Loading

×Sorry to interrupt
CSS Error

Refresh

Cookie Preference Center

General Information on cookies

When you visit our website, we use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience. This information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies by clicking on the different category headings to find out more and change your settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on the site and the services we are able to offer. Further information can be found in our

Cookie Policy.

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary

Always Active

Strictly Necessary

Strictly necessary cookies are always enabled since they are essential for our website to function. They enable core functionality such as security, network management, and website accessibility. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but this may affect how the website functions. For more information please visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Cookie Details‎

Performance

Performance

Performance

Performance cookies are used to analyze the user experience to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. They allow us to know which pages are the most and least popular, see how visitors move around the site, optimize our website and make it easier to navigate.

Cookie Details‎

Please confirm your settings by refreshing the page.

Functional

Functional

Functional

Functional cookies help us keep track of your past browsing choices so we can improve usability and customize your experience. These cookies enable the website to remember your preferred settings, language preferences, location and other customizable elements such as font or text size. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Cookie Details‎

Advertising

Advertising

Advertising

Advertising cookies are used to send you relevant advertising and promotional information. They may be set through our site by third parties to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. These cookies do not directly store personal information, but their function is based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device.

Cookie Details‎

Advertising Cookies

Consent Leg.Interest

Select All Vendors

Select All Vendors

Select All Hosts

Select All

Clear Filters

Information storage and access

Apply

Confirm My Choices Reject All Allow All

Skip to main content

My Subscriptions

Loading

Knowledge Base

Sharing a folder from your Mac to a virtual machine (1004055)

Last Updated: 9/20/2018Categories: InformationalTotal Views: 478855Language:
Chinese (Simplified)JapaneseSpanishEnglish

76 like this article

Subscribe to get an email
newsletter with new updates

76 people found this helpful Please provide article feedback:

Details

This article provides the steps to make a folder on your Mac available to a virtual machine using VMware Fusion. It also discusses security and permissions, troubleshooting shared-folder access, and alternatives to using Shared Folders.

Solution

Note: VMware Tools must be installed for shared folders to work. For more information about VMware Tools, see Overview of VMware Tools for VMware Fusion (1022048).

VMware Fusion's Shared Folders feature enables you to access your Mac's folders from your virtual machine. To access your virtual machine's folders from the Mac, you need to set up mirrored folders or create a network share. To see Shared Folders in action, watch this video:

For information on mirroring folders, instead of sharing, see Setting up mirrored folders for your Mac and virtual machine (1014127). For details on creating a network share, see the end of this article.

Windows

To configure a shared folder in a Windows virtual machine:

Launch VMware Fusion.

Power on the virtual machine.

Click Virtual Machine > Settings.

Click Sharing.

In Fusion 10.x, 8.x and 7.x select Enable Shared Folders. In Fusion 6.x, 5.x and 4.x, turn ON the Shared folders option. In Fusion 3.x, select the Share folders on your Mac option.

Click the + button.

Browse to the folder on the Mac that will be shared with the virtual machine and click Add.

Shared folders can be accessed via the VMware Shared Folders shortcut on the Windows desktop or the mapped network drive Z:.

Linux

To configure a shared folder in a Linux or Solaris virtual machine:

Note: FreeBSD does not support Shared Folders.

Launch VMware Fusion.

Power off the virtual machine.

Click Virtual Machine > Settings.

Click Sharing.

In Fusion 10.x, 8.x and 7.x, select Enable Shared Folders. In Fusion 6.x, 5.x and 4.x, turn ON the Shared folders option. In Fusion 3.x, select the Share folders on your Mac option.

Click the + button.

Enter the share name, browse to the folder on the Mac that will be shared with the virtual machine and click Add.

Click Apply, then OK.

Power on the virtual machine.

Open the Terminal utility in the guest operating system.

Browse to the Host Guest File System (HGFS) folder by running this command:

cd /mnt/hgfs

Note: Whenever the Linux kernel (Operating System) is updated, VMware Tools will need to be reinstalled.

Security

If you are concerned about security, you can make the shared folders read-only, so that the virtual machine can access the files within but cannot change them or add new files. This does not affect how the Mac interacts with its own files and folders.

To make the folder access read-only:

Launch VMware Fusion.

Power on the virtual machine.

Click Virtual Machine > Settings.

Click Sharing.

For each folder you want to protect, change the Permissions dropdown from Read & Write to Read Only.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any errors about shared folders, or you cannot access the folders, try each of these steps in turn, restarting the virtual machine after each:

Remove each of the shared folders. Repeat steps 1-4 for your operating system above, then select each folder, and then click the – button to remove it.

Disable shared folders. Repeat steps 1-4 for your operating system above, and then deselect the box(es) you selected to turn on sharing.

Reinstall VMware Tools. For more information, see Uninstalling and manually installing VMware Tools in VMware Fusion (1014522).

For more troubleshooting steps, see Troubleshooting access to shared and mirrored folders in Fusion (1027646).

Additional Information

Desktop Shortcut

VMware Fusion automatically creates a shortcut to the shared folders on the virtual machine's desktop. This shortcut is in addition to the network drive that is mapped to shared folders, visible in My Computer (on Windows) or in /mnt (in Linux). If you do not want this desktop shortcut, it is possible to delete it.

To delete the shortcut:

Shut down the virtual machine.

Open the virtual machine settings file for editing. For information, see Editing the .vmx file for your Fusion virtual machine (1014782).

Find this line:

hgfs.linkRootShare = "TRUE"

Change it to:

hgfs.linkRootShare = "FALSE"

Save and close the .vmx file.

Quit Fusion, and the reopen Fusion. This reloads the changed settings.

Power on the virtual machine.

Other Sharing

VMware Fusion's Shared Folders feature is designed to keep you from having to worry about setting up sharing in Windows or Linux, and then connecting to it from the Mac. For information on setting up sharing in the virtual machine and then connecting to it from the Mac, see these Apple articles:

Setting up a Windows computer to share files with Mac users.

Connecting to shared computers and file servers on a network and its linked article Connecting to shared computers and servers using a network address

Note: The preceding links were available as of November 02, 2012. If you find the links to be broken, provide feedback on the article and a VMware employee will update the article as necessary.

For translated versions of this article, see:

Español: Compartir una carpeta desde su Mac hasta una máquina virtual (2055341)

日本語: Mac から仮想マシンへのフォルダの共有 (2078582)

简体中文: 将 Mac 中的文件夹共享到虚拟机 (2074940)

Detectable by VMware SkylineTM

Actions

Copy

link to clipboard
copied!

Print

Language:
Chinese (Simplified)JapaneseSpanishEnglish

Attachments

Additional Resources

KB
•
Instalar VMware Tools en una máquina virtual Fusion que ejecute Windows (1003417)

Result 1 of 1

Ask The Community

Get answers quickly from VMware experts in the community

Post Subject

CONTINUE IN COMMUNITIES

Related Products:

VMware Fusion Pro

VMware Fusion

Related Versions:

VMware Fusion Pro 8.x

VMware Fusion Pro 12.x

VMware Fusion Pro 11.x

VMware Fusion Pro 10.x

VMware Fusion 8.x

VMware Fusion 7.x

VMware Fusion 6.x

VMware Fusion 5.x

VMware Fusion 4.x

VMware Fusion 3.x

VMware Fusion 2.x

VMware Fusion 12.x

VMware Fusion 11.x

VMware Fusion 10.x

view all

Take Our Survey

Was this article helpful?

YES

NO

Copyright © 2005-2024 Broadcom. All Rights Reserved. The term “Broadcom” refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Terms of Use

Your California Privacy Rights

Privacy

Accessibility

Cookie Settings

Support Assistant