"remember my choice"

[tonydenson]

When I plug a USB device into my Mac I get a message about whether I want to connect to the Windows VM or MacOS, and then a tick box to "remember my choice". This doesn't seem to do anything for me as it always asks again.

[admin]

Do you always plug it in to the same USB port? The setting is keyed off the port and device type because we can't always tell the difference between a device that has been moved and a different device of the same type.

If you are plugging it in to different ports, it should only ask once per port.

If this isn't the case, if you'd like to run the support tool and send the output to me, I can take a look at it.

Thanks!

[tonydenson]

I don't always plug it into the same port, but on the other hand my MBP only has 2 ports and I have seen the message dozens of times for e.g. my iPhone, so unless plugging it into port 2 causes it to forget the setting for port 1 then I can't see this is the problem. Further problem is that it is erratic, e.g. today it won't do it at all, but yesterday it was doing it every time I plugged anything in.

BTW how do I run the support tool if it does reoccur ?

[WoodyZ]

BTW how do I run the support tool if it does reoccur ?

Have a look at: Collecting diagnostic information for VMware Fusion

Other helpful things you should know:

[admin]

No, setting values for one port/device combination does not change any other values, even if it's the same port.

[tonydenson]

After a week of not doing it, this problem has now come back with a vengeance. I have just plugged my iPhone 4 times in a row into the same port and got the message every time. However, I have just run the option to collect the support information and it has created 5 MB of textual data spanning 84 files. I would rather live with the problem than have to read all that data to make sure it is not private data of mine. It's not even clear to me how far back this data goes.

[tonydenson]

Seeing as I am getting nowhere with this problem, an alternative approach for me would be to configure it so I never get asked about where I want to connect any device (just like it used to). I never want anything to automatically connect to Windows so that would be fine for me. Can I do this ?

[admin]

Sure, you can set a global default. In "[user]/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config" add one of the following usb.generic.pluginAction options:

usb.generic.pluginAction = "guest"

Each time you plug in an unrecognized USB device, it connects to the virtual machine.

usb.generic.pluginAction = "host"

Each time you plug in an unrecognized USB device, it connects to the Mac.

usb.generic.pluginAction = "ask"

This is the default action, in which VMware Fusion uses the USB EasyConnect facility to present a dialog asking if you want to connect the device to the virtual machine or to the Mac.

Also if you'd like to send just your Fusion preferences so I can try to see what's going on, the "[user]/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.plist" will give me some clues. Thanks!

[tonydenson]

Have made that edit thanks, and also PM'ed you the plist file

Tony

[tonydenson]

Even though I made the usb.generic.pluginAction = "host" edit, it still comes up with the original "remember my choice" dialog more often than not.

[admin]

OK, weird. Could you send me these two files:

"[user[/Library/Logs/VMware Fusion/vmware-vmfusion.log"

and the vmware.log from the virtual machine you're using? The easiest way to find it is:

From the library, do "Show in Finder"

Select it in the finder, do "Show Package Contents"

There should be a "vmware.log" file in that folder.

[tonydenson]

OK, weird. Could you send me these two files:

"[user[/Library/Logs/VMware Fusion/vmware-vmfusion.log"

and the vmware.log from the virtual machine you're using? The easiest way to find it is:

From the library, do "Show in Finder"

Select it in the finder, do "Show Package Contents"

There should be a "vmware.log" file in that folder.

You have mail. However, something that might be relevant to this is that I don't keep my VM in my Home folder. That is because I like to keep my Home folder as small as I reasonably can for backups, also with the VM being an image, the smallest delta causes a backup of 20GB. Instead I keep it in a folder in root.

[CoreDaveP]

I am also having this issue (Fusion 4.1.3) with MacOSX 10.8.2.

I see the following in the log if I connect/disconnect the phone a couple of times... it seems like it does remember my choice, but only for a very short amount of time ?? (2nd time it works without a 'Remember my choice' popup).

2012-11-01T13:07:38.651Z| UsbArbitrator| I120: USBGM: Stale autoconnect lockout on port fd130000 expired 1837 ms ago

2012-11-01T13:07:45.982Z| UsbArbitrator| I120: UsbdUpdatePreferencesNotificationCallback

2012-11-01T13:08:14.772Z| UsbArbitrator| I120: USBGM: Valid autoconnect lockout on port fd130000 expires in 719 ms

2012-11-01T13:08:14.772Z| UsbArbitrator| I120: Rejecting autoconnect for:Apple iPhone

2012-11-01T13:09:19.007Z| UsbArbitrator| I120: USBGM: Stale autoconnect lockout on port fd130000 expired 14124 ms ago

2012-11-01T13:09:23.279Z| UsbArbitrator| I120: UsbdUpdatePreferencesNotificationCallback

Is there a way to increase this 'timer' ?

[heptat]

I have the same problem. Has been happening for years on Mac. I just put up with it until now...now that I see there's no solution I think "I can always use VirtualBox" (since I only use my vms for *nix). I certainly won't bother upgrading to VMWare Fusion 5.