---
title: "Life pro tip: macOS migration can run over thunderbolt"
date: 2025-01-15
---

Wifi is "it depends" fast. Ethernet is either one or 10 gigabits fast. MacBooks come with very high data rate thunderbolt ports, so why not use them for migration?

Turns out this just works. Plug any two MacBooks together with a thunderbolt cable and you get a 10+ gigabit link between them, including IP addresses and everything. This is faster than any other method of migration, including ethernet.

I got a new work macbook and I set up the migration from the old work macbook over thunderbolt. I expected it to run overnight. It was done in 15 or so minutes. I'm impressed.

I kinda wish I could hook up my MacBook to the home network over thunderbolt directly. It would be amazing to be able to saturate a thunderbolt port with internet/intranet/NAS traffic. I wonder if that's possible, but I can't find anything regarding SFP modules that have thunderbolt ports on them. What am I missing?
