I have a couple USB 3.0 hubs that I plug into my iMac. They work fine when VMware Fusion is not running, e.g. I can plug in flash drives and other items into the hubs and they mount to the system just fine. However, when I have VMware Fusion running, the popup comes up asking which system I would like to connect the device to. If I choose a Windows or Linux guest OS, the USB device connects fine and I am able to use it. If I choose the host OS, or any OSX guest, it never mounts the drives and they don't show up in the device list!!
I have tried different drives, different hubs, I get the same behavior no matter what. The devices work fine if I plug them directly into the iMac but not through the hubs. How can I get my host OSX to recognize USB devices I plug into the hubs when VMware Fusion is running??
Thanks for using Fusion, this possibly a known issue in Fusion 6.0.2, and that can be fixed by downgrade your Fusion to version 6.0.1.
I just tried downgrading to Fusion 6.0.1 but I am still seeing the same behavior.
Thanks for report this issue, that may be a different problem. I can reproduce it too and we will address this issue.
Two quick workarounds:
1. Try to connect your device to Mac directly without using the hub.
2. (Do not prefer) if your don't need to connect all the device to guest, say all of them only needed to work on the Mac host, then you can open Activity Monitor and find the vmware-usbarbitrator process and force quit it. then any device on the hub will be connected to host directly, but PLEASE NOTE: if you quit this process, you are unable to see the USB arbitrator dialog (Connect to Mac, or Connect to Windows) and you cannot connect the device to guest any more until quit and relaunch Fusion.
Hope it helps.
Interesting, after several plug in and plug out, I could not reproduce this issue on Fusion 6.0.1, so you may have a try also.
Hi Tracy - I worked with Simon on this issue a while ago, it's been there since Fusion 5.
If you add devices to a hub, or plug in a hub with devices attached it triggers the issue. The easiest way to force it is to check the 'always connect to mac' box, then it happens every time. The only way to then have those devices appear is to either plug them into a different USB port (on the computer, not the hub), or reboot the Mac.
Thanks dlhotka for narrowing down the issue, I can reproduce with your steps. I just did a search and found we already have a PR to track this issue. Thank you again.
Thanks for the tips but unfortunately, neither of these workarounds will work for me. I need to have many devices connected to both host and guest. It is very inconvenient to have to remove vital components from the usb ports when I should be able to use my hub. I think this issue should be a high priority to fix in the next minor update to Fusion. In the meantime, I may have to switch to using another software product.
I am sorry to hear that, could you have a final try that switch your USB 3.0 hub to USB 2.0 hub, from my local testing with usb 2.0 hub + usb 3.0 devices, I didn't hit the issue.
Unfortunately, I don't have any USB 2.0 hubs and at least 3 of the devices I use require USB 3.0 to work properly.
I'm having this same problem. I'm a Parallels user, looking to move to VMWare only for the linked instance feature. With this problem, I don't know if it's worth it, especially since I have to pay for Pro to get this one feature. I guess maybe I'll keep an eye on this issue and crossgrade once it is resolved.
Our USB dev team provide another workaround, please have a try and let me know if it works for you.
To connect a USB device to a VM: Select "Connect to VM" when initially prompted. Otherwise the device will go into limbo.
To connect a USB device to the host: Select "Connect to Mac". Wait a second and then unplug and immediately replug the device back into the port it was connected to.
This does work for me. Thanks for finding a way to at least get devices connected to the host. Hopefully this problem can be fixed for good soon!
Thanks - I'll give it a go.
Do you know where the previous 'always connect to mac' preference is stored so I can delete it?
/Library/Application Support/VMware/usbarb.rules, delete the file before launch Fusion please.
