How to Upgrade VMware Fusion

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps for upgrading VMware Fusion.

• For more information on uninstalling Fusion, see How to Uninstall VMware Fusion manually.
• For more information on installing Fusion, see How to Download and install VMware Fusion.

Environment

VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Fusion 12.x
VMware Fusion 11.x
VMware Fusion Pro 12.x
VMware Fusion Pro 11.x
VMware Fusion 8.x

Resolution

Process to Upgrade Fusion:

Note: There is no upgrade path between versions of Fusion. In Fusion 5.x, installing it automatically removes any older versions of Fusion on the Mac. If you download Fusion 4.x, use the application Double-click to upgrade from VMware Fusion 3 included in the VMware Fusion installation image. This automates the removal of Fusion 3 and the installation of Fusion 4.

To upgrade Fusion follow the steps below:

1. Ensure that all virtual machines are shut down.
2. Quit Fusion.
3. If necessary, uninstall Fusion and restart your Mac. This step is not required in Fusion 5.x.
   
   Note: In most cases, uninstalling the existing version of Fusion is not required to upgrade. If the upgrade fails, try uninstalling Fusion before installing the upgrade. For more information, see Manually uninstalling VMware Fusion (1017838).
    
4. Install the new version of Fusion. For more information, see Downloading and installing VMware Fusion (2014097).

If Virtual Machines are not detected:

Any previous virtual machines are automatically detected and appear in the Virtual Machine Library. If they are not detected, follow these steps:

1. From Fusion's menu bar, go to File > Open.
2. Navigate to and select the virtual machine.
3. Click Open.
4. Repeat as needed for each virtual machine.

Process Upgrading VMware Tools:

When upgrading Fusion, the new version may come with an updated version of VMware Tools that requires separate installation.

If the VMware Tools installer does not launch automatically after booting the virtual machine:

1. From the Fusion menu, click Virtual Machine > Update VMware Tools.
2. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.
3. Restart the virtual machine when prompted.

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

Additional Information

For more information deleting the virtual machines on your system, see Deleting a virtual machine in Fusion
For more information on installing Windows 10 as guest OS, see Installing Windows 10 as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion

After installing Fusion and starting the application, you must upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine.

 

For more information, see Virtual machine hardware version compatibility for Fusion

 

This change is necessary to take advantage of some of the more advanced features of Fusion, and improves the way in which Fusion virtualizes your hardware.

For more information on upgrading to Fusion 11, see: Upgrading from Fusion 10 to Fusion 11