Looking over some posts regarding the verification issue, some users found that disabling their adblocker allowed the procedure to complete. As I said, I had no problem yesterday downloading from the Broadcom site and I previously had a VMWare account.
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Tried with Opera, for which I have zero extensions installed, and not likely any Broadcom cookies. Same error.
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I had the problem with a “migrated” Broadcom account that would fail to download the personal-use Fusion and Workstation products. .It took calls to Broadcom in order to get the verification issues worked around. (yes you can open a call for web site access issues without having an active support contract).
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I used Safari yesterday on my Mac Mini running Catalina and it worked fine. Today I tried it on my M1 Air using Firefox and no issues. I don’t use any adblockers or similar extensions but on Firefox, I do keep by Browser Privacy setting at Strict.
I do recall that you did have to register with Broadcom by a certain date which I did when I received the email so that could be another issue.
I’d sooner do that than create a new account. Thanks for the suggestion.
Same situation here.
Fortunately, I could update Fusion via the app’s Check for Updates menu command even though I could not download the latest installer from Broadcom.
I migrated my account back in May and had success downloading it now. Looking around the Broadcom site, I found this: VMware migrated users account activation issues Hope it might be of help for some.
I found out what’s going wrong at Broadcom for Fusion downloads and how to fix it. I just have a question open with Broadcom as to whether it is possible for a user to fix their account without assistance from Broadcom. Then I’ll post what I have learned.
Preview: It is broken for everyone that had an account at VMware but not a support agreement. Which is pretty much anyone who has bought Fusion or used Fusion Player. Probably also a good set of VMware Workstation users, too.
Edit: Decided not to wait, I think I know what they’re going to say…
Regarding error “Account verification is pending” when attempting to download the free VMware Fusion 13 Pro for Personal Use from Broadcom…
What Happened
Back at the beginning of May, Broadcom sent VMware customers a notice that they needed to activate their Broadcom support account (memo “ACTION NEEDED: Migrate your VMware Support Account to Broadcom”). Following these instructions created the Broadcom support account, but for many users didn’t create a working account. The reason is that Broadcom’s policy was to only migrate customers with an active support entitlement. Users with standalone licenses to VMware Fusion and Workstation, without any support entitlements, were not migrated.
The problem this created in the Broadcom system is that to download any VMware product, you must have a Site ID in the Broadcom system. A Site ID normally represents one company’s location where software is installed and licensed. No site ID, means that while you can follow the prompts at first download attempt to complete the registration (i.e. giving your address), you won’t have a working account.
I think that new user account registrations don’t have this problem. Perhaps the Broadcom system is now creating personal site IDs. But the accounts “migrated” in May don’t work.
How to Identify You Have This Problem
There’s three clues:
- You’re getting the “Account verification pending” error for weeks
- When you’re logged in to the Broadcom Support site, the menu in the upper right hand corner with your name just has “My Profile” and “Logout”
- The path My Profile > Build your Profile > Access Details doesn’t say you have access to Broadcom Software Product Downloads.
How to Fix It
The first step is you need to get a personal Site ID, and that requires Broadcom Support to create it.
The documented way is in Broadcom Support article Error: "Account verification is pending. Please try after some time." when downloading files.
It says to create a case, giving your name, address (and your support id, which is an email address). This article links to Contact Broadcom support, which links to a Customer Care Request Form.
(However, I followed this path and it didn’t work – I think it is because guess what the form requires? A site id. The instructions say to contact Broadcom Customer Care if you don’t know your Site ID, but now we’re in a circle.)
Let’s say you submit the request, wait a week, and don’t get a response. At that time you can use the Chat option to get an agent, give them the case # from above, and explain the problem. They can escalate it.
Note that Broadcom says they’re “currently experiencing an unusually high volume”, as you can imagine.
Once Broadcom attends to the case, they’ll create a site ID for you, and let you know what it is.
So I have a Site ID, now what?
Once you get the Site ID, you need to complete the registration process. There is no link to complete the registration process.
What you can do is…
- Login to the support site.
- From the menu with your name in the top right corner, select My Profile
- Select Build Your Profile
- Confirm you want to Build your Profile. You’re interested in Broadcom Software.
It will ask you for your Site ID and telephone number.
Once this is submitted, it will be pending verification, which only takes a short while. You’ll know it is done when you get an email “Broadcom Registration Notice - Request Approved”.
Now logout and login again to the Support site.
How do I know it worked?
Once this is complete, there will be changes:
- The menu at top right now will have entries for Request Access and Notification Settings.
- Request Access will show that you have a Site ID
- My Profile > Build your Profile will list additional services, including Broadcom Software Product Downloads
- And of course, you won’t get an error when you try to download Fusion for personal use.
Why is this so hard to find the solution?
There’s a dearth of good information about how to fix this issue. I’m thinking because a) if you already have Fusion, you can do an in-place upgrade to get the latest version, and b) many people apparently just gave up and downloaded the installer from a link in Reddit.
I hope this helps. Maybe it will become ChatGPT’s answer to how to fix this issue.
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That’s all I have in mine and I was able to download as I mentioned previously.
It’s great that you’ve spent a lot of time trying to troubleshoot this but there must be more to it on Broadcom’s end.
I had no support agreement. I had been using the free Fusion only. I did migrate in May and I have downloaded the last version 9 days ago. So I have to agree with @jk2gs
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I tried to create a “new” user account last night. NADA.
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Sorry to hear that. Not that I’m surprised, or anything. Guess I’ll have to contact their support and go the long way around. They really have failed their customers here.
What I do know is that I have the email address for Michael Roy who is the product manager. I have emailed him several times but never had the courtesy of receiving a reply. As a Broadcom stockholder, I am planning to call stockholder relations to see if I can get any traction that way, as soon as I have some time to pursue this matter. In the meantime, I was able to get the update directly from doing the update within the Fusion App, so while I am technically fine for now, I do have concerns about getting future updates.
I would really like to express how I feel about Broadcom’s support, but in doing so, this reply would likely be deleted.
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I finally got fed up of trying to get support to correct my migrated account and just created a new one. Once I got past the “screening” process (agree to export controls, agree to a load of license agreements for each product download) it all Just Worked ™.
Obviously I still regard the whole episode as mind-numbingly stupid, but at least I have my resolution. I can’t seem to close my old account, and I had to create a new email alias just for the burner account. But it works.
I can’t get much from the Broadcom site. I need updaters for earlier versions and even when I find them, I can’t download them. Can’t run my already installed versions of Fusion because of some missing element. Annoying.
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Broadcom really messed this one up. It’s almost impossible for mere mortals to download older Fusion versions. Most of us didn’t see the need to buy a support contract and in the eyes of Broadcom we aren’t entitled to download product that we have valid licenses for because we didn’t buy the support. To add insult to injury, as those old versions are no longer supported by Broadcom, they obviously don’t see any need to let us download them (which is incredibly short-sighted).
The damage that Broadcom is inflicting on VMware customers is not limited to their vSphere customers. Their corporate DNA does not understand anything other than large commercial customers. (Computer Associates - the Darth Vader of the software industry - lives on in Broadcom Software).
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I mean, even VMware weren’t always scrupulous about maintaining old downloads, but they were pretty good. I wouldn’t trust Broadcom further than I could throw sticks. Just incompetent.
And, beware! Fusion 13.6 / Workstation 17.6 have discarded ISO images from the installation for older guests, including contemporary Intel Darwin and pre-Vista Windows. Coming back to downloads, keep your old installers, just in case you need those files!
These older VMware Tools versions are still available for download from Broadcom. But given the challenges of the Broadcom support site, it’s certainly easier if you have an older Fusion release handy.
If you can download the personal use version of Fusion (which I admit is a challenge especially if you have an account that was migrated to the new Broadcom site) you can download VMware Tools versions back to 10.1.5. The trick is to know the version of VMware tools that contain the tools you need.
It appears that older versions have a vulnerability:
https://www.macintouch.com/post/41763/vmware-severe-security-flaw/
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