old approach, which worked fine.
Another search just now turned up another article that shared the new setting, but in the context of a keyboard modifier changing weirdly.
i have a similar setup with a MBP and two 27" Studio Displays. Love it. I have a OWC Thunderbolt Hub in my configuration, and was happy to discover that the MBP would charge itself through the feed from the Hub. That means that I can leave my MagSafe charger packed in my travel bag and ready to go when I take the Mac on the road.
And your Apple Studio Displays are connected directly to the MacBook Pro, like mine? My understanding is that the MacBook Pro will charge through them as well.
my Apple Studio Displays are connected through the OWC hub.
The hub and my TM disk are the only devices generally connected directly to the MBP.
Ah, that’s good to know. I was under the vague impression that you couldn’t connect two Apple Studio Displays through a hub.
I also appreciate your thought process. I have come to love my 27-inch screen because I need a large screen to avoid eyestrain. However, I have come to prefer a slightly split keyboard to put my arms and hands at a comfortable angle. I like the one Microsoft offers; it’s cheap, comfortable and the keys have a nice feel. Its only problem is that the ink eventually wears off on a few keys (I’ve lost about half of the D already). I’m a touch typist, but I need to realign my fingers once in a while so it helps to have visible letters.
This is now native to Silicon Macs. But I might not fully understand what you are trying to do…
Open Displays in System Settings. You’ll see your three displays - click on one and a Pop-up menu that says Extended or Mirrored Display appears underneath. If you have it on Extended the cursor action works great. If you are using the display on it’s own click the menu and select linked keyboard & mouse.
Or were you wanting to move your cursor to the far left of your left-most display and have the cursor appear on your right-most display?
I am looking for the second option:
Move the cursor all the way to the left edge of the left monitor. I want it to then appear on the right edge of the right monitor.
Wraparound used to do this well, but it doesn’t work on Apple silicon.
I’ve recently upgraded from my 2017 (I think) 27" iMac to a MB Air M2 15". Since then I’ve been looking for a monitor to do justice to the 500 nits brightness of the Air. In Australia, the Studio Display is AU$3000, and I’m not spending that. There is a Mac retailer here called MacFixit who are doing the old 5K iMac as a display - stripping out all the stuff not necessary for a display, It’s a bit over AU$1200. I think I’m going to go with that.
I have a 2017 27" iMac that I love. I do a lot of photography, and the screen on the 27" is spectacular. The latest OS I can run is Ventura, so I’m sure I’ll be upgrading shortly. Unlike Adam, mine is running cool and not struggling with content. In addition to Photoshop, I use it primarily with Plex for OTA TV and DVR.
I modified my iMac by getting an enclosure from OWC and populating it with a 1 TB NVMe module and attaching it via Thunderbolt and then made it my boot drive. It’s not as fast as an internal SSD to replace the Fusion, but it adds significant speed to the computer.
It will be with reluctance that I swap out this computer for a new one, but in the next year or so…
I’ve two Studio Displays too, though connected to a M2 Max Mac Studio rather than my M1 Max MBP16".
AFAIR, only the new TB5 docs can handle 2x Studio Displays/XDR’s (or even 8K’s!), all at 60Hz max. Like the CalDigit TS5 – see display specs chart in middle:
https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-5-dock-ts5
The previous TS4 does dual 5K:
But the older TS3 Plus do not support dual 5K/6K’s:
https://www.caldigit.com/ts3-plus
Pretty sure the controller chips are the same in most doc brands, so likely have same limitations.
Oh man, and I thought my CalDigit TB4 Element was expensive! But now I definitely have port envy.
I love this comment. I am getting in that ballpark (age-wise) myself, where time seems to be one’s most precious resource, and as a result, the decisions to do or not do something gets close attention.
More generally: Adam, thanks for the article, which provided a lot of good technical and useful information for readers (even those of us not considering starting afresh on the Mac). Also, there was a lot of good discussion here from readers which added to the overall technical, useful information, as a result of this article.
Indeed, running an Intel-based VM under emulation on an ARM system may be the only way to go if it is essential to preserve non-retail Windows licensing or low-level security IDs. I haven’t found any reports of converting the Windows installation inside the actual VM from the Intel version to the ARM version. I’m not holding my breath either for Parallels to solve the issue or for Microsoft to provide a solution soon.
For most users who need to move to ARM hardware, it’s almost always better to install a clean version of ARM Windows in a new VM, and then to migrate apps, docs, and settings to the new VM.
I recently said goodbye to my almost 10 year old aging 27" Retina iMac as well. I thought about switching to a 24" iMac for a while but in the end opted for a M4 MacBook Pro too with a new 4K LG 27 screen. Alas, not 5K, but I can hardly see the difference. And this one works great with the Windows laptop provided by my employer, so I could get rid of the older screen I was using with that machine. I can easily switch between the two laptops. My home office really cleaned up and I like the fact that as an amateur photographer, I now have a powerful MacBook to take with me on holidays. But as this is my primary machine, I realise that my data is at risk while traveling. So I always keep a good backup at home (or take that with me when the laptop stays at home). Maybe I should finally start back-up in the cloud…
An interesting, fun and very educational read.
I just upgraded from an older, OS constrained MacBook Air to a new one and followed Adam’s lead of installing without Migration Assistant. Pleased with result plus that was also educational for this older (more mature ;) LOL) Mac user. A few Dropbox issues but no biggies.
Thanks Adam for taking us on your journey. I appreciate.
A great article.
Did you have any messages in Mail > On My Mac?
If so, how did you import them? Also, were the message status indicators (read, replied to, attachments) preserved?
David
There’s an app, AppCleaner, that can trash all the support files associated with an app when you trash the app. For someone who probably tests a lot of apps, seems like this would be a useful addition to your library.
If you expect to do a clean install in the future, something that can help, but requires more long-range planning, is using Homebrew to install desktop apps in the first place. It can produce a list of apps it has installed, so that you can script their reinstallation on the new machine—even doing it manually from the command line is faster than the usual installation process. Homebrew can also update all the apps it has installed with a single command, which is great for day-to-day upkeep.
No, I don’t use Mail for anything beyond testing, and all my email is in Gmail online. I’m still investigating various ways of backing that data up, just in case, but I wasn’t happy with Mail as a local backup anyway.
That assumes I trash the apps.
Most of the time, in fact, I leave them in place because I never know when I might want to check something in them again. So they become digital clutter as well, particularly years down the road when they’re no longer even supported.
Huh! I’d never considered that—can it install any arbitrary app or does it need to know about it in advance?
Not everything is available via Homebrew, but it’s always worth checking first. Quite a lot is, including some big-name commercial packages.
For those who don’t want to brave the barren tundra of Terminal.app, there is a desktop interface to Homebrew: Cakebrew.
Adam,
Thank you wrote this just at the right time for me. My 2019 27" iMac becomes vintage this fall. I read your article over several times so see what conclusions and solutions you’d come to.
My situation is quite different. I am far older than you, a standing desk is out of the question. A laptop computer is a big strain on my eye (singular). My desk is smaller and not amenable to accommodating two screens.
My wife and I watch many kinds of video on our computer but the small size of the text is a strain on her eyes. Benefits are the ability to slow the video and audio down. Videos slowed down to 75% speed enable her to understand accents better and have more time to read the subtitles.
We have a seldom used non-smart 32" TV six feet away from the computer screen and have just mastered the art of mirroring the computer screen to the TV. We use an HDMI cable to link the two. The larger size screen would enable her to read captions more easily. We still use the DirectTV box to sometimes watch TV but spend little time at it.
I see an immediate benefit to replacing the TV with a somewhat larger TV and continuing to mirror the computer screen to the TV.
This fall I think that a powerful Mini Mac and some sort of 27" display will replace the iMac. I’ll have to very seriously contrast the Apple Studio display with a non-Apple display.
I doubt the features to be introduced to the Mini Mac line will be so compelling that I wouldn’t buy a used 2024 Mini Mac on ebay for a bit of savings. I really need the internal 2Tb SSD drive.
I thank you for getting me thinking hard about how we use our computer and the TV. Apple is forcing us to make some changes and upgrades.
Gil Woolley