Key consideration regarding Hardware life left

HelmStation supports 3rd party commercial chart providers. Those providers use hardware id (like the signature of your Mac) and encryption on charts to prevent pirating. (yeah, I know, they’re selling to sailors!)

Because of that, encrypted charts do not migrate from one machine to another. Some ENC vendors support change of ENC User Permit (the hardware key) for active subscriptions. New equipment may require a new purchase from the commercial chart providers.

HelmStation generates one 3rd party ENC User Permit per Mac and only upon request in-app. See Help Docs on this topic.

If your old Mac is nearing end of useful life, it may be best to get a new Mac first before you invest in new charts so you don’t have to re-purchase charts yet again in a short time.

Most Macs can install upgrades to Apple supported macOS versions somewhere between 7 to 9 years of life. 

You also have to think about macOS being locked in, limited fixes, security patches, and support.

Finally, older hardware is simply less capable and performance will be less than optimal on that equipment.

Migration to a New Mac

Using Time Machine will restore your apps and data as-is on the new Mac. Everything will just run. 3rd party ENC User Permits will not transfer. HelmStation purchased S63 charts are supported on up to 3 of your devices. You may need to deauthorize other macs you own for a new one to display your charts. This is all managed in the app and fully documented in Help Docs.

Manual data migration only

Your HelmStation account information automatically syncs and transfers to any of your devices along with your active subscriptions for authorized devices. Your personal data: Waypoints, Routes, and Tracks do not transfer.

You’d rather get a fresh install on another or newer Mac; but, you really want to keep your personal data (Waypoints and Routes).

Waypoints, Routes, and Tracks can all be exported on your old machine; but, only Waypoints and Routes can be imported into HelmStation. Track import is deprecated.

Export your Waypoints and Routes in one of the supported file formats, transfer those files to your new mac, import using the From file transfer method.