Changing the default VM Path in VMWare Fusion on OSX Yosemite

VMWare-Fusion-OSX-Yosemite-default-VM-Path-change.md

Changing the default VM Path in VMWare Fusion on OSX Yosemite:

I had a little trouble figuring this out - so making a note of it. The VMWare Fusion default location for VMs is ~/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized, which doesnt work well for me as I typically have Documents symbolically linked to my Dropbox directory and prefer to move the default VM location rather than manage exclusions on every Dropbox install I have.

It's relatively straightforward on VMWare Workstation, and Oracle VirtualBox - but for some reason not well documented in VMWare Fusion. Turns out it's relatively simple to update, so here it is so I don't forget the next time I need to do this. Saving as a public gist in case it's of value for anyone else.

I'm using VMWare Fusion v6, haven't tested on other versions - but I suspect it'll work on them. Need to test this.

Changing the default VM Directory for VMWare Fusion

Open up ~/Library/Preferences/VMWare Fusion/preferences in your favorite text editor

cd ~/Library/Preferences/VMWare\ Fusion
cp preferences preferences.backup
vi preferences

Look for a line starting with prefvmx.defaultVMPath. If it is present in the file, update the directory assigned to it to the new default VM directory. If it's missing, add it to the bottom of the file and save your work. Quit VMWare Fusion if it is running. Start VMWare fusion and attempt to create a new VM, anything will do. Once done - check that the files have ended up in the new default VM directory.

Finally -- quit VMWare Fusion again, and move the contents of ~/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized to your new default VM directory.

cd /Users/MY_USERNAME/VirtualMachines/VMWareFusion
mv "/Users/MY_USERNAME/Virtual Machines.localized/*" ./
rmdir "/Users/MY_USERNAME/Virtual Machines.localized"

Start VMWare Fusion again and you should see any pre-existing VMs available in the Virtual Machine manager.

This folder does not exist in VMWare Fusion v10. There is a ~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/, but it's empty.

E: It appears it doesn't create the ~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/ folder until after the first virtual machine is created and ready to launch. I did, however, direct it to save the VM outside of iCloud Documents, in the Virtual Machines.localized that it created, which I had already moved out of Documents. I can now use the configuration option in case I need to create future virtual machines.

E2: I just opened the preferences file, only to discover that it had already changed the prefvmx.defaultVMPath setting to match the newly moved Virtual Machines.localized folder.

I'm aware that this thread started in 2017, wanted to update on my experience with Fusion 11.5.3. I moved without terminal, I simply created a directory on an external drive called Virtual Machines and I moved the VMs to the new directory. Deleted the old directory, and launched the VMs by directly selecting them in their new locations. I prompt popped, asking if I moved or copied the VMs, I selected Moved. And it launched the VM.

done

I found this article for Fusion 11 and 12:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/11/com.vmware.fusion.using.doc/GUID-ECE9C823-8EE2-44AB-A72B-3C37B76F5193.html

According to that Fusion uses the last location used as default for future VM creations:

When you use Fusion to create a virtual machine and you specify a virtual-machine location, instead of accepting the default, your specified location becomes the default the next time you create a virtual machine with Fusion.