How does one successfully move Apple Configurator from one Mac to another?

Apple Configurator: Backing up and restoring data (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5194) gives three locations that should be restored for Apple Configurator. Containers and Keychains will be transferred with Migration Assistant, but the '/var/db/lockdown' folder would not. the lockdown folder is what lets the computer recognize your iOS devices when they are plugged in, and there's definitely gonna be an issue if that's not there.

Your best bet would be to update the old machine as far as possible, then do a full Time Machine backup, then do a full restore to the new system, following OS X Mountain Lion: Recover your entire system (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11192)

If that's not workable, you would want to manually restore those three locations using time machine, but it's important that they are all restored from the same time to keep things in sync. As in, don't just restore /var/db/lockdown cause who knows whats changed in the com.apple.configurator container

... I absolutely should have read more than the first line.

Based on the errors you're getting, I expect there's some hodgepodge of data in the /var/db/lockdown so it's not able to link these devices as expected. If there's not much done so far on the new machine, The absolute best option would be to do that full time machine restore and then apply any software updates as this will be the best way to make sure those three locations are in sync.

i have seen a manual restore of those three locations to the SAME computer work, but never as a transfer to a new machine. if the full time machine restore does not work or you can't try it, I would erase and reinstall MacOS, then migrate from the other machine, then manually restore /var/db/lockdown without ever having plugged in any iOS devices or opening Apple Configurator.

I've always done it as a backup/restore with Time Machine.

(Although I tend to set up a single user account just for Apple Configurator management on the management host that has everything tweaked)

I've used this approach to clone an Apple Configurator host to dozens of machines IOT to do a big deployment quickly (say 5,000 iPads in a day).

Note that I very rarely deploy Apps via Configurator - if they are on a network at all, an MDM is far easier (even if its just Profile Manager).

Hi guys,

I've tried to migrate my Configurator database from a machine running OSX Mavericks 10.9.3, to a machine running OSX 10.8.5. The reason I needed to do this was because we needed to install a remote backup agent to ensure the database is regularly backed up. The clincher is that this backup agent is only compatible with OSX 10.8, a fact I we only realized after we'd upgraded the thing to 10.9.

Anyway, I've migrated the three folders as instructed above to the 'new' OSX 10.8 host ie;

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.configurator
~/Library/Keychains
/var/db/lockdown

When I open Configurator on the new Mac the database is present, but when I try to plug in a supervised iPad I get the 'unable to attach device to Configurator' message. The trust prompt pops up on the iPad in question but selecting 'trust' makes absolutely no difference. Obviously this is problematic.

If I try to open iTunes on this same Mac it also tells me that 'iTunes could not connect to this iPad. Could not allocate a resource'.

If I take this same iPad back to the original OSX 10.9 machine I'm able to connect it to Configurator and iTunes without a hitch, no problem. All of these issues are introduced in the migration. Is anyone able to offer any ideas or assistance, or is migrating across such a huge gulf in OSX versions a fools errand?

Tried the SMC reset just now, but no cigar.

I've tried a different USB cable, though this same USB works fine on the original 10.9.3 machine and Configurator and iTunes see and accept the device. On the 'new' 10.8.5 machine it registers the device has connected to the Mac, but simply refuses to accept it. Have tried different USB ports also.

I too blame the computer to some degree, or atleast the manner in which I've conducted the migration. It's hard to tell though as there's no clear indicator as to the root cause of the problems. I'm making a completely uneducated assumption and thinking it's something to do with the variance in OSX versions between machines. That seems to be the only major thing standing out to me. As such, I'm going to try installing Mavericks on it up to the same point as the original Configurator machine, then re-migrating the data. But it's a huge pain in the ass regardless.

Do you have a fresh device to test with? I'm wondering if you restore a device in iTunes, then connect it to the new machine, will it be able to prepare it? if so, we know it's something with the migrated database.

If a new device works, I agree that something in /var/db/lockdown is likely the issue. if that's the case, you'd want to drag those three locations (quoted) to the trash, reboot, then recopy from the backup without ever connecting USB, opening itunes or opening Apple Configurator

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.configurator
~/Library/Keychains
/var/db/lockdown

The key to successfully doing this was use to Time Machine Backup from the old computer.

MUST DO---ON THE DIFFERENT COMPUTER REMOVE:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.configurator
~/Library/Keychains
/var/db/lockdown

Copy from Time Machine Backup same files and folders into desired user account that will manage Configurator.

except copy /var/db/lockdown to the root

Attempted to copy this without Time Machine and, as stated above, caused problems.

Did run into another problem though. After doing the above steps I connected an existing device in the database. Apple Configurator recognized the device and I was able to update it. However when I unsupervised the device the Mac said I did not have permission to access the device. I assume lockdown file was the issue. I even tried a reboot/restore via itunes and it didn't help.

How I worked around this was luckily I had not upgraded to yosemite. Upgrading I think gave me a clean lockdown. After the upgrade I updated apple configurator and everything works smoothly. There may be another way to fix this, but I think this might be the easiest solution.