The documented method of removing Fusion from a Mac only removes the Fusion application. There are other files that will remain on the system that sometimes can cause issues when upgrading or re-installing Fusion.
There is a VMware KB article that discusses how to manually remove these Fusion files from your Mac: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838
But what if you want to run a quick check to see if any of these files are still there?
The script is_fusion_installed.sh (zipped and attached to this article) is based on the above KB article and provides a quick way to tell if any of the Fusion files are still remaining on your Mac.
The script:
- does not require admin privileges
- does not locate any virtual machines you have installed
- does not touch any of your virtual machines
- does not delete any files (sorry, you'll need to do that yourself)
Instructions:
- Download the attached zip file
- Extract the file (either using the command line unzip utility or the macOS Archive Utility). The script (is_fusion_installed.sh) should be extracted.
- In a Finder window, find the script.
- Open a Terminal window, and drag the script from the Finder window into the Terminal window,
- Type return in the Terminal window and the script will execute.
You should see something like this if you have any Fusion files installed (in this example, I have Fusion fully installed)
% /xxxxxx/is_fusion_installed.sh
This script checks to see if files belonging to VMware Fusion are installed
using information from VMware KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838
Checking for VMware Fusion application
[WARNING] VMware Fusion application still exists
Checking for other Fusion files...
[WARNING] Fusion folder "/Library/Application Support/VMware/VMware Fusion" still exists
[WARNING] Fusion file "/Library/Application Support/VMware/Usbarb.rules" still exists
[WARNING] Fusion folder "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion" still exists
[WARNING] Fusion folder "~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion" (full path "/Users/xxxxxx/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion") still exists
[WARNING] Fusion folder "~/Library/Caches/com.vmware.fusion" (full path "/Users/xxxxx/Library/Caches/com.vmware.fusion") still exists
[WARNING] Fusion folder "~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion" (full path "/Users/xxxxxx/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion") still exists
[WARNING] Fusion file "~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.plist" (full path "/Users/xxxxxx/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.plist") still exists
[WARNING] Fusion file "~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusionStartMenu.plist" (full path "/Users/xxxxxx/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusionStartMenu.plist") still exists
Your Mac has files from a Fusion installation.
Please delete them manually to clean your Mac of all traces of Fusion
