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MCaseyM
Contributor
Contributor

Mac Catalina and Fusion Has Black Screen

When will this be fixed? I'm unable to use the software on my laptop and to continue production of files.

The screen turns black when Fusion launches and cannot open any files.

Casey

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joke95
Contributor
Contributor

This worked for me.

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mep30
Contributor
Contributor

How I got Screen Recording permissions without scripts

Note: Initially I didn't have the option to turn it on in Privacy settings.

Had 11.5 installed

Uninstalled 11.5 with CleanMyMac. You could do this with AppCleaner.

Installed 11.1: https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?productId=798&downloadGroup=FUS-1111

Found a .vmwarevm (probably in ~/Virtual\ Machines.localized) Right click > Open with VMware Fusion

Got the prompt to add screen recording privacy setting

Downloaded 11.5 and installed overtop of 11.1

From reading through comments it seems like a crapshoot this fixes the issue for people. FWIW this worked for me.

AnaelG
Contributor
Contributor

For me changing the VMware Memory settings didn't help. The key was to give Screen Recording privilege to VMWare in the macOS System Preferences > Security and Privacy.

Since VMWare didn't appear in the list there I followed the steps from this post:

https://posts.boy.sh/vmware-fusion-catalina

Thanks a lot posts.boy!

winonmac
Contributor
Contributor

https://posts.boy.sh/vmware-fusion-catalina

Thanks a lot posts.boy!

This worked for me as well on macOS Catalina 10.15.1 running Windows 10 on VMWare Fusion 10.1.6. After running the steps I got the screen recording permission in system preferences security pane and so Windows is visible again Smiley Happy

The steps involve creating a file fixfusion.sh and pasting in the code:

#!/bin/sh 


# Change the following to fit your system

root="/Volumes/Macintosh HD"


"$root/usr/bin/sqlite3" "${root}/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db" 'insert into access values ("kTCCServiceScreenCapture", "com.vmware.fusion", 0, 1, 1, "", "", "", "UNUSED", "", 0,1565595574)'

You then place this shell script file in the tmp folder on Macintosh HD. On my macOS drive the tmp folder is inside the /private folder so the full path is "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/private/tmp". Use the go to folder... menu command in Finder to open this folder then drag and drop fixfusion.sh into this folder.

Next reboot and hold command-R when you hear the startup tone. You will enter recovery mode. Select terminal from the menu bar and paste in the code (assuming your path is the same as mine):

sh "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/private/tmp/fixfusion.sh"

If it works you'll see no messages. Reboot and you should see the security preference added. All done!

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B007
Contributor
Contributor

Lifesaver!!!

Any other method (installing 11.x version and reverting to 10.x afterwards) did not work for me; it never showed VMWare Fusion listed under Screen Recording under System Preferences...Privacy &Security.

This shows how VMWare doesn't care about supporting their active products. While they make sure their latest version works, they don't update a prior version so it works with latest MacOS version, 2 months after that OS came out. Latest update of Fusion 10.x was 10.1.6 released on 2019-03.28.

No official tech support; users need to figure out themselves while VMWare just hopes to sell another upgrade license.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Fusion 10 was released for Sierra - in 2017.  Fusion 11 was released for High Sierra in 2018.  Fusion 11.5 (which is a free upgrade from Fusion 11) supports Catalina.

Fusion 10 is not an active product - VMWare was kind enough to release minor security updates for an out-of-date version, but that is very different than major re-engineering to support an entirely new operating system.

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B007
Contributor
Contributor

If the lifetime of the product is just 1 year, it should be stated as such upfront when you purchase the product that it is 'subscription-based'.

Otherwise this is just a convenient way to sell an upgrade every year.

Unless subscription based, 3 years is min reasonable time for a software product to be supported.

It is not 'major engineering effort' to correctly write an OS permission which could easily be done in a support update (screen recording permission is needed to work with Catalina, probably because of the screenshot Fusion generates, but it has to be enabled by a direct write into the permission database, as explained by a previous poster).

I have Fusion 10.6 now working with Catalina. It seems to work fine.

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donwalrus
Contributor
Contributor

Confirmed that installing 11.1.0 prompts for Screen Recording permissions...11.5.1 (for example) did not...after install I reinstalled my licensed copy of Fusion (8.5.6 in my case) and black screen is gone. Thanks for all the help on this thread!!

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Fusion 10 was released and provided support for Sierra, with no promise of support for future major releases.   It's not subscription based, though I wish it was, to avoid this type of false understanding that seems to happen every release.

It is a major engineering effort - there are far more changes than the hack to work around this one issue, including fundamental file system changes for Catalina guests. 

in any case, running old, unsupported versions risks corrupting your VM.  If you choose to do so, then make sure you have a good backup strategy in place.

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iwman
Contributor
Contributor

thank you @0x00400000,

this is really helpful. It solves my black screen problem.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

The lifetime of VMware Fusion is no secret, it is published in the lifecycle document of all of VMware products.

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/support/product-lifecycle-matrix.p...

For VMware Fusion 10, that was from 2017/09/26 until 2019/03/26

For VMware Fusion 11, it is from 2018/09/24 until 2020/12/19

MacOS Catalina was released in October 2019, which is half a year after Fusion 10 was retired.

Adding Catalina support to any product was a major engineering effort. For VMware even double so, because it ties in very deep with the OS.

That you can get an older version to behave slightly, appearing to work OK, is not exactly the same as having to update a product to officially support a new OS.

Also note that you are not forced to upgrade to Catalina, it is a choice made by you.

Apple does still support macOS Mojave and VMware Fusion 10 runs just fine on that.

You can continue to use VMware Fusion 10, after having to spent time to get it past changes made by apple.

This is a choice you can make, but it is indeed an inconvenience.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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stone45000
Contributor
Contributor

I had the problem and then got the latest version of VMWare Fusion (11.5.1). I reinstalled it and the problem went away.

No need for other settings or anything, it just works like it did before I had Catalina.

--Tim

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acvirtual
Contributor
Contributor

This is the only solution if one wishes to continue running version 8.x.x and OS catalina. After trying many solutions, finally this one works. I really doubt if anything else will. This is essentially because version 11.1 is the last one which triggers screen recording alert. Once done, you can simply downgrade to 8.5.x and go back to the things they were, before you encountered blank screen.

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vmbob201110141
Contributor
Contributor

Well I have spent hours on this and it still doesn't work.

I am converting my vmware images so that I can move over to VirtualBox - I am fed up with VMware breaking things and wanting upgrades all the time.

Bye bye.

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onlysuperstar
Contributor
Contributor

Awesome i tried so many things and wasted few hours but this one worked perfectly. `thanks a lot for sharing

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wwalker
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you for those instructions.  It, of course worked!

And I don't have to buy 11.5 yet 🙂

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fairflow
Contributor
Contributor

The option to check VMWare Fusion for Screen Recording does not appear for me; even after doing tccutil reset All com.vmware.fusion as suggested by https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/79989

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Are you on the latest release of 11.5?

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fairflow
Contributor
Contributor

Ah, no.  And now I see that I will need to purchase not one but two upgrades to get the latest.  So: goodbye VMWare and hello VirtualBox.  Unless the database hack https://posts.boy.sh/vmware-fusion-catalina works for my version.  Thanks!

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fairflow
Contributor
Contributor

Well, the hack did work, and I have my VMWare Guests available again!

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