Cant move virtual machine from Fusion 8 on High Sierra to new mac with version 11.5 on Catalina

[Oogiem]

I've got an old Mac running high Sierra that has been running Fusion rev 8.5.10 with a single virtual machine an old Windows 2000 system very successfully.

I have a new Mac running Catalina. I downloaded the trial of Fusion 11.5 to test to see whether it will run my old VM before I buy the upgrade.

I cannot get the new version of Fusion to even see my VM.  I've tried moving the entire Windows 2000 folder that was located on the older mac in the folder vmware over to the new mac to its Virtual Machines folder.

However when I run the new version of Fusion and try to choose an existing virtual machine nothing shows up. I can search and se all the files in the Windows 2000 folder but they are all greyed out.

I had thought to try upgrading to 10 and then to 11 but I can't download the 10 version or at least I can't find it to try that.

Any ideas on how to get this working so I can test before paying for the upgrade?

[wila]

Hi,

That should basically "just work"

A couple of things though.

How are you trying to open the VM you just moved (better is copied)?

You should be using menu -> File -> Open and it that case you should be able to select either the whole bundle OR if the bundle bit is not set then you should select the file with extension .vmx

Quite often people mistakenly try to use the File -> Import option, but that's for VMs made with another product such as Parallels or an OVF format.

--

Wil

[Oogiem]

Nope, trying a file open and the files do not show up at all. I see them but they are greyed out and I cannot select anything.

[wila]

Hi,

In that case it most likely is a file credentials issue.

Check what user the files are shown under and adjust the ownership of the files.

--

Wil

[Oogiem]

Folder and all files in it are listed with my username (the only user on the system), staff and everyone having permission to read and write.

So I don't think it's a permissions problem.

[wila]

Hi,

Can you show a listing of all files from the terminal?

Eg. please post the output of the following command:

ls -alh /Users/Oogiem/VMs/VirtualMachine.vmwarevm > ~/Desktop/vmListing.txt

Where "/Users/Oogiem/VMs/VirtualMachine.vmwarevm" should be replaced with the path of the VM that you are trying to open.

This creates a file called vmListing.txt on your desktop.

Then attach the file vmListing.txt here to a reply.

--

Wil

[Oogiem]

Here you go. FOr information I started with VM Ware rev 1, then 4 then 8 and this machine has migrated up all the various versions.

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

It looks OK to me.

Normally you should be able to select the file "Windows 2000 Professional.vmx" and start the VM.

But you mentioned that you cannot select it. So let's try it in a different way.

Another thing to try is to double click the vmx file and it should open in VMware Fusion.

If the whole VM shows up as a bundle then you should be able to do the same with a double click on the bundle.

Yet another way is to drag the VM onto the Virtual Machine Library Window.

re. Migrating from the different versions.

In theory that should all work, although I haven't tested anything lower than hardware version 4 recently.

But like you I still do have VMs from VMware Fusion 1.0 which run fine still in VMware Fusion 11.5.

edit:

Oh dear.. macOS Catalina..

I forgot about the extra security measures that apple bolted onto macOS Catalina.

I suppose that this could be another reason for your trouble.

Please go to:

Apple menu

System Preferences

Security & Privacy

Privacy tab

You can drag the Fusion icon from the Applications folder onto "Full Disk Access" or just onto the "Files and Folders" section depending on where your VMs live.

--

Wil

[ColoradoMarmot]

OP:  make sure that you're using an administrator account, not a regular one.

How did you move the files over?  Some methods can set flags/permissions.

[Oogiem]

Opening the VM from within Fusion worked.

Now working on getting printing working.

Thanks, at least I've made progress

[Oogiem]

I only have 1 account on most of my machines. I am always the administrator but thanks for thinking of that.

[wila]

Hi,

If you want to print via the host then you have to install the additional software from the menu "Virtual Machine" -> "Install Virtual Printer".

The alternative is to connect the printer directly to the guest (if the printer is connected via USB)

--

Wil