Access problem to shared folders using microsoft office

[msalais]

Hello,

I have two virtual machines under Windows 10 Pro. My VMWare host is also under Windows 10 Pro. My Workstation version is VMware Workstation 14 Pro. Some folders on the host are shared with the two virtual machines. I have a problem on only one of these two virtual machines.

The story is:

I have Microsoft Office 2013 on a virtual machine say M1 under Windows 10 Pro. I have a shared folder on the host where I save usually my word files. I had no problem. I could read, write and save files on the shared folder with no error. This machine has crashed and my backup didn't function at the beginning. So I installed a new machine under Windows 10 Pro, installed Office 2016 on this new virtuall machine say M2. But on this machine I have a problem. I can read word files (all Office files excel, powerpoint, ...),  and I can modify them. But when I try to save the file, it fails with the message  (in french) "Une erreur de réseau ou d'autorisation de fichier a été générée. La connexion au réseau est peut-être perdue". The french message says: "A network error or a file authorization one has been generated. Connection is perhaps lost". Saving the file in another folder which is not a vmware shared folder works fine!

First of all I thought that it was Office 2016. But when I installed it on the machine M1 then it worked perfectly. On the other hand Office 2013 has the same problem on M2 and couldn't save files on the sahred folder! Later then I could restore M1 and I installed Office 2016. The surprise was that there is no problem and Office 2016 could save files to shared folders on M1.

So it is a Vmware guest problem. I fail to see what could it be.

The quick description is:

• Machine M1 has no problem with Office 2013 or Office 2016. All can save files to shared folders.
• Machine M2 has a problem with the two versions of Office. None can save files to shared folders.
• Other programs, as I can tell, have no problem with M2. For example, Notepad.exe can save files to shared folders on M2 with no problem.

Thanks in advance

[voidp]

Is the shared folder's "read only" attribute un-checked?

Here's the property dialog in 11.1.4:

[msalais]

No it is not. In that case other programs could not save to these folders.

[voidp]

Same problem just reported?  --  Re: Fusion 10.0.1 & Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Old work-around from years ago?  --  Save a document from MS Office to shared folder on FAT formatted partition?

[msalais]

Thank you

The proposed workaround is in that tihread is not really practical. Any way my problem is not using FAT.

Besides I have two machines and for one of them it works fine!

The only diffierence that I can see is:

• The machine for which there is no problem has a hardware compatibility for workstation 12.
• The machine for which the error is thrown has a hardware compatibility for workstation 14.

Michel

[msalais]

There is something new and not very good news !

The machine on which it worked fine has been updated (Microsoft update) and after that it stopped working!

I mean I can't save any more files to shared vmware folders. If I use a new filename to save on the folder, it creates an empty file (size 0) and the same error message is anyway thrown.

😞

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

There's a new VMware Tools out that has this fixed.

Download VMware Tools 10.2.0

and the readme has this bit under "resolved issues"

• In Windows Creators Fall release (1709) saving modified files using Office to a VMware Shared Folder can fail
  Running virtual machines with the Windows Creators Fall release (1709) and editing files on a VMware Shared Folder and trying to save the modified Office files, the user will get an error:
  
  "There has been a network or file permission error. The network connection may be lost"
  
  This can occur even when the network connection remains available and the drive is accessible. 

This issue is resolved in this release

Eventually that VMware Tools will make it into a VMware Workstation release.

If OTOH you don't want to wait, you can install the update from the link above.

--

Wil

[msalais]

Thank you for your reply.

I will wait then...

Meanwhile, I have used a workaround by using Windows sharing between the two machines.

Thanks again.

[wila]

Hi,

The Fusion version that includes this newer VMware Tools version has been released.

See VMware Fusion 10.1.0 Release Notes

and in particular:

What's New

VMware Fusion 10.1.0 is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 10 users. It makes improvements in following areas:

• This release delivers improved guest support of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Version 1709)
• Includes VMware Tools 10.2.0

Download here: Download VMware Fusion 10.1.0

or update via the upgrade mechanism within VMware Fusion.

--

Wil

[msalais]

I have just installed the new update of vmware workstation 14.1.0 build-7370693 and with it vmware tools 10.2

That solved the problem