How to Migrate ServBay Data from an Intel-based Mac to an Apple Silicon (M Series) Mac

Congratulations on upgrading to a new Mac powered by Apple Silicon! To ensure your ServBay local development environment runs smoothly and efficiently on your new device, you need to follow a specific migration process. This guide provides detailed, official steps for a successful transition.

Why Is a Special Migration Process Necessary?

ServBay’s main application uses a universal architecture and natively supports both Intel and Apple Silicon (M series) chips.

However, the core packages provided by ServBay—such as PHP, Node.js, Python, Go, Java, MySQL, MariaDB, Nginx, Apache, and others—are compiled and optimized for specific CPU architectures. This means that packages optimized for Intel chips won’t run properly on M series chips, and vice versa.

Therefore, when switching from an Intel Mac to an M series Mac, you cannot simply copy over the entire ServBay directory; you must replace all installed packages and migrate your personal data and configurations.

Step-by-Step Migration Instructions

Please follow the steps below carefully to ensure data integrity and a smooth migration.

Step 1: Completely Stop and Exit ServBay

On your old Intel Mac, click the ServBay icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen and select Stop All Services and Exit from the menu. This is crucial to ensure all data files are properly closed before you create a backup.

Step 2: Backup the ServBay Data Directory

1. Open Finder and go to the /Applications directory.
2. Locate the ServBay folder (note: this is not the ServBay.app application itself).
3. Rename this folder to ServBay.bak. This directory contains all your website files, databases, SSL certificates, backups, and configuration files.

Step 3: Perform a Fresh ServBay Installation on Your New Mac

1. Copy the entire ServBay.bak directory from your old Mac to the /Applications directory on your new M series Mac.
2. Download and install the latest version of the ServBay main application on your new Mac.
3. When you open ServBay.app for the first time, it will guide you through a fresh installation. Follow the prompts to complete the setup. After installation, a new ServBay directory will appear under /Applications.

Step 4: Reinstall All Required Packages

1. Open ServBay on your new Mac.
2. Navigate to the Packages section in the left sidebar.
3. Reinstall all the packages you previously used according to your old setup (for example, PHP 8.2, MySQL 8.0, Nginx 1.25, etc.).
4. Important: At this stage, just install the packages—do not enable them yet.

Step 5: Completely Stop and Exit ServBay Again

After all packages are installed, click the ServBay icon in the menu bar again and select Stop All Services and Exit.

Step 6: Migrate Core Data and Configuration Files

At this point, your /Applications/ directory should contain two relevant directories:

• /Applications/ServBay.bak (the backup from your old Mac)
• /Applications/ServBay (the new installation on your new Mac)

Perform the following copying steps:

Open the /Applications/ServBay.bak directory and copy the following subfolders into the new /Applications/ServBay directory, choosing to overwrite any files or folders with the same names:

• backup: Contains all your manual and automatic backup files.
• data: Contains your website configurations, application settings, and more.
• db: Contains all your database files (MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL).
• ssl: Contains all your SSL certificate files.
• www: Contains all your website project files.

Note: This step is very important and will restore all of your data.

Step 7: Contact Technical Support to Convert Your Configuration File (Critical Step)

Due to differences in CPU architecture, old configuration files cannot be used directly on the new architecture.

1. On your new Mac, locate the previously backed-up configuration file: /Applications/ServBay.bak/data/servbay/config.data.
2. Send this config.data file to the official ServBay support team (for example, via Discord, Telegram, WeChat, or email).
3. The support team will convert this file for compatibility with the M series architecture and send the converted file back to you.
4. Once you receive it, overwrite the corresponding file in your new ServBay installation: /Applications/ServBay/data/servbay/config.data.

Step 8: Reinstall the ServBay Root CA

1. Open the ServBay application.
2. Go to Settings in the left sidebar.
3. On the settings page, find the ServBay Root CA option and click the Reinstall ServBay Root CA button.

Step 9: Restart All Services

1. Go to the Packages section in the left sidebar.
2. For every package you have installed, restart it: first, toggle its switch off to disable it, then toggle again to enable it. This process ensures that all services start using the data and configuration you just migrated.

Step 10: Migration Complete

Congratulations! Your ServBay data migration is now complete. You can now use ServBay on your new M series Mac as normal. Be sure to check that your websites, databases, and all services are functioning as expected.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Q: Can I skip the step of contacting technical support to convert the config.data file?
  • A: No. The config.data file contains key configuration information tied to the hardware architecture. Skipping this step will prevent ServBay from loading your websites, databases, and other services correctly—and may even stop it from starting up at all.
• Q: What if I forget which packages I previously installed?
  • A: When contacting technical support to convert your config.data file, you can ask for this information. The file records details about previously installed packages.
• Q: What should I do if my websites aren’t accessible after migration?
  • A: Please check the following, in order:
    1. Make sure you have restarted all relevant packages in Step 9 (such as Nginx/Apache and the corresponding PHP versions).
    2. Verify your website configurations within ServBay are correct.
    3. Review the relevant package log files for specific error information.