Just recently, my VMWare Fusion Virtual Machine has gone missing.

[kameroncole]

Lots of issues.

1) My critical VM is gone!  For no known reason, when I open Fusion 12.2.5, it says "Virtual Machine does not exist."  Well, it existed last week, and the week before, etc...

2) I have a backup in a /restore directory on my Mac, where an earlier version of my VM exists.  When I try to import that, the VM image is greyed out in the Fusion console.  If I view the same VM in my Mac Finder, it is not greyed out, the properties are in order, and I can expand the image and see the contents.  Fusion is definitely the blocker here.

3) When I try to create a new image from the original Windows 10 iso in Fusion, I get a little farther - the ISO is recognized.  But when the installer starts, it can't find the operating system ?!?!

At this point, Fusion is really not doing me any good!

[Technogeezer]

Virtual machines just don't get "lost". Something changed between last week when it worked and this week when it didn't.

Another point - don't run on the VM in your backup location. You want to preserve it. Copy it from /restore using the Finder and try to open (not Import) that virtual machine copy.

"the properties are in order" - what exactly does that mean? Please post a "Get Info" on your virtual machine bundle. 

If you "expanded" the "image" to see the contents of the VM in the Finder (by right clicking and choosing "Show Package Contents" what are the files that are contained in that folder? At a minimum you should see .vmdk files representing your virtual disk, and a .vmx file. 

Assuming you still have the situation where the VM is "grayed out" in the Virtual Machine Library:

• use the Finder to find the vminventory file found in your account's Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion folder
• zip it up (rightclicking on the file and choosing "Compress" will work)
• attach the zip file to a reply to this thread. 

For 3): Can you elaborate on the steps that you did to create that virtual machine?  If you have a valid ISO installer downloaded from Microsoft, a fresh virtual machine should boot it and go to Windows Setup. I wouldn't use easy Easy Setup to create the VM either. 

[kameroncole]

>>Virtual machines just don't get "lost". Something changed between last week when it worked and this week when it didn't.

Agreed. Hence the post.

>>Copy it from /restore using the Finder and try to open (not Import) that virtual machine copy.

Did this. Fusion "blinks" at me, but no machine gets opened/created.

>>At a minimum you should see .vmdk files representing your virtual disk, and a .vmx file. 

I only see a single vmx.lck - I guess this is locked.   Can I just remove the .lck?

>>use the Finder to find the vminventory file found in your account's Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion folder

I will attach this, but I did delete the VM from the Virtual Machine Library

[ColoradoMarmot]

Did you by chance turn on icloud files or run a disk cleanup utility?

[Technogeezer]

>> Did this. Fusion "blinks" at me, but no machine gets opened/created.

Can you explain what you mean by "it blinks at me"? Did the virtual machine attempt to start and do nothing, or did the open fail on the copy of the VM?

>> I only see a single vmx.lck - I guess this is locked.   Can I just remove the .lck?

Make sure the Fusion Application is shut down first. Then if a '.lck' file remains, you can delete it. But perform this on the copy you restored, not the backup copy.

What's the Mac hardware and macOS version you're using?

Also if you could zip up and attach a copy of the vmware-vmfusion.log file found in your account's "Library/Logs/VMware Fusion" folder that might give us a clue as to what's going on.

Another thought- make sure something hasn't messed with the permissions of your temp directory. Can you drop into Terminal and issue the following and post the result:

ls -ald /private/tmp

[Technogeezer]

---

@ColoradoMarmot wrote:

Did you by chance turn on icloud files or run a disk cleanup utility?

---

That's a good point. Storing Fusion VMs in your Documents directory and enabling Cloud Files to manage your Desktop & Documents folder is a combination that must be avoided. Very, very strange and bad things can happen if you do that. Double check that option has not been "helpfully" turned on automatically for you. 

[kameroncole]

>>Can you explain what you mean by "it blinks at me"? 

Does nothing.  Does not open the file. I mean, it looks at first like any other attempt to open a file.  But the result is nothing.

I attached the Mac specs below.

Here is the /tmp directory permissions

% ls -ald /private/tmp
drwxrwxrwt 19 root wheel 608 Apr 6 11:12 /private/tmp

[kameroncole]

I use CleanMyMac, and I did suspect that - but it doesn't delete large files unless you tell it to. I work for IBM, and we can't use iCloud for anything on the workstation - I mean, not for backup.  I can look at my iCloud, but not run any utilities.

Anyway, the odd point still remains: in Finder I can see the VM, and it is not greyed out, but in the Finder window that pops up when I try to import a VM, it IS greyed out - so I can't access it.

Now, I went to my MSDN site, and downloaded some fresh ISOs, and was able to create a new VM.  So there is something with my /restore directory that is not working - now.  As I wrote, when I initially migrated to this new Mac, I used the very same VM from /restore.  Fusion asked me the typical - Did you move it, or copy it? Anyway, it was successfully registered and worked.

[Technogeezer]

You said in your original post that you are running Fusion 12.2.5 and your About My Mac says you're running Ventura 13.3. If that's the case, you have an unsupported configuration. Fusion 12.2.5 is not supported or tested on Ventura.  Fusion 13 is the first version that contains support for Ventura. That could be part of your problem. Give the Fusion 13 trial version a try and see if you can reproduce the problem. 

>> - but it doesn't delete large files unless you tell it to.

CleanMyMac doesn't have to delete large files to mess things up. Personally I'd stop using CleanMyMac and any other of those so-called "optimization" utilities  They have the potential to really mess something up behind the scenes and you won't know what it is. macOS doesn't need to have itself "cleaned". Use those utilities only as a last resort, IMO. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

100% agree on cleanmymac.

Not sure I understand what /restore is in terms of migration.  If you used the migration wizard, it should have just moved everything over in place.

[SvenGus]

Today, VMware Fusion VMs should be stored in ~/Virtual\ Machines.localized, or on an external SSD: for example, in /Volumes/VM/Virtual\ Machines.localized; and never in ~/Documents/Virtual\ Machines.localized (as happened in the past, before the introduction of iCloud syncing for the Desktop and Documents folders).