Monterey Installation on iMac Late 2013 - Time Machine Restore Issues

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my experience installing macOS Monterey on my iMac 27" Late 2013 using OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP). I hope someone can help me resolve the issue I’ve run into or at least clarify the situation.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

1. Installation Process:
   • I successfully used OCLP to create a bootable USB installer for macOS Monterey.
   • Booted from the USB, formatted the internal hard drive, and installed Monterey without any problems.
2. Time Machine Restore Attempt:
   • During the initial setup (Setup Assistant), I chose to restore from my Time Machine backup (originally made on macOS Catalina on this same machine).
   • The restore process seemed to complete successfully, but upon reboot, the Mac got stuck in a boot loop:
     • The progress bar would load halfway and then restart the machine repeatedly.
3. Troubleshooting So Far:
   • I reinstalled macOS Monterey without restoring the Time Machine backup this time.
   • The system booted fine, but now I’m left wondering how to safely restore my old data and settings from Time Machine without causing another boot loop.

Questions:

1. Is it possible to restore my Time Machine backup (originally from Catalina) after I’ve completed a clean installation of Monterey?
2. Do I need to revert the root patches in OCLP before using Migration Assistant to avoid compatibility issues?
3. Has anyone else successfully restored from Time Machine after installing macOS with OCLP? If so, what’s the best way to do this?

I’ve read that restoring directly during Setup Assistant can cause kernel panics or boot loops due to the patches applied by OCLP. Any advice or step-by-step guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!