Frustrated and /Disappointed

[ADonnan]

I mad the major mistake of upgrading from v7 to v12.  Now the mouse doesn't work and the programs I need to access via windows for my VA appointments, are unavailable.  Waisted two days on the forms and FAQ's following each step.  I get to the point that tells me to "START A SUPPORT TICKET" and I can't.  I called VM, "If you are calling for support, hang up."  REALLY???? Now I am left with two options, 1) spend money I don't have and buy a PC that is going to be used a few times a month, 2) Find a product from a company that isn't going to have their phone system insult me and that might give a **bleep** about their customers.  FYI, I checked the security settings, changed the compatibility modes, reinstalled (4 times), removed and reinstalled the USB driver, added /changed the mouse.vusb. (Yes, I tried "FALSE" and  "TRUE" ) thing even tried to go back to v7.  Now I can't access the old VM's from there either.  In short, I got screwed.

[Johnny9]

I am also disappointed with Fusion 12 as it seems there are many bugs - I'm having trouble just booting iso image from a cd - seems there is no way to prevent doing a network install when choosing custom vm.

One thing I can suggest that may help you is to manually uninstall all old versions of Fusion and support files (there's an article here on VMware knowledge base telling where to find old support files to manually delete). Then reinstall fusion 12 from the latest 12.2.1 release (also in their downloads sections). Then make sure you add fusion 12 to the security&privacy settings on OS X - in particular add it to Accessibility to allow it to control your computer (this may be the cause of your issue), and also add it to Full Disk Access. If you're using a BT mouse/kbd, you may need to add it to BT pane as well.

Hope this helps.

[ADonnan]

Actually attempted that.  Followed the step by step.  Boot up the VM in the OLD version and get the error "INTERNAL ERROR".  It would appear that 12 changed the file format and now it is not backward compatible.  As I said I'm screwed.  12 years of medical history I need for my cancer treatment , GONE!!!!

[Johnny9]

All is not necessarily lost. There is a good chance that you can still recover the data from the vmdisk. A bit of googling reveals several possible avenues including building a new VM and attaching the old disk to it or using a recovery tool or even trying to export your non-functioning vm to open virtualization format and then importing that to one of the other virtualization solutions (virtualbox or parallels). I can't say I have experience with recovering a vmdisk but I have successfully moved a Vmware machine to virtualbox before. Hopefully you have a backup of your original vm which eliminate some unknowns. If not, before doing anymore, I strongly advise you backup your vm's in their current state so that you have a known starting point to work from if you encounter more trouble. Good luck.

[Johnny9]

One other thing - in the past, after upgrading Fusion from one version to the next, I've found that sometimes something in the Virtual Machine Library configuration becomes corrupted and launching a vm from the Virtual Machine Library fails. But when I used the Finder to locate the vm and then double click it to open it from the Finder, it will open without problem and then that seems to fix the problem in the Virtual Machine Library. This doesn't sound like the problem you're experiencing but on the off-chance it's related I thought I'd mention it. Good Luck.

[wila]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but all is not lost.

First things first, what is your macOS version?

VMware Fusion 7 doesn't work on any of the recent macOS versions. IIRC then Mojave and later is all unsupported and while it might be able to get it to work on Mojave, getting that back to work after uninstalling it are minimal.

VMware Fusion 12 has a minimum version of macOS... so without knowing the basics.. it's hard to help.

--
Wil

[ADonnan]

Monterey

[wila]

Hi,

OK, the only Fusion from VMware that will work on Monterey is VMware Fusion 12.x.

Apple has changed too much and as a result VMware no longer uses their own hypervisor anymore, but instead has to use apple's own hypervisor.
If I am understanding you correctly then you can boot your old VM still and the only problem is that the mouse isn't working.
You also mentioned changing things in the .vmx file of that VM, changing mouse.vusb and more.
None of that is required and I doubt it does you any good.

Can you check the following in the menu:
Apple icon -> System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Accessibility

Does it have VMware Fusion down there?
If so is it checked (if not, then tick the box) like below:

If it is already in there and you can't access the mouse. Then try removing it via the "-" button and then add it back by dragging it in from Applications. It is possible that it has an old copy checked in there from your old VMware Fusion.

--
Wil

[ADonnan]

Yes, I tried that.  I actually followed every FAQ and support page trouble guide to fix the "No mouse click" issue.  Every single one had either no change in the problem or made it worse.  Then after one restart, my VM that had all my medical records, was GONE!  Not just would not load, but gone.  Not in the trash a file search of the entire computer only showed the remaining VM that would not respond.  I loaded a fresh copy of windows 10, and it didn't work either.  Still no mouse functions.  Two days lost.

[ADonnan]

And when I called VMware, I selected "Support" and the phone system said, If I was calling for support to hang up, then disconnected me.

[ADonnan]

I was in the "backup" step when Fusion somehow deleted the VM I was working with.  No idea where the "drive" went.  I did a search for the file on the entire computer and the only file that I could find was then other VM (windows xp) that I was not using.  At that point I was so frustrated and angry I just stopped dealing with it.  I loaded Oracle's Virtualbox and started a new VM.  Virtualbox is stable and works alright, it is a bit slow and the mouse "drags" but at least I can use it, more than can be said for Fusion.  I will likely get parallels, I called them and they actually offer phone and email support for their product.  Again, more than VMware offers.

[ADonnan]

Yes it was working in Mojave.  But the upgrade killed that.  I have and older iMac and I tried to access the file from it after I did the "upgrade " in 12 on the new iMac.  That resulted in the "Internal error" message when I tried to load it..

[wila]

Hi,

> Then after one restart, my VM that had all my medical records, was GONE! 

I'm not sure how that is even possible. Not saying that it isn't what you saw!

What I do know for certain is that VMware Fusion does not just delete VM's.
It should still be there somewhere. Perhaps the VMware Library was corrupted now?

Is the VM in the Documents folder?
Did perhaps apple's iCloud logic kick in to make free space and upload the vm?

I can't comment on the whole support part, I don't work for VMware. Just helping out for free here at the forums.

--
Wil

[wila]

---

@ADonnan wrote:

Yes it was working in Mojave.  But the upgrade killed that.  I have and older iMac and I tried to access the file from it after I did the "upgrade " in 12 on the new iMac.  That resulted in the "Internal error" message when I tried to load it..

---

You can downgrade the virtual hardware for making it accessible by older versions of VMware Fusion.
This works even if you have problems such as the mouse issue you are having.

Click on menu -> Virtual Machine -> Settings -> Compatibility

and then select a Virtual Machine Hardware version that is compatible with the VMware Fusion on the older machine.

--
Wil

[ADonnan]

Still not working and the virtual machine still giving the "internal error" message when I attempt to launch the old file.  I did install a clean new vm disk image and still no mouse functions and when I use keyboard commands to open the files, I can "see" the old disk image and it says that there is "disk error" if I try to open it.  I will NEVER buy another VM product.  I might feel different if they offered some support, but leaving us (the consumer) out in the cold is simply WRONG!!!!!

[wila]

Hi,

Nobody in this thread works for VMware.... we're all volunteers -users of Fusion- and trying to help.

For us to be able help we need more info.

Start by providing a vmware.log file from your virtual machine bundle (right click the VM, select "Show Package Contents") and attach all the vmware.log files from that virtual machine to a reply here.

The issues you are bumping into certainly are not normal or even common.

--
Wil

[Technogeezer]

Also, what Mac model are you running Monterey and Fusion on?