VMware Fusion 12 on macOS 10.15 and 11.0.1: Upgraded VM of MacOS 10.11 has no cursor control

[gdlow]

I upgraded to VMware Fusion 12.0 from version 11 whenever it was released and initially ran it under MacOS 10.15 on my iMac (2020).

When I opened my virtual machine copy of MacOS 10.11 I was invited to upgrade so it could use the latest Fusion 12 features. Upon doing this the cursor of the virtual machine was stuck at the top left of the screen. Nothing would make the cursor move. I then replaced the MacOS 10.11 VM with a backup copy and opted not to upgrade it. In this version the cursor could be moved perfectly.

I upgraded to MacOS 11.0.1 and VMware Fusion 12.1. Again I opted to upgrade the Mac OS 10.11 virtual machine and this time no cursor appeared at all. The non-upgraded version worked perfectly.

It appears that there is something in the "upgrading" process of the VM copy of MacOS 10.11 that renders the cursor of the virtual machine useless. Has anyone else come across this issue and, more importantly, found a reliable fix for it? At present I just use the non-upgraded version which seems to work okay as a workaround.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Did you change the virtual machine OS type after upgrading it?

[gdlow]

After upgrading I checked the virtual machine OS type and it was still set to OS 10.11. I have also installed the latest VMware Tools from Fusion 12.1 before upgrading but I'm still left with a non-responsive cursor. Ironically all my Windows VMs have updated painlessly.

[KamenGopin84 · Accepted solution]

Hi gdlow,

Could you please try the instructions in Re: Keyboard & Mouse not working in Yosemite Virtual Machine​ . They may help for your OSX 10.11 VM as well.

Regards,

Kamen

[gdlow]

Hi Kamen

Changing the USB Compatibility to USB 2.0 fixed the unresponsive mouse problems with the OSX 10.11 VM when upgraded from hardware version 16 to hardware version 18.

Thanks for your help.