Can't completely disable time/date sync between VM and host

[moshst34]

Hi, I've added these lines to the vmx file:

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.continue = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.restore = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.resume.disk = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.shrink = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.tools.startup = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.tools.enable = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.resume.host = "FALSE"

Assuming that at the start the date both on the VM and the host is the same: 2021-02-18. Now I do the following:

1) Change the date inside the VM from 2021-02-18 to 2021-02-13 (go back 5 days) and power off the VM.

2) Change the date inside the host from 2021-02-18 to 2021-02-20 (go forward 2 day).

3) When I power on the VM - the date is 2021-02-15 (it advanced 2 days forward inside the VM because I advanced it 2 days forward inside the host)

Am I missing any configuration in the vmx file or is this a bug?

Thanks.

[DaveP]

Here are my settings:

# --- START TARDIS MODE ---

# Stop VMware tools from updating
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

# Stop time syncs once running/suspended
time.synchronize.allow = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.allow.backward = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.continue = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.continue.backward = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.pause = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.pause.backward = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.restore = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.restore.backward = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.resume.disk = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.resume.disk.backward = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.resume.host = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.shrink = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.shrink.backward = "FALSE"

# Stop writes to nvram file
nvram.mode = "nonpersistent"

# Start date & time as Unix epoch datetime - exmaple here 12/02/2014 00:00:00
rtc.startTime = 1392163200

# Timezone offset in seconds
rtc.diffFromUTC = 0
# --- END TARDIS MODE ---

The last three settings are really only needed if you want to restart from a set time.

[moshst34]

Thanks! This answer does help (though I still think the current behavior is buggy). My experience trying it on a Windows 10 VM:

rtc.startTime - can only be set to a later time than the current one (setting it to a earlier time doesn't update the time in the guest VM).

rtc.diffFromUTC - doesn't seem to exert any effect on the time or time zone in my case.

Cheers.

[ThisIsDiaco]

Thank you DaveP. Your post saved my day 🙂