I’m about to do a clean install on a new Mac. Is it advisable to transfer the preferences from the old to the new, and if so, is it just a matter of copying the old plist file? Or am better off doing it manually?
The simplest way is probably to copy your old ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro folder before first launching Keyboard Maestro on your new Mac.
Ensure the ownership and permissions of the copied file and folder are correct.
There are also preferences in the ~/Library/Preferences folder, but I would not copy them, they are mostly window positions and such.
You will have to have your license details handy to reenter them on your new Mac, which you can get from the What’s My License? page.
When you run Keyboard Maestro on a new Mac, it will ask you if you want us to contact you - this will let you receive the Getting Started emails. If you’ve already received them, then you can safely say no, or use the same email address as before and you will not receive a fresh set.
Thanks Peter. And if I wanted to just install from scratch and not even transfer the Application Support folder, how do I just transfer the macros I’ve created?
In that case you can transfer just the Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist file, or alternatively on your old Mac, select the All Macros group and then select all the macros and export them, and on your new Mac select all your macros, remove them and then import the macro export file.
I've been using Dropbox for quite some time now to sync all of my Macs to the same KM macros. It works quite well. So you could setup your current Mac to sync with Dropbox, and then add your new Mac to it. Just make sure all Macs are running the same ver of KM.
Sync setup is done via the KM Editor File menu (which surprises me Peter. Usually this type of stuff is in Preferences).
IAC, see Syncing Macros Between Macs [Keyboard Maestro Wiki] for details.