Some macOS guests lost keyboard and mouse

[Gideon007]

I'm using Fusion 12.1 on macOS 11.1.

I'm a long time user and have some VMs that I have used and migrated from one Fusion version to the next for some years now. I only use them for some quick testing.
Now I have two VMs (running macOS 10.10 and 10.11) that I cannot control anymore. Both pup up the "Bluetooth Keyboard Setup" and complain that there isn't a keyboard connected. Of course I cannot do anything in the VM as neither keyboard nor mouse work inside the VMs (as the VMs think there is nothing connected).

Other macOS VMs work fine (macOS 10.8, 10.9, 10.14).

Any idea how I can get control of these VMs back?

[mario_bros_tech]

It looks both of us are experiencing the same issue. I'll continue to monitor this thread in case any discoveries are made in regards to this issue.

I will add that OS X 10.10 Yosemite works fine prior to installing any Security Updates, so if you reinstall OS X and hide the Security Update, you should have a working VM. This is not the case for 10.11 El Capitan (though I suspect it may work if you have an older version of the Install OS X El Capitan.app file).

Here's the thread I opened, for reference: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Discussions/Can-t-install-El-Capitan-guest-on-Fusion...

[Gideon007]

Ah, thanks, good to know I'm not the only one with this problem and that it may be caused by the security updates...

[wila]

Hi,

The keyboard & mouse work on other VM's?

If keyboard & mouse works on other VM's then try to change the USB in settings from USB 3 to USB 2.

If keyboard & mouse works nowhere else then go to apple menu -> Security & Preferences -> Privacy -> Accessibility and make sure that VMware Fusion is in the list. If it already is in the list, then remove it and add it back.

Hope this helps,

--
Wil

[mario_bros_tech]

Changing from USB 3.1 to USB 2.0 seems to have fixed the issue for me! Do you have any idea why this might be? I don't believe this to be a problem with OS X itself because I've done installations of El Capitan on physical hardware with mice connected to USB 3.1 ports just fine, and all versions of OS X other than Yosemite and El Capitan seem to be unaffected by this issue. Is there any way this can be fixed within Fusion itself?

Thanks again for your help!

[wila]

Hi,

I think it is a change in the virtual hardware and the older OS's not knowing how-to cope with that.
In the past we only had USB 3.0 and not USB 3.1
But quite frankly that is just a guess. I just know what is wrong when I see somebody reporting the problem 😉

--
Wil

[mario_bros_tech]

This is a bit strange, though, because OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server through 10.9 Mavericks cope with USB 3.1 just fine, which is what made me originally suspect that this is a VMware issue, not an Apple one. Any thoughts on why that might be?

[wila]

Hi,

Pretty sure that 10.6 does not have USB 3.1 support as that OS was released before even USB 3.0 was available (they released the spec in the same year). Apple Mac's didn't get USB 3.0 ports until 2012 (which is 4 years later) and I don't expect OS X inbox drivers to support USB 3 natively much earlier.

I think if you'll look at your OS X 10.6 VM then I suspect that the virtual hardware is not the same as your newer VMs having problems.

Then again there can be other ways for VMware to automatically downgrade the virtual USB port to USB 2 as setting the guest OS does also influence the virtual hardware, at least during creation time.

None of this is very interesting from my point of view as I don't work for VMware and have no influence on any of this, so I'm going to leave it at this.
At least you got your keyboard & mouse to work and that is the only thing that really matters.

--
Wil

[mario_bros_tech]

Thanks for sharing! OS X 10.6 Server does in fact default to USB 2.0 connections. However, this still doesn't explain why Mountain Lion and Mavericks both default to using USB 3.1 and work just fine, as well as Yosemite working fine prior to any security updates. If this is an issue on Apple's side, would it be worthwhile for VMware to default these VMs to USB 2.0 or 3.0 mode instead?

[Gideon007]

Thanks, that change to USB2 fixed it for me as well.

[gringley]

I did find an older post from a Fusion developer that indicates they know they have a problem here.  Been using Fusion since V1 and V12 introduced this problem.

[Peter19]

The USB 3.1 -> 2.0 trick worked for me. Thank you, I was going crazy.

[jwfinance]

This worked for me, thank you.

Security & Preferences -> Privacy -> Accessibility and make sure that VMware Fusion is in the list. If it already is in the list, then remove it and add it back.