Fusion 11.5.5 USB is BROKEN - proof

[JohnD0406]

Was running Fusion 11.5.3 on Catalina 10.15.4 with no issues.  Upgraded to Fusion 11.5.5 and could no longer forward/mount USB drives in Win10 guest.

• Upgraded the Win10 VM to May 2020 update, did not resolve the issue.
• Upgraded Catalina to 10.15.5, did not resolve the issue.
• Removed/reinstalled VMware tools, did not resolve the issue.
• Downgraded to Fusion 11.5.3 and can finally mount USB drives again.

I plan to stick with 11.5.3 for a long time, until release notes in a future version specifically address this issue.

[dhimic]

I had the same issue as well with Fusion not recognizing external SSD after upgrading.  Once downgrade to 15.3 my drives work again.  The only info I can provide is my drives were being recognized as a different drive.  When I hover over my drive now it now shows:

Disconnect DRIVENAME (Toshiba External USB3.0)

Prior it showed something different that began with an A.

Sorry 😞

Running 10.15.5 in iMac Late 2015

[AngryJedi]

I also have the exact same problem.  I have an external SSD that I frequently use on my Windows 10 based guest VM and the SSD is being attached through USB-C (3.1).

This worked perfectly fine in Fusion 11.5.0 and even 11.5.3.  As soon as I upgraded to 11.5.5, the Windows VM makes the sound of recognizing something being plugged in but nothing shows up in File Explorer nor does it show up in Disk Management.

I tried downgrading Fusion to 11.5.0 and then it works perfectly, then I uninstalled and installed Fusion directly to 11.5.5 and it does not work and behaves as described above.

Something is definitely broken in the latest version of Fusion.  Please fix this.

[office100]

Followed the instructions below from VMWare support.

1. Ensure the Virtual Machine is shut down and VMware Fusion is not running (quit).

2. Under Documents, look for Virtual Machine Folder.

3. You will see Windows 10 64.

4. Right click on Windows vm and select Show package content.

5. Look for Windows 10 6

4. .VMX (not VMXF).

7.Now you can right click on the file and select open with Text Edit.

8.Scroll all the way down to the bottom and add the below lines.

9. usb.generic.keepStreamsEnabled = "FALSE"10. Click on file from the top left menu and select Save.

[AngryJedi]

Hi office100​,

I already have usb.generic.keepStreamsEnabled = "FALSE" set in my vmx configuration file.

With that property set, it still only works if I downgrade to 11.5.0 or 11.5.3.  Ever since the upgrade to 11.5.5 this is broken.  The property you mentioned has always been set for me as I needed it before as well.

[felsensepp]

Sorry, but my English is quite bad so I write in German and have it translated with deepl.com.

I hope you understand it:

USB does not work anymore

One more try: MacBook Air (2020) with USB-C, Catalins 10.15.5 (no new updates pending), WMware Fusion version 11.5.5 (16269456), Windows 10 with all updates and a Garmin Zumo 590.

So far I had no problems with the Duo MBA - Zumo. Since the update to 11.5.5 it does not work anymore.

Normal is: Zumo is plugged in, Zumo monitor changes to "PC mode", select "connect to Windows", Windows brings the sound for "new device connected" and the monitor of the Zumo darkens slightly. The Zumo is found in BaseCamp and in the Explorer.

Since the update: Zumo is plugged in, Zumo monitor changes to "PC mode", select "connect to Windows", Windows brings the sound for "New device connected" and the monitor of the Zumo darkens slightly.

I can't find the Zumo neither in BaseCamp nor in Explorer. Only in the Device Manager you will find the Zumo still under the drives. When I unplug the Zumo, Windows brings the "Device removed" melody and the Zumo is removed from the Device Manager. That means Windows knows that a device is there, but can't boot it properly.

I tried the "usb.generic.keepStreamsEnabled = "FALSE "10" in the file. VMware brings the error message ".vmx -file is corrupted".

I have already created a new user in Windows 10. No improvement, the problem persists.

I am now back to VMware Fusion 11.5.3 using TimeMachine and USB is working as usual again. The problem is probably quite clearly a problem of VM ware!

[markn456]

At one point I actually had 11.5.5 and my USB working. By using an old fix of removing VMware Fusion.app from the Accessibility settings and manually adding it back. That seemed to solve the problem for a few days. Perhaps that was an anomaly because the problem returned. I went though all the settings again and tried all the tricks and workarounds from the days of old. Nothing worked. Based on what I have seen here, I removed VMware from all my Security and Privacy settings, removed the VMware Fusion.app from my applications folder. I downloaded 11.5.3 and installed. Now everything is back to normal and working perfectly. IMHO, 11.5.5 is BROKEN. 

[FreehandUsr]

I am also having an issue connecting to a USB drive on Catalina from Fusion 15.5.5.  My VM is MacOs SnowLeopard. The problem drive is USB2 Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  I do NOT have the same problem with different APFS drive similarly connected via USB2 (although another problem is that it immensely slow).         I can mount the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) drive but strangely the file list is incomplete and even weirder still,  is that I get different results at different times. The Finder shows only partial list of contents, sometimes more complete than other times.  I cannot save to the drive via the VM.  I've check permissions on the drive itself and all seems to be fine and does not exhibit problems in the host.

[markn456]

I have this exact problem and the same downgrading to 11.5.3 fixes the USB problem. I shut down Fusion, run the 11.5.3 install and start the VM, everything works perfectly. You can also simply restore the fusion app from Time Machine back to 11.5.3 and this works as well. VMWare, please fix this.

I also tried the recently release 11.5.6. USB is broken in this release as well.

[joemath]

Same problem here.  USB is broken in Fusion v11.5.6.

Host is macOS Catalina 10.15.6 (all updates applied).  Guest is also macOS Catalina 10.15.6 (all updates applied).

Everything was working fine with Fusion v11.5.3.  My iPhone would connect to Xcode running in the Guest.

Then I upgraded to Fusion v11.5.6 and updated VMware Tools in the Guest.  The Guest could no longer access the iPhone.  The "Virtual Machine" -> "USB & Bluetooth" menu showed that the iPhone was connected, but none of the apps in the Guest could access the device.

I downgraded by installing Fusion v11.5.3 over top of v11.5.6.  Bingo.  USB is working again, just like it did before.

VMWARE -- Fix this problem!  Core functionality is broken.

[DontWorri]

Well I updated to Catalina the other day and everything seemed alright until tonight when I tried to access USB devices through a Windows 10 VM. I am unable to find anything on the web about this as well. Things I have tried, maybe they will work for you or maybe not. So far, nothing has worked for me.

1. Restart computer, no change
2. Uninstall/Reinstall VMware Tools in VM, no change
3. Uninstall (https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838)/Reinstall VMware Fusion Pro, no change
4. Ensured the Security & Privacy settings were allowing and not blocking (https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2151770), no change
5. Create a new Windows Server 2016 VM with default settings, install VMware Tools, no change

Kind of at a loss here and wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I am running the following:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
Processor 2.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7
Memory 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB
SMK Link USB-C Multi-Port Hub (Model: VP6920)

[markn456]

I have the same issue. The problem also exists in 11.5.6 as well. Downgrading to 11.5.3 fixes.

Mark

[RickShu]

Hi markn456,

Would you be so kind to collect a Fusion Support Bundle which demonstrates the issue.

1) Enable USB Verbose logging from "Virtual Machine > Settings > Advanced > Enabled Verbose USB Debugging"

2) Reproduce the issue one more time

2) Generate a Support Bundle from "Help > Collect Support Information".

3) Upload the Support Bundle from VMware's FTP portal using  (see VMware Knowledge Base ). You can name the directory in FTP, for example: community+yourID

Regards,

-Rick

[markn456]

Rick,

I have uploaded the Fusion Support Bundle to the directory "communitymarkn456" as requested. Since my original posting, I purchased Fusion 12 Pro with support and tried upgrading in hopes that version 12.x would solve the issue. I have the exact same problem and no change in behavior. I was in hopes that I could rollback to 11.5.3 again. Since I upgraded to Fusion 12, that is not possible. I  can restore a backup and create the Bundle with an older version if necessary.

Regards,

-Mark

[JohnD0406]

For what it's worth, 11.5.6 fixed the issue I initially reported in the first post.  I've been running it for a while now on Catalina 10.15.6.  I have a had a couple strange issues such as a USB DVD drive locking up to the point I couldn't eject a disc, so I went into the Fusion library VM settings and removed the USB device, which instantly crashed/rebooted the entire host machine!  Hasn't happened again, but makes me afraid to disconnect USB devices from VM's.

Based on others' recent reports, sounds like there are multiple issues, although mine is (mostly?) solved by 11.5.6, and sorry to hear v12 doesn't resolve them.

[KamenGopin84]

Hi markn456​​,

Thanks for uploading the support bundle! Can you please reproduce the issue with Fusion 11.5.6 as well?

You can downgrade your virtual machines back to a Fusion 11.x compatible version by navigating to "Virtual Machine -> Settings -> Compatibility" and changing the value of "Use Hardware Version" to 16. The virtual machines have to be powered off in order to change the hw version.

Thanks,

Kamen

[markn456]

I have completed the test using 11.5.6. USB does not work. The support bundle was uploaded a few minutes ago. Do you need me to test using 11.5.3 demonstrating it working?

regards,

Mark

[KamenGopin84]

Hi markn456​,

Thanks for your support!

Looking at the uploaded files in communitymarkn456 I see the Fusion 12 support bundle "VMware Fusion Problem Report 2020-10-26 at 08.19.14.zip

However, I do not see the Fusion 11.5.6 support bundle. Instead, there is a Fusion 11.5.6 installation dmg: VMware-Fusion-11.5.6-16696540.dmg

Is it possible that you uploaded the installation dmg instead of the support bundle?  

There is another thing I wanted to check with you. The problematic device is "Whistler WS1080 Scanner", right? Are they any other devices that have issues? I believe you mentioned that even regular flash drives have issues. Using a Fusion 11.5.6 build, can you please reproduce both the USB flash drive issue and the "Whistler WS1080 Scanner" issue?  

Thanks,

Kamen

[markn456]

Kamen,

I am so sorry. I grabbed the wrong file when I was sending the ftp. I will get the correct one right away. The Whistler WS1080 is one of the USB devices. So far, I can't find any USB connected connected devices that will work. There should also be a Untitled thumb drive there as well. In any case, I will get the correct bundle uploaded this morning.

Regards,

-mark

[markn456]

Okay, I have uploaded VMware Fusion Problem Report 2020-10-26 at 18.36.41. Please let me know if you need anything else.

-Mark

[KamenGopin84]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the support bundle! The symptom of the issue is that VMX (the VM process) is unable to open the USB device's interface(s):

2020-10-26T18:35:20.558-05:00| vcpu-0| I005: USBIO: SetConfiguration

2020-10-26T18:35:20.558-05:00| vcpu-0| I005: (1)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.558-05:00| vcpu-0| I005:

2020-10-26T18:35:20.558-05:00| vcpu-0| I005: USBIO: Down dev=4 'usb_xhci:5' endpt=0 stream=0 datalen=0 numPackets=0 status=0 0

2020-10-26T18:35:20.558-05:00| vcpu-0| I005: USBIO:  000: 00 09 01 00 00 00 00 00                         ........       

2020-10-26T18:35:20.559-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.566-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.572-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.579-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.586-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.592-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.599-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.605-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.612-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.618-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.624-05:00| vmx| W003: USBGM: IOUSBInterface::USBInterfaceOpenSeize failed (e00002c5)

2020-10-26T18:35:20.629-05:00| vmx| I005: USBGM: Number of open interfaces, expected:2, actual:0

The e00002c5 (kIOReturnExclusiveAccess) error comes from MacOS and suggests the device's interface(s) were never released by Apple's Mass Storage driver.

Mark, can you please check if the following steps will help resolve the issue:

1) Stop Fusion

2) Create a file named "config" in the "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/" directory. Creating/Editing the file requires admin privileges.

3) Add the following lines to the "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config" file:

usb.macos.autoConnectDelayInUsec = 10000000

usb.macos.autoConnectDelay = 10000000

usb.macos.maxOpenInterfaceRetries = 20

4) Start Fusion

Thanks,

Kamen