Cannot Configure macOS Monterey VM on Apple Silicon - Parallels V17

I have already created a ticket, but so far no response.
Thank you for contacting Parallels Support. This message has been automatically generated by the Parallels Support Portal, in response to your support request "No Configure/Snapshot Option for macOS VM on M1". The Ticket ID created to track your request is [Parallels #3132301].
I have successfully created a macOS VM on an Apple Silicon macBook. The VM runs fine, but there are issues:

1. There is no Configuration menu item
2. The CLONE menu item is greyed out
3. There are no Snapshots menu items

This is what virtualisation is all about and makes it generally useless for me. I was using the trial and thought that it might have been a limitation of the trial, so bought a standard subscription, nope same.
I have got Windows 11 ARM working, but that, for me at least, is useless because there is no Dropbox client which I need (other than Dropbox S Mode - which is basically a waste of space - lots of complaints to Dropbox, no action). So the whole ARM thing is very disappointing.

Anyway, rant mode off. Has anyone been able to get the fully featured macOS VM Menu System on ARM with all of the menu items and options?????

 

Let me answer my own question (and as advised by ZORAN1), none of that is available for macOS on Apple Silicon. Are Parallels so desperate they have to release pre-Beta software as production??? Their website is completely misleading, it suggests that Apple Silicon works like the intel version. There is a disclaimer (in very fine print) that says anything with a (*) is not available with Apple silicon. I scoured their web pages and could not find anything with a (*). There is a KB article that says, cloning, snapshots, resolution, configuration etc isn't available for Apple silicon. BUT that's the whole reason to use virtualisation.

I find the way Parallels has advertised Parallels 17 and Apple silicon to be quite duplicitous and designed to deceive. The number of similar posts would indicate that many others have the same view.

 

I agree. I have a server VM running macOS Monterey on my iMac that I hoped to migrate to a VM on my M1 Mac mini to use as an autostart server. With no configuration options available I can't enable the autostart and the prlctl commands don't even acknowledge the existence of the macOS Monterey VM on an M1 Mac. It actually looks like Parallels have done next to nothing since the .macvm system looks suspiciously similar to this: https://github.com/KhaosT/MacVM ; Parallels have just given it a clickable launcher which could be done without the whole Parallels Desktop package.

I think it is time for Parallels so square with us what we can expect to do with an M1 macOS guest in the future so that we can plan alternatives.

 

KevinB7 - would you mind sharing how you got the VM created an working in the first place? I have tried a dozen different methods with no success. Thank you in advance.

 

Joe,
I believe used the Parallels 17 installer (I think there is a KB article that says you cannot use the Monterey installer downloaded from the App Store, but I could be wrong):


And just to show how little Parallels have done WRT macOS, there macOS VMs do not even show up in the Preferences Pane, only the Windows VMs):


I think it is going to be quite a wait before macOS VMs are fit for purpose, ie. with Cloning, Snapshots etc etc.
Kevin

 

Kevin, thanks for the response. The problem that I am having is the 'Download macOS' option does not even appear for me in Parallels Desktop 17 for Mac Pro Edition.

 

I have the Standard edition - go figure. Regardless you can download the install Monterey.app from the App Store. I think you can then drag it to the parallels 'create new' window. If necessary you can convert it to an ISO, just google that (but I think you should be good to go). NOTE: the public release of VMWare FUSION for some reason cannot use the app from the App Store. And it's an almost 13Gb download. Good luck
Kevin

 

Sadly this is the case with Parallels Desktop on Apple Silicon also; Parallels Desktop will go through the motions of creating an install image from the App Store installer however cannot boot it because it's generated installer is intel only.

I've already tried this with some variations.

 

Maybe this is a question to be directed at Parallels support? You are entitled to it for the life of your Pro subscription. So far in the last week I've put in 4 support tickets. Response time is poor, but for one of the four I actually got an answer. The tech dialled into my system and was absolutely useless. He escalated to a guy who know what he was doing and the issue was quickly resolved after that. It's a bit of a crap shoot, but you sort of have exhausted Dr Google.

 

Agree with you there!

I've done a couple of support requests recently over basic functionality of Parallels Desktop being broken.
With the need to get some virtual Apple legacy services running on my network I have actually resorted to putting an old intel Mac mini Server back in place. I need a virtualisation solution I can rely on and am enjoying VirtualBox on the old Mac mini which means that I will now be renewing fewer Parallels licence subscriptions; so Parallels through quality control are loosing some of my custom at least.
I was hoping to host a virtual NetInstall server on my M1 Mac mini given that I have a working macOS Monterey intel VM which could do the job, but there's no harm in me just using macOS High Sierra in VirtualBox for that since that's what the macOS Monterey VM was migrated from.

Good luck with your support request.

 

I know this thread is older but just to add my 2 cents. I am an IT Professional and support Windows and Mac devices. I used to use Parallels to have a Windows VM so I could use RSAT tools for Active Directory account management. Well with a M1 Mac the only available Windows is Win 11 for ARM insider build. Microsoft doesn't offer RSAT tools for it. At least not yet. The other thing I used Parallels for was to have a development macOS VM. I used it for testing Jamf app deployment and like others have stated without snapshots it is pretty useless. I am tempted to tell my boss to not renew my subscription because it isn't useful anymore.

 

It's hard to imagine how Parallels state they have support for Apple Silicon.
We have abandoned testing of macOS Silicon on Parallels because, as you suggest, it is useless. We have purchased the cheapest macMini and use that as the test device. Correct, there are no snapshots on a physical device, but at least it performs as expected, not the garbage of Parallels macOS VMs. We have clearly documented how we wind back the macMini to it's start state.

I did a post on some forum, that basically said I though Parallels was a dead business model with Silicon, and had a dozen or so replies that said Windows ARM was great and posters could run all of their software on it and that they though Parallels was a great product. I'm just not in that universe. Windows ARM is pretty much useless for me (yes I have a working VM). I actually need a functioning Dropbox client (not available on ARM, it's simply a web client wrapper) and I am unsure the lower level binaries we build/use work on ARM, haven't got that far. We may need to go there eventually, but it is a very small part of the Windows deployments, nothing we need to address ATM. So it's a feature that is the Microsoft Solution for me, 100% accurate and totally useless.

 

I also hope they get the Apple Silicon support for running macos VM's into a usable state soon. I have a clear cut need for this.

 

It does run very fast however on Apple Silicon however. My Intel version of Parallels works for the task but is close to unusably slow. Hope they get this functionality released soon.

 

I'm running P17 on intel iMac i9 and it's plenty fast enough. I am running P17 on a Mid 2015 MBP and, again, it is plenty fast enough. If your intel version is unusably slow, you must either have a very old intel version, so not a fair comparison, or there is some configuration issue (usually this is lack of memory, once the OS starts swapping the system will grind to a halt). Why my i9 with 64Gb RAM never gets slow, but my MBP with 16Gb RAM does if I load in too many VMs that chew up all available RAM. Regardless, speed isn't the issue on silicon, the almost total lack of functionality is.

 

I have installed macOS Monterrey 12.3.1 as a Guest OS within Parallels. The Host OS is macOS Monterrey 12.3.1, I am using Parallels 17.1.2.
I have played around with different resolutions (apart from the default one of 1440x900) via the config.ini file within the package.

The result is always a blurry resolution, I cannot get a sharp screen, is there a way to resolve this problem?

Thank you

 

Cross-posting links to connect similar threads: https://forum.parallels.com/threads/no-config-options-at-all-shares-memory-screen.357117/

 

How is this still an issue as its the main selling point of Parallels for M1?!?

 

I posted elsewhere and the Windows crowd chirped in with all was fine. You can Run W11 for ARM and they can run their specific applications so Parallels is good to go. I develop and test software so it's basically useless for me, for example there is no reasonable Dropbox client on ARM it's simply a wrapper around the web version, so useless for my use case. Yes, a specific use case, but makes the arm version useless for me. And how much has ARM penetrated in the windows world, I'm told a lot, I see no evidence of this.
And the macOS side is useless, no configuration, no snapshots (the basis for using VMs iMHO). As far as I'm concerned, that's me personally only, Parallels is not fit for purpose on M1 and the advertising on the Parallels website is at best completely misleading WRT M1 implementation or at worst just downright false advertsing.

 

Just to update this thread... I installed 18 on an M1 Ultra the day that it came out and still have the same issues. I cannot resolve networking issues, cut, copy, paste into the VM. Drag files into the VM, auto mount a local folder to get files into the VM or set any other configuration for Disk Size, CPU count or Memory. Since this is for work I can connect 1 File Server but not others and somebody was kind enough to give me a folder for file transfers. Which take forever. 45 minutes to transfer out and back. This should be close to immediate since the files are local. In short the Mac VM while snappy locally is next to useless since I can't work reasonably with it. Is there any ETA on this being fixed?