Apple eliminates $99 data migration fee for Mac upgrades & repairs

AppleInsider

Apple has quietly done away with a $99 data migration fee it charged Mac owners getting some repairs or upgrading to a new computer.

"Beginning April 2, there will be no cost for data migrations with the purchase of a new Mac or data transfers with a repair," an Apple store operations specialist informed TidBITS. The question arose when a reader of the site was recently told his iMac migration was free.

AppleInsider was not able to confirm that all services venues were aware of the new policy, with about one quarter of the venues we polled not aware of the change.

Apple does offer tools and instructions for migrating Mac data without help. People who can afford to go without their old machine may enjoy the convenience, but in some cases may have to wait several days if there's a backlog of customers and/or there's a large amount of content to transfer.

The need for manual migration has diminished in recent years as a result of cloud services and faster internet connections. Signing in with an Apple ID, for instance, will let Mac owners grab files from iCloud Drive, stream from Apple Music, and regain access to iTunes purchases. There are also multiple dedicated online backup services, and online stores will typically let people reinstall missing apps.

Restores are even simpler on iOS devices, since Apple offers its own full backups via iCloud or iTunes.

lkrupp

The computer for the rest of us. The legacy of good customer service continues.

mikethemartian

I’m surprised they ever charged for that.

ridyrat

Last time i got a new iMac in 2016, the manager waive the fee.
Glad it will no longer apply.

strangedays

But but but everything Apple does is designed to upsell and knick-and-dime us! /s

macpro

To reinforce the point about how easy this is these days not only with Migration Assistant but also Net Install.  Last year I remembered I had an old 2010 MBP lying around unused so I'd stuck a new battery, SSD in it and I had also ripped out the optical only to realize I might have painted myself into a corner as to how to install macOS.  Then I remembered Option+Command+R and voila it connected to Apple and installed High Sierra in no time.  As the article points out, so much is in the cloud that after I'd added my ID it just got on with it and I was back up and running with access to my data and apps.  Mind-blowingly simple.

As a side story and a warning, I'd resurrected this old machine back in Septemeber 2018, that's when I bought it a new battery.  I bought it from New Egg and it was only $59.  I've used this 15" MBP i7 only a couple of times since then.  Yesterday I found this non-genuine Apple battery was totally dead. New Egg tech responded to my text informing me they were not the actual supplier but had acted (unbeknownst to me, to be honest, I thought I was buying from New Egg) as an intermediary and the battery had been supplied by and I quote Jay from New Egg, "The Market Place seller top gear.'  Basically, I am out of luck I guess with a few hours usage from the battery.  So I will never buy a non-Apple battery again ... lesson learned.

BTW The original 2010 battery was still working fine but was so old it only ever charged to about 60% hence the new one, so it wasn't anything wrong in the MBP that killed this New Egg supplied battery.

edited April 2019

eightzero

mikethemartian said:

I’m surprised they ever charged for that.

That was my reaction to the headline, but I can see people walking into a Apple Store with a mac in hand, saying, "I'll that that one there, and make all this stuff on this work on that." Or: "I just bought *this* and tried to make it work like *this* and it doesn't. Fix it." 

That said, when I walked into a stunningly beautiful new Apple Store with an iPhone 7 and said, "I'll take a new iPhone Xr in black, and will trade you *this* for *that*" I was told: "sure. Let's get that complete." About 45m later I walked out with a iPhone Xr that functioned just like the iPhone 7 I walked in with...only better.

Compare that to the complete and utter hell of upgrading to iOS 12.2 and WatchOS 5.2. Took. 4. Fucking. Hours.

mknelson

It used to be part of the One to One package.
v
To a certain extent this feels like another way they are undercutting their authorized partners and third party repair shops. A tech still needs to get paid for the time involved.

ihatescreennames

mknelson said:

It used to be part of the One to One package.
v
To a certain extent this feels like another way they are undercutting their authorized partners and third party repair shops. A tech still needs to get paid for the time involved.

Yup, a data migration was included in the purchase of a one year One to One membership, which cost $99. Or, a data migration was available by itself for $99. When One to One was discontinued the stand-alone data migration was the only option left.  I always wondered how long One to One would last. If someone actually used it for the entire year (which is a big if), even if just coming in one time per week would make it not worth it for Apple from a financial perspective. 

ios_guy80

StrangeDays said:

But but but everything Apple does is designed to upsell and knick-and-dime us! /s

Rather be knick-and-dime by Apple than Samsung who makes just hardware. No ecosystem, no cloud, no software, no Samsung Care, no retail.

boredumb

I was surprised last summer when I bought my new MBPro, and the store in Santa Barbara told me they'd charge $99 for that.  I had never encountered the fee before, although the MBAir I was replacing was from 2011, so plenty of gap for them to have initiated the charge.
On the other hand, most of it is dead easy without help, so...

macxpress

mknelson said:

It used to be part of the One to One package.
v
To a certain extent this feels like another way they are undercutting their authorized partners and third party repair shops. A tech still needs to get paid for the time involved.

Glass is always half-empty isn't it....

chasm

mikethemartian said:

I’m surprised they ever charged for that.

They often waived the fee for various reasons, especially if the buyer was not buying the bottom-of-the-line-no-AppleCare cheapest possible machine. Or if they were quite young, quite old, a Windows refugee, left-handed, the salesperson liked you, et cetera.

georgebmac

eightzero said:

mikethemartian said:

I’m surprised they ever charged for that.

That was my reaction to the headline, but I can see people walking into a Apple Store with a mac in hand, saying, "I'll that that one there, and make all this stuff on this work on that." Or: "I just bought *this* and tried to make it work like *this* and it doesn't. Fix it." 

That said, when I walked into a stunningly beautiful new Apple Store with an iPhone 7 and said, "I'll take a new iPhone Xr in black, and will trade you *this* for *that*" I was told: "sure. Let's get that complete." About 45m later I walked out with a iPhone Xr that functioned just like the iPhone 7 I walked in with...only better.

Compare that to the complete and utter hell of upgrading to iOS 12.2 and WatchOS 5.2. Took. 4. Fucking. Hours.

Both of my upgrades were done automatically overnight.   So I don't know how long it took -- but I seriously doubt 4 hours or even a 1/4 that.   Did you have a problem?

georgebmac

mknelson said:

It used to be part of the One to One package.
v
To a certain extent this feels like another way they are undercutting their authorized partners and third party repair shops. A tech still needs to get paid for the time involved.

When I go to an Apple store I expect two things:
1)   I will pay more than from a third party
2)   I will get better service than that supplied by a third party

That is probably as it should be.   It is also why Apple Stores are shifting away from being sales outlets and shifting towards service providers.

avon b7

StrangeDays said:

But but but everything Apple does is designed to upsell and knick-and-dime us! /s

/s or not, where did you get 'everything' from? Has upsell gone away now? No didn't think so.

If confirmed, it is good this fee has been eliminated but it doesn't change the fact that it existed, although I had no idea it did.

spamsandwich

Unless there is a link to a statement of policy from Apple, this cannot be taken seriously. Even the TidBits link has no credible source listed. Get a name authorizing this from Apple or a link to an Apple page spelling this out.