VMWare: MAC OS X stuck on Apple Logo
by admin on Mar.15, 2013, under Random()
If your VMWare virtual machine gets stuck on the Apple logo
1. Exit VMWare. Make sure it’s not running.
2. Go to My Documents/Virtual Machines/mac_os_x (or wherever you store your virtual machine files)
3. Edit the mac_os_x.vmx file with a text editor such as Notepad
4. Find a line saying smc.present = “TRUE“
smc.present = "TRUE"
5. And set it to FALSE
smc.present = "FALSE"
If you restart your virtual machine now and wait patiently for a minute or two it should finish the boot process successfully.
Update: 2017
As pointed out by the user jack in the comment section (many thanks): In case you get stuck at 30% forever, shutdown the VM, set smc.present back to TRUE and reboot.
October 17th, 2014 on 15:11
Hey i tried but its not working any othe sollutions?
January 15th, 2015 on 10:01
Not working for me. I’m using VMWARE 7 and Mac OS X Mavericks. Anything else I can try?
June 1st, 2015 on 00:55
I wanted to drop my experience somewhere so others can benefit from it.
I’m running VMware 11 and had OX 10.8 which worked well. I tried to update 10.8 via the App Store but I always got stuck at the Apple loading screen, stuck at 30% forever.
After two days of screwing around, I looked at my smc.present = “FALSE” and for giggles, I changed it to “TRUE”. It immediately worked. I don’t know why, maybe my unlocker didn’t do something right.
Anyways, moral of the story, change your smc.present settings and see what happens.
July 1st, 2015 on 11:31
Tried this but it still hangs on the apple logo. The wheel is spinning under the logo but nothing happens!!
May 3rd, 2016 on 19:05
i changed smc.present to FALSE….but still it stuck at apple logo with spinning…..please help me sir…..
June 14th, 2016 on 07:31
Nothing happens stil the same problem
June 14th, 2016 on 08:11
After booting successfully mac os installs and need to restart and then same issue stuck at 50% what should I do now……
H….. E….. L….. P…..
July 27th, 2016 on 08:57
Thanks, still helped me in 2016
August 20th, 2016 on 00:21
Still not working… Tried..
January 17th, 2017 on 01:58
Yes thank you Jack this helped me 🙂
February 3rd, 2017 on 01:14
Hi there
smc.present = “FALSE”
Worked for me.
Thank you so much for help.
June 4th, 2017 on 09:21
It probably depends on OSX and VMware versions:
VMware 8 + OSX 10.6 by Hazard -> smc.present = “FALSE”
VMware 8 + OSX 10.6 Retail -> smc.present = “TRUE”
To launch a retail version of it be present a USB controller in machine configuration.
July 9th, 2017 on 12:52
Hey, I read several posts with instructions to get macOS running in vmware player/workstation. But it seems that it doesn’t work for me at all. After following every step I end up with a virtual machine that is starting to boot, failing, and restarting the boot sequence again. I really don’t know what is the issue here and I hope someone can help me. Could it be my processor or chip set? I have an MSI motherboard working with a intel pentium dual core G4400.
October 13th, 2017 on 07:55
After setting it to false the error (at least visible) disappeared, but then it just stuck on a black screen.