Have an old Fusion VM, is it loadable by current version of Fusion?

[TakeTime]

It appears to be from VMX build 730298, which I assume correlates to a Mac Fusion version number. It was hosted on macOS 12.3.

Is there a way to get a list of the files in the VM? (I'd guess no as to the number of files) I'm looking for a specific file that *could* be in one of the VMs.

Thanks in advance...

[RDPetruska]

Your existing virtual machines *should* work with a newer version of Fusion.  One caveat is that if your Mac is a newer Apple-silicon based one, then none of your virtual machines created with an Intel-silicon based one will work.

[TakeTime]

Thanks!

Will the demo version of Fusion open them, or is there a limit to what it can do, if you know...

[TakeTime]

So either the trial version doesn't open existing VMs, or these can't be opened by this version. Hmm...

These are both Intel based macs.

[RDPetruska]

The trial version (and/or the free personal player version) should both be able to open existing VMs - whether created with Fusion or Workstation.  What is the VM?  And are all the files present in it's folder?

[TakeTime]

Thanks again!

Before I installed the trial version, the Vmwarevm files were folders that I could open and browse. Now, post install, they are files that I have to do 'show package contents', so Fusion setup the ability to see them, but when I select 'open existing' in Fusion, they are not showing as available to select. So looks like a dead end, potentially. I don't have that original mac they were used on, sadly. (It died)

Are there any utilities for dealing with older VMs? Will Player open them? Is there access to older versions of Fusion to try one of them? I'd really like to get a file out of the VM, and I potentially have more VMs to search...

[Technogeezer]

What you're seeing with the .vmwarevm folders is normal behavior.

Installing Fusion makes macOS recognize folders having a .vmwarevm extension as "virtual machine bundles" and makes them opaque to the Finder. It also changes their file lkind to "VMBundle"

It's also normal that when Fusion is installed, when you want to examine the contents inside of the bundle with the Finder, you right click on it and select "Show Package Contents".

Note if you went to the command line, this "hiding" doesn't occur. The virtual machine .vmwarevm folder is still treated like a folder. 

First, is there a .vmx file in that virtual machine .vmwarevm bundle folder, along with the other files?

"Open existing" doesn't appear in the Fusion menus to open an existing virtual machine. You should just be able to open the virtual machine with "File > Open" and then navigate to the folder containing the virtual machine .vmwarevm bundle - the Finder may not show the extension, but will note it as a file kind of VMBundle. Selecting the virtual machine bundle should open the virtual machine and add it to the Virtual Machine Library.

Unlike VMware Workstation, you do not navigate to find the .vmx file for an exiting VM. Fusion will look for it in the VMBundle that you select in the Open dialog.

This assumes that you have file permissions to access the VM.

Can you tell us exactly what sequence of commands that you are using (perhaps with a screen shot). Something is amiss here. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

You can also just double-click the vmwarevm bundle and it'll launch the VM.

[Technogeezer]

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@ColoradoMarmot wrote:

You can also just double-click the vmwarevm bundle and it'll launch the VM.

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This too!

[TakeTime]

It says 'Select the install method', and one selection is 'Import an existing virtual machine'. I would assume that would be where I click that and Continue, and then 

Choose file', and select the VM. Except it's grayed out. I can't select it. I assume 'Select installation method' is about the VM that Fusion is supposed to be running.

It must not like the 'smell' of these bundles?

[TakeTime]

Tried that: nothing. The previous reply said 'are all the files there'. I copied them from the hard drive of a computer that had the VMs. I would assume that the files and all they contain are intact. Other than that hope, I have no idea...

[Technogeezer]

Could you drop into a Terminal session and do an 'ls -alR' of the virtual machine's .vmwarevm directory?

As well as zip up and post the .vmx file contained in that directory.

[TakeTime]

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First, is there a .vmx file in that virtual machine .vmwarevm bundle folder, along with the other files?

No, not that I see. I can check the original files. I do not see a file with that extension.

I see vmem, vmem.lck. vmss, vmdk, nvram, and Apple's .plist extensions on files, no vmx...

[Technogeezer]

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@TakeTime wrote:

It says 'Select the install method', and one selection is 'Import an existing virtual machine'. I would assume that would be where I click that and Continue, and then 

Choose file', and select the VM. Except it's grayed out. I can't select it. I assume 'Select installation method' is about the VM that Fusion is supposed to be running.

It must not like the 'smell' of these bundles?

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From what you've said, you've clicked the wrong menu item. The "Select an installation method" appears when you click File > New to create a brand new VM. You don't want to be at that menu or choose "import a virtual machine" if you have an existing VMware virtual machine. That import function is only for importing a virtual machine from an OVA or OVF formatted file,

What you want to do is to open an existing virtual machine. Go to the Fusion menu bar and click File > Open... (NOT FILE > NEW).  In the dialog that appears, locate the virtual machine (that's now tagged as a VMBundle file), select it, and click the Open button.

[TakeTime]

Interesting, one folder has a .vmx file, and the other does not.

[Technogeezer]

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@TakeTime wrote:

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First, is there a .vmx file in that virtual machine .vmwarevm bundle folder, along with the other files?

I see vmem, vmem.lck. vmss, vmdk, nvram, and Apple's .plist extensions on files, no vmx...

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If there's no .vmx file, the virtual machine will not open. Either you missed it or it doesn't exist where it should on your source disks.

Please post a file listing of the files in that folder

Also, what operating system is running on this VM? It may be possible to recover given what you have by creating a new virtual machine, but making the new VM use a copy of your existing vmdk files. A file listing will help us as well determine if you really have everything that you need to do this.

[TakeTime]

This is an interesting message...

[Technogeezer]

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@TakeTime wrote:

Interesting, one folder has a .vmx file, and the other does not.

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Does this mean that you have two VMs that you want to look at? Does the one that does have a .vmx file in the .vmwarevm folder open on Fusion?

[TakeTime]

And I'm in to that VM. Figures it's not the one I'm looking for, but you have been a gift from the computer gods. THANK YOU!!!

I can now see what other VMs I can find and hopefully get that damned file back.

The one without the vmx file looked like it was selectable, so I'll see that happens.

Thank you, thank you!!

[Technogeezer]

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@TakeTime wrote:

This is an interesting message...

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That message is normal if the virtual machine has not been configured in its Settings > Advanced to disable side channel mitigations. It only means that the virtual machine will run more slowly (but more securely) than if the VM has the mitigations turned off.