Migrating to a new computer

[krahd]

Hi all,

My hard drive died and I am in the need to re-install sourcetree in a new one.

Luckily I have access to a backup of the old HD. Would anyone please tell me how to import the settings from the backup? I would not want to re-add every single repository by hand (besides, I might not even remember them all, or have their details).

Thank you very much

[rsperafico · Accepted solution]

Hi Tom,

Please, have a look if you have ~/Library/Application Support/SourceTree/browser.plist and ~/Library/Application Support/SourceTree/hostingservices.plist firstly. This will restore the bookmarks and the hosting services in your hosting list in SourceTree.

On Windows the data you want is in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Atlassian\SourceTree.

Secondly, you'll want to backup all your repositories and restore them to the exact same location afterwards. Even the username of the user needs to be the same as SourceTree uses absolute paths. For example if you had /Users/Steven/Documents/Repositories/ and there were repositories in there, then that's where they'll need to go to afterwards.

If you use SSH keys then you'd need the contents of ~/.ssh/ also. Please, have a look if you have created a ~/.ssh/config file. If so, please have a look if you have IdentityFile pointing to a different location from ~/.ssh/. In case you have that, make sure of copying the key-pair under that location.

In case you were using Keychain, you can export/import keys but not passwords. Just hit Cmd+Space and type "Keychain Access" and take a look at what you might need. For HTTPS you may need to re-enter and remember passwords for them to be put back in the keychain when you restore everything.

Kind regards,
Rafael

[Codexa]

Hey Tom

You can restore your SourceTree setup from your backup easily

On Windows open your backup and copy the SourceTree folder from your old user data location then place it in the same location on your new drive

On macOS open your backup and copy the SourceTree files from the Library folder and move them to the same Library path on your new system

Also copy your SSH key files from your user folder so your repositories connect without errors

Make sure the folder names and usernames match exactly as before

If SourceTree feels slow after setup it may be caused by a system bottleneck like low RAM or slow storage Try checking your system with the Bottleneck Calculator or move your files to a faster drive

[Ethan Carter]

Thanks Codexa, this method worked. I restored my settings and repos without issues, and SourceTree runs fine now. The Bottleneck Calculator also helped me spot a small storage bottleneck I’ll fix soon.