Unable to get access to my virtual machine

[Riley Giantess]

Hi everyone!

For some reason my virtual machine is encrypted and I can't gain access to it. I can't remember what my password was to access my virtual machine is.

Can anyone help me at all?

I'm

[Technogeezer]

Did you configure Fusion to remember the encryption key in the Mac's keychain? Open the Keychain Access utility (use Spotlight to find it quickly). If you're on macOS Sequoia, you will be asked if you want to open the Passwords utility or the Keychain Access utilty. Click on "Keychain Access utility".

Once the Keychain Access utility is open, look in the "login" keychain. See if there's an entry for "VMware Fusion encryption". If there is, right click on it and select "Get Info". Look at the "Where" field -- it will point to the VM that the password entry is for. If that all matches, click "Show Password" to display the password for that VM.

If there's no login keychain entry for the VM and your VM was fully encrypted, your VM's virtual disks are also fully encrypted. Since there's no way to retrieve a lost encryption key, your data is lost. 

If there's no keychain entry and your VM was partially encrypted, the VM can be rebuilt since the virtual disk is not encrypted. Create a new VM (Create a custom virtual machine in the "Select an installation source dialog"). Select the same guest OS type as the original - if asked for encryption, choose "Only the files..." or partial encryption. And make sure you select the option to save the password in the keychain.

When asked for a virtual disk, select the option to use an existing virtual disk instead of creating a new one. Locate the broken VM's virtual disk in the file selection dialog that appears (the dialog will let you drill into an existing VM's bundle file to find the .vmdk file),. Select the broken VM's virtual disk and make sure you elect to elect to make a copy of it for the new VM. That'll leave the original vmdk files intact. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[Technogeezer]

For some reason my virtual machine is encrypted

Just to be clear, Fusion VM's don't encrypt themselves. Something has to be done intentionally to encrypt a VM.  

A Windows 11 VM is currently the only VM type that enables encryption by default - that's because it automatically includes a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) device in the VM configuration, and the TPM needs encryption.

When encryption is configured, you know that you're encrypting the VM because you are prompted for both the encryption type and for an encryption password. You do have the option to either provide a password or have a password generated for you. (If the password is auto-generated, it will be displayed for you.) You're also warned if you don't elect to save the password in the keychain that your data will be lost if you forget the password. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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