Files does not sync on shared folder VMWare Player

Since my Parallels software is not compatible with Mavericks, I decided to use Windows machine for virtualization. On Windows, I am using VMWare Player to run Linux occasionally. Recently, I often use the VMWare since the software that I am using is only available on Linux.

I found that using the latest VMWare tools (as this article is written), the files on shared folders are out of sync if they are modified from the host (Windows 7). After searching for the solutions, I found the discussions on the VMWare communities forum here: https://communities.vmware.com/message/2313778.

It seems that VMWare teams are still addressing the issues (as this article is written). Meanwhile, the solution is to revert back to older version of VMWare tools.

Here is the steps:

1. Before turning on the VMWare, modify the VMWare file .vmx setting, otherwise, the downgrade can be overridden:

   tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"

2. As super user, unmount the current shared folder. Example:

   # umount /mnt/hgfs

3. Download the older version of the VMWare tool here (select the appropriate one based on the OS):
   https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/6.0.1/1331545/packages/
   In my case, I downloaded com.vmware.fusion.tools.linux.zip.tar.
4. Extract the file. If you are using linux, extract linux.iso file as well or just mount it.
5. using super user, execute the vmware install script:

   # ./vmware-install.pl

6. After completed, make sure the build version is build-1294478:

   root@ubuntu:~# vmware-toolbox-cmd -v
   9.6.0.26048 (build-1294478)
   

That's all :)