I need help. Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to.

[likelyja]

Error message: Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to.

I upgraded to MacOS High Sierra and upgraded to VMware fusion 10.

Since then I can not open my existing VM's and I can not install any new VM's.

I followed this article and tried the three options that it suggests and I still have no luck. Each time I get the cannot find a... message.  VMware Knowledge Base

At this point, I am completely blocked with my work (I am a contractor) and if I do not get this fixed I will not be able to work at all.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so can you help me! I am desperate.

Thank you!!!

[daphnissov]

Go to Settings -> Security & Privacy and make sure GateKeeper is not blocking Fusion. Very often this is the case with High Sierra.

[vrobe006]

daphnissov

Awesome!!!  I had same issue and yes that was the issue for me.  Awesome  thank you soooo much!!!  Speaking for myself, so often message boards do not help at all.  But your post was right on the money;  I went right to security and privacy and Ta-Da Fusion was being blocked.

FYI all that reads, for the record Im running High Sierra which was no longer compatible with Fusion 7.1.1 and had to upgrade to 10.  That went well but then when I tried to start the VM i got "no peer compatible etc etc.."

So if this is happening to you try what daphnissov suggested.  Thanks again Daph

[yoni386]

Allow the app from security & privacy.

[chazlarson]

I'm seeing this same issue, under Sierra.  I can see nowhere in Security and Privacy to do anything with VMWare Fusion.  I have "Allow apps from: Anywhere" enabled, and VMWare Fusion does not appear in the list of apps which have requested permission to control the Mac.  I added it to that list and relaunched it, but get the same error.

Can anyone offer some more specifics?  Thanks!

[Decept1k0n]

I would like to know the answer to this as well.  The last articles & posts I've read, say that disabling SIP seemed to be the answer.

When I go to Security & Privacy, I had "Anywhere" selected under Allow apps downloaded from:

I was never prompted to allow VMWare Fusion, nor did it ever pop up even after changing this setting.

[Decept1k0n]

Ok, so I got this issue fixed.  Here are the steps I had to take(on macOS High Sierra):

1. Un-install VMWare Fusion

2. Re-install VMWare Fusion

3. Power down Mac

4. Power on Mac

5. Launch VMWare Fusion

6. Launch virtual machine

After the final step, the pop up window came up and asked me to go to Security & Privacy to allow the VMWare extension.

[2ndSightLab]

I was able to resolve this issue by manually uninstalling VMWare Fusion as described here:

VMware Knowledge Base

Then reinstall.

Make sure to remove ALL VMWare related directories AND restart before reinstalling.

[FishNorFowl]

I have scanned this and other threads on the "Cannot find a valid peer process' error, and haven't yet found something that gets me past it either. So in hopes that the attached support data zip file will be of help, if someone at VMWare could take a look and suggest something which might apply to my case. I'm just installing VMware-Fusion-10.1.1-7520154.dmg and trying to create and run a new Win7 Enterprise from an iso; I select "more seamless", but otherwise leave defaults. This machine, a Mid-2011 Mac Mini, had VirtualBox on it, so I did the manual uninstall/cleanup of that, and have repeatedly done the uninstall/cleanup of Fusion, rebooted and tried again.

And I, like others, don't have the Allow button under gatekeeper do anything when settings are unlocked, so that doesn't appear to be something of use here.

My gratitude in advance for efforts toward a resolution.

[ColoradoMarmot]

What's the host OS version?

[chazlarson]

In my case it's 10.12.6 (16G1114).

[FishNorFowl]

The host is High Sierra 10.13.2.

[FishNorFowl]

As it happened, I had another machine of the same model (Macmini5,2) that was only updated to 10.13.1 - which may or may not be germane - but the Allow button for the gatekeeper worked on that machine, and all went as expected afterwards. I attach the support info for that machine in hopes that a diff would reveal something telling.

Thanks.

[pmktek]

Hi

The solution to peer process not found is lock files - remove them

Highlight the vmwarevm file and open - double click

It will list the files contained in the file

Look for files with a .lck extension and delete them

Restart VMWare Fusion and restart vm file

Problem should be solved

Pat

[1200MTS]

Like some others online, the "Allow..." option was never visible in the Security & Privacy -> General tab.  I know what they're talking about, you get this all the time from unverified apps downloaded online.  For me it's completely empty.  Just the VM saying "Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to.".

Mac High Sierra 10.13.4, VMware Fusion Version 10.1.1 (7520154)

What ended up working for me was this post from Stack Exchange: virtual machine - How to fix VMWare Fusion Pro 10, "Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to" ...

sudo spctl --master-disable

This sets it up so that there is an "Anywhere" option in the "Allow apps downloaded from:" section.

After the VM starts up, I go in and restore this using sudo spctl --master-enable.  Next bootup, I'll spend some time trying to remember this post and repeat.  Works every time.  Ugh.

[oalaniz]

I just ran into this issue today. I logged into my local administrator account and instead of uninstalling, I just delete all the VMware folder under Application Support and in Preferences, I deleted all the VMware files. Then ran the app as admin and was able to get past this issue on macOS 10.13.4. This was way easier than uninstalling and then reinstalling.

[tony-s]

None of these solutions worked for me. I'm on Fusion 10 and Mojave. Need to get a High Sierra install so that I can use Filemaker Pro. Thanks for any help.

[joshncampbell]

These solutions do not work for me. I get the same error after my Macbook updated last night. I'm running macOS 10.14.5 (Mojave) and using VMWare Fusion 10. It has always worked fine until this morning. Please help.

[daphnissov]

Only VMware Fusion 11 is supported to run on Mojave: VMware Knowledge Base

[vmw1610]

Those of you with this issue on Mojave 10.14.4: are you using smtctl?  If so, please see smtctl mitigation for Spectre is broken on the latest MacOS build​ , and maybe add your hardware specifics to that thread...