Macos – VMWare Fusion: “No Permission to access this virtual machine”

macosvirtual machinevmware-fusion

I had a VMWare Fusion VM backed up on my home network file server (Ubuntu). I wanted to run it again, so I copied it back to my Macbook.

When I tried to launch it in VMWare, I got an error message:

No permission to access this virtual machine.
Configuration file: /Users/craig/WinXP Clean + Scanner.vmwarevm/WinXP Pro Test.vmx

The permissions look fine to me:

  • The bundle directory is 777
  • The bundle files (including the listed .vmx) are all 666
  • User is craig (my current user); group is staff. I changed the group to wheel at the suggestion of this page, but that didn't help.
  • Finder shows read & write for craig, staff, and everyone on the bundle directory
  • The bundle dir is also not locked
  • Finder also shows rw and unlocked for the .vmx file
  • The parent directory is also rw & unlocked
  • Disk Utility permissions check doesn't show any problems with any of the associated files

It sure looks like I should have wide open access to run this VM; why is Fusion complaining?

Best Answer

Are you the owner of all the files in the bundle recursively? At this discussion (at post #6), a solution to this problem is to run the following in Terminal:

sudo chown -R ${USER} "/Users/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Professional.vmwarevm"

You'll need to replace Windows XP Professional.vmwarevm with WinXP Clean + Scanner.vmwarevm in your case.

Also, keep in mind that repairing disk permissions will never repair anything in your home directory. It's only applicable for Apple-installed software that are listed in /Library/Receipts.

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