Add Connection Profiles to Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client

49 Comments

1. GregMay 14, 2015 at 12:18 AM

   Thank you! This had been driving me crazy - I needed to replace my exisiting servers with a new one. I had been typing in the address manually every time. These instructions fixed my issue.

   1. dmaciasMay 14, 2015 at 4:32 AM

      Glad to hear it worked for you!
2. DarioJune 12, 2015 at 12:58 PM

   Not working for me in a XP

   1. dmaciasJune 12, 2015 at 6:13 PM

      What happens when you try this on XP?
3. keekyJune 30, 2015 at 9:02 AM

   add profile.xml same path also works, however, no idea why username can not be remembered。。。
4. dmaciasJune 30, 2015 at 12:33 PM

   The username should save also. Did you use the format above?
5. SirazJuly 16, 2015 at 5:18 AM

   Thank you.. It has been driving me crazy for a long time to replace with a new connection. Appreciate!
6. DrealJuly 30, 2015 at 7:47 PM

   I also noticed that there was persistent entry in anyconnect after using your workaround. The persistent entry was found one directory up in the global preferences xml. Thank you for this how-to!

   1. dmaciasJuly 30, 2015 at 9:29 PM

      Glad to hear it worked for you, good tip on the persistent entry.
7. TorbenAugust 21, 2015 at 9:14 PM

   Same problem here. Username is taken from last connection and not from the xml file?
8. DiegoSeptember 17, 2015 at 2:55 PM

   It also working for me to load HostName and HostAddress, but not the user. It keeps getting the username from the tag in C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\Cisco\Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client\preferences.xml Any idea why it works like that? Thanks!

   1. dmaciasSeptember 18, 2015 at 10:06 AM

      No, I've not had a chance to play with it to see if the username can be retrieved based on the drop down.
9. KaashSeptember 24, 2015 at 3:23 AM

   Thanks a ton !!!!!!! :-) worked for me in Win 7
10. JimDecember 4, 2015 at 11:28 PM

    So did anyone get the username to be retrieved based on drop down? That seems to be cached and cannot get to work. Any help appreciated.
11. IgorFebruary 22, 2016 at 7:33 PM

    Having same issue with user. It keeps remembering user from different profile
12. RickMMarch 2, 2016 at 8:16 PM

    I'm using MS Visual Studio Tools for Applications to edit the profile xml and it tells me that USER is an invalid child element for in namespace http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/encoding

    1. dmaciasMarch 2, 2016 at 9:27 PM

       Rick, User is not going to do anything for you. You'll only be able to save the connection address.
13. RickMMarch 2, 2016 at 9:32 PM

    The original posted answer showed: dclouduser ssl_url I do get a drop down using: dCloud dcloud-rtp-anyconnect.cisco.com I was hoping user and group would also come up when selecting hostname from the drop down. That looks like what everyone was asking about. Is there no way to get username and group from an xml?

    1. dmaciasMarch 3, 2016 at 1:37 PM

       Yeah seems like username and group don't come from this file, which is a shame.
14. RickMMarch 3, 2016 at 3:23 PM

    So, did CISCO provide a way for use to have user and group or any other user attributes associated with a hostname?
15. IgorMarch 16, 2016 at 7:26 PM

    Thanks a lot for the help! I was trying to find solution couple days already, and yours work!!! How did you find it yourself man? I do not see it in Cisco official f@king docs )

    1. dmaciasMarch 16, 2016 at 7:55 PM

       I suspect I ran across it on the support forums, honestly it's been forever. Certainly something Cisco should look into implementing as this seems to be my most popular post. Glad it helped you out.
16. JimCApril 1, 2016 at 9:09 PM

    Thanks for posting! Works with version 3.1.x and Windows 10. Like others, this has saved a lot of frustration in what seems like a simple thing of remembering connection info.
17. JRJuly 28, 2016 at 5:50 PM

    I know it is old but was also very helpful to me. Thanks for posting. (Windows10)
18. AndresCDecember 22, 2016 at 4:10 PM

    This does not work for me with version 4.2.01022 on Windows 7 Pro SP1. The last session does not work for me by default. I also do not even have a profile directory. I created one and added the xml file, but that did not work unfortunately.

    1. dmaciasDecember 24, 2016 at 1:24 PM

       I'll check out your version and see if I can get it to work. Thanks for the update.
    2. dmaciasJanuary 18, 2017 at 2:46 PM

       AndresC, unfortunately I don't have access to AnyConnect 4.x. Sorry.
    3. dmaciasJanuary 18, 2017 at 2:48 PM

       Actually look at tomfreakz reply, his 4.x client works on Mac, so maybe it should work on Windows too.
19. tomfreakzJanuary 12, 2017 at 7:46 AM

    Sorry, please delete my previous comments. Hi, I’m using mac, with Cisco AnyConnect 4.3.03086 To add new profile, I just create new xml file under directory /opt/cisco/anyconnect/profile/ I name it myprofile.xml Then inside my xml file, you may type your connection name and ip address, inside this xml tag. You may look on my codepen. Looks like this blog comment doesn’t allow html/xml tag script http://codepen.io/tomfreakz/pen/WRwOBE It works on my mac. What about you? :)
20. DavidJanuary 14, 2017 at 4:01 PM

    Thank you so much. This saved me a lot of frustration.
21. ThomasJanuary 26, 2017 at 9:54 AM

    @tomfreakz: Hey, just tried your solution for Mac but unfortunetaly this doesnt work for me. It simply does not appear in the VPN drop down menu. Any clue?
22. quantumFebruary 5, 2017 at 6:45 PM

    Thanks dmacias & tomfreakz, this site was extremely helpful. I've confirmed tomfreakz's solution works for Mac OS (Sierra) with Cisco AnyConnect client v4.2
23. Fer MApril 6, 2017 at 1:46 PM

    It worked for me. Thank you sir!
24. Philip SMay 19, 2017 at 1:33 PM

    Thank dmacias I'm using it with AnyConnect 3.1 on a Windows 10 1703 Client and it works great for me Philip

    1. dmaciasMay 19, 2017 at 1:51 PM

       Excellent news man!
25. CassandraAugust 4, 2017 at 10:36 PM

    Hey sorry for the newbie question, I’m not a coder. Can you highlight the areas where I plug the two URLs for the two profiles? This seems simple enough if I know what to replace, but the one URL at the beginning is throwing me off. What goes there? (http://Schemas…) Thank you.

    1. dmaciasAugust 5, 2017 at 3:20 PM

       Cassandra, Look at the following two lines inside of the XML block: <HostName>Speech-Soft</HostName> <HostAddress>vpn.dmacias.com</HostAddress> Let me know if this doens't help.
26. Rick MeltonAugust 5, 2017 at 5:16 PM

    I have 2 URLs working, but each has a different group and username. Is there a way to get those to come up when I select that URL.

    1. dmaciasAugust 5, 2017 at 4:19 PM

       I've looked but there isn't.
27. Rick MeltonAugust 5, 2017 at 8:39 PM

    Bummer!
28. EugeneSeptember 15, 2017 at 1:15 PM

    Directory to place profiles.xml at Linux OS is the same as Mac’s: /opt/cisco/anyconnect/profile/
29. ChuckSeptember 16, 2017 at 7:34 PM

    Dmacias – great solution on Win 7. thanks so much. Let us know when you figure out how to bring in the username!
30. AkileoSeptember 27, 2017 at 9:46 PM

    The username may need to use %username% in order to bring the current username in use in Windows (or it may need to be added manually between the tags
31. RickSeptember 27, 2017 at 10:13 PM

    I’ve tried both USER and USERNAME tags, neither worked. The AnyConnectProfile.xsd does not show a tag to specify a user. :(
32. lystraOctober 10, 2017 at 3:48 PM

    I don’t have the profile folder as describe in the cisco anyconnect folder, how do i create one?

    1. dmaciasOctober 10, 2017 at 3:00 PM

       Any chance it's hidden?
33. rpradoJanuary 31, 2018 at 10:16 PM

    I just want to thank you guys for the threads which helped me with anyconnect. A especial thanks to tomfreakz for sharing how to write a concise anyconnect xml profile. Thank you.
34. SaharablueApril 3, 2018 at 3:16 PM

    Brilliant thank you!!!!!
35. AnonymousApril 25, 2019 at 2:41 PM

    This worked for me on Windows 10 and Cisco Client 4.2. Thanks for posting this.