Some years ago I worked with a client and had to install Cisco VPN Connect on my Mac. After the work was done, I uninstalled the client. Recently, I found myself needing the VPN with a different client. On reinstalling the software, all of the old settings from the previous client were still there and the VPN software refused to save the new connection URL. To get the client to work the way I needed, I had to update the profile manually.

One of the places where the Cisco Anytime Connect software saves information is /opt/cisco/anyconnect/profile. Navigating to that path in Terminal you will find a couple of files. The one of interest is Anyconnect-SAML.xml. This is an XML file that contains the connection settings. In addition to this file the software also remembers the last connection that it attempted to connect to. I don’t know where that information is stored, but that information won’t be needed for this change. The simplest way to address the connection problem is to rename this file. I say “rename” and not “delete” so that the information is available should you need it. Renaming has the same effect as deleting, but allows you to rollback. I changed the file to a name that had .backup on the end.

With the file effectively deleted, if you restart the Cisco Anytime VPN software, it will still show the last server that you connected to. Enter your new VPN URL and connect. After successfully connecting, the software will remember this URL and make it available the next time that you need to connect.