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vaporpipe
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Cannot connect usb devices inside a VM

Hi Guys,

I tried to connect usb devices into Windows 10, I heard the connect sound effect but it followed by the disconnect sound effect twice immediately. Later on, it keeps on playing the disconnect sound. And so the external disk is not recognized.

The usb drive is formatted in NTFS and is good on other computer (MBP 2018). Is this a usb bug of VMware?

Environment:

VMWare Fusion Pro 11.5.1 (15018442) using usb 3.0 driver

Mac Pro (2019) 8 Core Xeon

Catalina 10.15.3

VMware driver allowed in security panel

Both usb3.0 and usb-c not working.

Thanks for any help!

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RickShu
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Hi vaporpipe,

Can you try to add an option into vmx file and see if it helps?

The Steps:

========

1. Power off the VM

2. Right click the VM from VM Library

3. Press 'Option' Key from keyboard and hold it

4. Choose 'Open Config File in Editor'

5. Add a new line with the string usb.generic.keepStreamsEnabled = "FALSE"

6. Save and close the file, power on the VM

Regards,

-Rick

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Alex_Romeo
Leadership
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Hi,

il this post have solved a USB problem on windows 10 virtualized with Fusion, try to see if it can be useful.

USB problem after upgrading to Fusion 11 and Mojave

I SOLVED my problem

I removed Fusion App from application and then re-installed it

With no reasons for me, now i can conect USB Devices to VMs

In previous installation i applied the "Allow" button on System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General, with no effect

ARomeo

Blog: https://www.aleadmin.it/
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vaporpipe
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Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I tried reinstall VMWare (referred to this tutorial: VMware Knowledge Base ). Still not working.

The VM machine can detect my usb devices, but just 1 sec later, windows disconnected my device. Very weird but thank you still.

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RickShu
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Hi ,

Can you inform about the technical specification of the USB device you connected to your VM? Is it a USB 3.1 Gen 2 external disk?

Regards,

-Rick

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lalee123
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Hi,

I have a feeling this is a new issue. I just encountered this situation myself, and I didn't know this was a problem before.

My scenario:

MacOS Catalina 10.15.3

VMware 11.5.1 (15018442)

Windows 10 32-bit

I recently used Windows to run Western Digital Data LifeGuard, to run diagnostics on some external hard disks.

The hard disks are connected by an OWC USB 3 Gen 1 (aka 5 Gbps) dual-drive dock.

About two weeks ago, I was able to use this dock in Win10 to run disk diagnostics.

About 2 days ago, I installed the latest MacOS update that recently became available.

Tonight, I received another WD disk, and so I put it in the OWC drive dock with Win10 to run diagnostics.

Mysteriously, I received an error message from VMware about how "this device couldn't be connected through its preferred mechanism" or something to that effect.

I then started googling the message, which is how I found the support topic mentioned up-thread. That's when I discovered VMware Fusion had a toggle in the Advanced USB settings to enable USB 3 support. When I checked my settings, the Win10 VM was set for USB 2 support. I've never changed that setting before. Also, the dock has always been connected to the Mac with a USB 3 cable... no changes there. So, in the period of about two weeks, I was able to use the USB 3 drive dock successfully in Win10, and suddenly I'm receiving error messages.

I'm inclined to say that the recent MacOS update might have had something to do with it?

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vaporpipe
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Hi, Rick

Mac is a Thunderbolt 3 but for usb I think it's a Gen 2 port (type-c).

I tried both Samsung T3 and T5 external SSD (type-c Gen 2). And these SSDs also come with usb-c to USB 3.0 cable. So I  tried the 3.0 port and the the same problem occurred.

Furthermore, I tried a Seagate external Hdd and an external thunderbolt 2 (I use an Apple thunderbolt 3 adapter) with USB 3.0 port, no luck.

I think it may be VMware's driver problem?

Thanks

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vaporpipe
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Hi Lalee123,

I didn't have this information but only the sound played in Windows vm.

And yeah, my system version is the newest 10.15.3.

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RickShu
VMware Employee
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Hi vaporpipe,

Can you try to add an option into vmx file and see if it helps?

The Steps:

========

1. Power off the VM

2. Right click the VM from VM Library

3. Press 'Option' Key from keyboard and hold it

4. Choose 'Open Config File in Editor'

5. Add a new line with the string usb.generic.keepStreamsEnabled = "FALSE"

6. Save and close the file, power on the VM

Regards,

-Rick

vaporpipe
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Hi RickShu

Perfect, it works!

I'll mark my question as resolved. But I think it's a vm usb bug or need drive support issue right?

Thanks a lot!

Ps. did some search, looks like it disabled the usb device as UAS.

And one more thing.

I used to create external usb devices as physical vmdk by vmware-rawdiskCreator.

Looks like vmware cannot boot from the physical drive. I saw error message like:

Operation not permitted

Cannot open the disk '<vm_path>.vmwarevm/Virtual Disk.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

Module 'Disk' power on failed.

Failed to start the virtual machine

I'm sure that device is not used by OS(ejectable) and doesn't have any snapshot for the vm. Is this also related to usb issue?

Regards,

Vaporpipe

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lalee123
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I've discovered that adding this line also fixes the "me too" issue that I posted to this thread! The drive dock is now visible.

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RickShu
VMware Employee
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Hi vaporpipe,

Good to know that works. Regarding the issue about vmware-rawdiskCreator, you'd better create a new thread to track it.

Regards,

-Rick

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RickShu
VMware Employee
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Good to know.Smiley Happy

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vaporpipe
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Problem solved for:

"Operation not permitted"

Allow "com.vmware.DiskHelper" in "Full disk access" of System Preferences - Security

Regards,

Vaporpipe

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PlaceboMessiah
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RickShu​ Holycrap Thank Yooooooooooo

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MacDragon
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This did indeed 'fix' similar issue for me, though I've previously used the same drive on a win 10 fusion VM before without issue, so what's changed?

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hollistonma
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RickShu,

I too have this problem and will try the solution tonight.  Before doing so, however, I have a couple of questions:  will I have to remember to "undo" this edit with the next update to Fusion?  And how will I know if the next update(s) fixes this issue?  Thx.

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RickShu
VMware Employee
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Hi hollistonma,

Please take a snapshot before you start to try with the vmx edition. If this issue can be fixed in next release, you should be able to find it in the release note.

Regards,

-Rick

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hollistonma
Enthusiast
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RickShu​,

Thank you...appreciate it.  I backed up the VM using CCC just in case.  Made the changes and worked.

Will wait for the next release and hopefully remember to check!

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kasura
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hi rick, I'm really insufficient. I could not do what you told here. can you tell me more clearly ?

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ItWorksYay
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Thank you. The config file change works for windows 11 as well.

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