How to Install VMware Tools on macOS High Sierra

45 Comments

1. Lehz675 January 5, 2023 at 7:20 PM Reply

   What about usb passthrough? If i want to connect iphone to guest mac?

2. Thapelo Mokoena December 13, 2019 at 1:11 PM Reply

   Hi everyone
   I have installed MacOs high sierra on vmware workstation 15 and I have a problem installing vmware tools so I can share my windows folders.
   The problem is that it when I click on install “install VMware Tools” it doesn’t do anything and I have done all the necessary steps

3. Sijing Lin August 19, 2018 at 12:54 AM Reply

   succeed, Thanks bro.

   1. Faiz Orz August 20, 2018 at 11:25 PM Reply

      Welcome dear.

4. heythem August 11, 2018 at 2:14 AM Reply

   I’ll share the result of more than try with MAC Os X and vmware tools. if you removed your vmware tools after the install it won’t work again correctly it’ll be corrupted actually “the display + full screen and shared folders” to be specific
   2- if you clicked on view–> fit guest now from Vmware software the screen display won’t work like it was and the “fit guest option will disappear. I don’t have any fix for these issues

5. heythem August 5, 2018 at 8:37 PM Reply

   Should I use Vmware workstation less than 14 for the vmware tools to work properly?

   1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorAugust 7, 2018 at 8:25 PM Reply

      I’ve installed on VMware 14 and it worked.

6. YAG May 29, 2018 at 4:06 PM Reply

   For those whose screen resolution automatically returns to HDPI.
   You need to configure the VM, select a monitor and check the box opposite Specify Monitor Settings

7. hugo May 11, 2018 at 1:18 AM Reply

   thank you for this post.. works not for the display resolution.. There is no aduio, do you have a fix for that? It can see the devices and I have chose different ones and rebooted; but no joy. I have an el capitain one that has sound. running workstation 14

8. hugo May 11, 2018 at 1:15 AM Reply

   thank you for thise post. the only issue I have now is no sound. The vm sees the audio devices but no joy.

9. David May 4, 2018 at 6:10 PM Reply

   I do not know if at some point I worked the configuration that indicated each comment or if it was enough with the post since I could not have the full resolution, however, after trying everything I decided to check the vmware options, surprise … is what I changed “view / autosize / autofit guest” with “autofit window”, nothing of restarts, maybe it will help someone.

   Tested on VMware® Workstation 14 Pro

   PD: If something is wrong written, sorry, the translator is at fault: v

   1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorMay 4, 2018 at 7:08 PM Reply

      Thank you for your kind comment

10. Frank March 11, 2018 at 10:45 PM Reply

    Can confirm that VMware Player 14 works – but a few changes have to be made:
    1. The link to the patch tool in this article (as well as in the “install High Sierra” article) is outdated, unlocker 208 does not work with player 14. You will need unlocker 2.1, f.e. from here:
    https://github.com/DrDonk/unlocker

    2. You can install VMware Tools, but it has no effect. The very last step after reboot is: Open the terminal in macOS and paste:
    sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled

    After reboot the display switched from 1024×768 to my native 2560×1440

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorMarch 12, 2018 at 7:14 AM Reply

       Thank you for sharing your feedback. We will update the article ASAP.

       1. Frank March 12, 2018 at 7:41 AM

          Thank you for your valuable articles. Saved me already several times a lot of effort.

       2. realtebo April 6, 2018 at 4:49 AM

          Yes, please, update this and the main article to latest available versions !!!

11. Nic February 8, 2018 at 8:30 PM Reply

    Hi All,
    Running VMWARE Player 12.5.9 build-7535481
    MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4
    Installed VM Tool 10.2.0

    Yet I still cannot change the screen resolution, if I select Display Preference then select Scaled I have 2 choices 3840×2160 or 1920×1080 everytime I select 1920×1080 it just reverts back to 3840×2160 with no change to the screen

    Any advice would be great

    Thanks

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorFebruary 8, 2018 at 9:20 PM Reply

       Uninstall VMware tools then restart your host machine, and install the VMware tools again. This may help you to fix this issue.

       1. Nic February 8, 2018 at 9:40 PM

          Thanks I have tried this and still MacOS is stuck on 384×2160 resolution.

          If I reduce the resolution in my windows setting to 1920×1080 then all is OK

          This issue only occurred when I updated VMWare player from 12.5.7 to 12.5.9 hence the reason I installed the latest 10.2.0 version of VM Tools

          Any other clues?
          Thanks

       2. Nic February 8, 2018 at 11:33 PM

          Having uninstalled and reinstalled different VM Tools versions I only get the following display resolution options with macOS 1920×1080 or 960×540 (HiDPI) and only 1920×1080 is selectable?? Seem to have lost 3840×2160 and no matter how many restarts just will not come back even though windows is running this resolution?
          Please help, pulling my hair out here 🙂

    2. Jørgen Mølbach August 8, 2018 at 4:30 PM Reply

       I had the same issues, and what helped me, was to turn off the setting called “Automatically adjust user interface size in the virtual machine” under VM Options->Hardware->Display. Reboot VM.

12. Andrey Medvedev January 20, 2018 at 11:57 PM Reply

    Can’t move to fullscreen even after installing tools and executing above commands. But all daemons i thinks works..
    ps -ax | grep .vm.
    86 ?? 0:00.62 /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools/vmware-tools-daemon –name vmsvc –common-path /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools/Plugins/Common –plugin-path /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools/Plugins/System
    352 ?? 0:00.39 /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools/vmware-tools-daemon –name vmusr –common-path /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools/Plugins/Common –plugin-path /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools/Plugins/User
    410 ttys000 0:00.01 grep .vm.

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorJanuary 21, 2018 at 5:00 AM Reply

       You don’t need to run any command. Just download and install VMware tools, it’s going to be OK.

13. WD December 2, 2017 at 2:53 AM Reply

    First, thanks to Wikigain for this page!

    I have a different problem than others have reported. I’m running macOS 10.13.1 and I can get VMware tools installed, but I can’t change resolutions in Display Preferences. I can go full screen, things like clipboard sharing and Shared Folders work, but when I go to Display Perferences, under Resolution “Default for display is selected” and if I select Scaled, 1024×768 is the only resolution available. I tried the Terminal command, sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool false but it didn’t make a difference.

    I’m running VMWare Workstation 14, maybe that’s part of the problem? I’ve tried different settings such as enabling 3D acceleration and giving it more Graphics Memory but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. When I bring up About this Mac, under Graphics it says “Display 128MB”.

    Any ideas?

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorDecember 3, 2017 at 11:09 AM Reply

       I think right now, VMware V14 is not compatible with MacOS. You can use VMware Workstation or Player V13.

       1. WD December 3, 2017 at 11:40 AM

          Thanks Mukhtar. I will try v12 and see if makes a difference.

          Everything else works great. The patch applied which let me select MacOS for the VM type, etc. I just can’t change resolutions and the video is sluggish even at 1024×768.

14. fabio November 24, 2017 at 5:00 AM Reply

    hi guys, I’ve installed a mac OS 10.13.1 virtual machine on vmware, but when I launch the tools that I downloaded from this page, the system says “this package is incompatible with this version of mac os and may fail yo install” indeed it fails every time, ideas? thanks a lot

    1. Faiz Orz November 28, 2017 at 1:22 PM Reply

       Hmm.. ASAP I will update the VMWare tool file.

15. jns November 22, 2017 at 11:01 PM Reply

    When the VMware window is maximized the resolution falls back to small. Otherwise resolution works. Any solution?

16. CompTrekkie November 18, 2017 at 10:49 PM Reply

    Same issues as the people above. 1920×1080 is an option but it switches right back to 960×540 instead.

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorNovember 19, 2017 at 9:58 AM Reply

       Once apply this command on Terminal
       1. Open Terminal and run the following command
       sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool false

       2. Reboot
       If it works for you let me know.

       1. a November 19, 2017 at 7:20 PM

          reinstall VMware tools serveral time with above command. It works

       2. jnavas November 23, 2017 at 1:17 AM

          I did this, but when enter full screen mode, the resolution falls back to a too small one.

          Tried the install over and over again, still the same issue.

          Thanks for any suggestions.

17. Jonathan Amendolara November 18, 2017 at 8:13 PM Reply

    Hi! I’ve managed to solve the problem
    1. Run this command in Terminal:
    sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool false

    2. Reboot

    And there should be a fixed resolution

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorNovember 19, 2017 at 9:59 AM Reply

       Thank you for sharing this method with other visitors.

18. Dave October 31, 2017 at 9:19 PM Reply

    Problem I have is it detects 1920*1080 as a resolution, but it also finds 960*540 (hiDPI) and will not let me change it from that, if I selesct 1080p or default is just flashes and goes back to the weird 960.

    1. Jean-Yves November 6, 2017 at 5:04 PM Reply

       I have exactly the same issue do you found a solution for this ?
       Regards

    2. Paulo November 10, 2017 at 3:11 AM Reply

       Same problem as @Dave. Won’t stay at 1920×1080.
       1) Shows at 1920×1080 at the login screen.
       2) As soon as I type the password, goes back to 960×540.

19. Ronald Geerligs October 22, 2017 at 2:10 AM Reply

    sorry, having full screen now thks

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorOctober 22, 2017 at 10:20 AM Reply

       Oh! Can you share with our visitors how you fixed your issue and what the issue?

20. Ronald Geerligs October 22, 2017 at 2:00 AM Reply

    And this does not fix the resolution at all…
    still 1024 x 7xx, with 128 MB

21. Ronald Geerligs October 22, 2017 at 1:53 AM Reply

    but I want higher resolution than that!

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorOctober 22, 2017 at 10:19 AM Reply

       Can you explain how you do this process?

22. Joe October 20, 2017 at 2:42 AM Reply

    Great job!!
    Thanks for publishing!
    Keep it up

    1. Mukhtar Jafari Post authorOctober 20, 2017 at 10:03 PM Reply

       Thanks for sharing your feedback

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