How to resolve "This virtual machine appears to be in use" error in VMware Workstation
Way back in 2008, Jason asked the VMware Community this question:
Greetings... Recently I experienced a power failure at my office when I was running two different virtual machines. Upon restarting, I am unable to connect to the machines as VMWare tells me "This virutal machine appears to be in use." If I press the "Take Ownership" button, it immediantely returns with a dialog box indicating "Taking ownership of this virtual machine failed." How do I unlock these machines?
Strangely enough, even though it's 6 years later, with VMware Workstation 10, the answer is still the same. As community moderator wila states:
- close VMware Workstation
- delete any .lck or .lock files and/or folders you see, in the directory of the problematic VM
- run VMware Workstation
- start the VM
If you need further convincing the fix is that simple, see also my short video that demonstrates the fix. It'd seem that VMware would address this issue with a better recovery technique, given it's an error I've seen occasionally for many years myself. But hey, at least the fix is well documented!
Aug 26 2015 Update
This issue already bit me once on Windows 10 and VMware Workstation 12, and the same fix worked just fine.
Sep 29 2016 Update
This issue still persists, but good news, fix above still works, even right through the latest VMware Workstation 12.5! See Ruud van Zundert's comment below.
Mar 09 2018 Update
This fix apparently still works with VMware Workstation 14, see also release notes. The latest point release is 14.1.1.
Mar 20 2018 Update
This comment was left below that helps confirm this fix still works with Workstation 14. Thank you, Oh.Y.Not!
Feb 01 2020 Update
This comment indicates it still work in 15.x, so perhaps that means the latest 15.5 too. There are earlier comments about success with 15.0 and 15.1 too.
Jun 23 2022 Update
In early 2022, Ammon Bingham commented below:
Still works, using VMware 16.2.2
All Comments on This Article (172)
Glad you found my article, thank you for the feedback, sure seems like they should have fixed this long ago!
still works a decade later :)
Workstation 17.6.3 Pro
This is almost silly at this point, that a fix hasn’t been built-in after this many years of unnecessary stress. Sigh.
Thanks for visiting TinkerTry!
Wow, after all these years, still a thing. Thank you for letting my readers and I know!
Yeah, it's kinda sad really. One might thing that VMware by Broadcom isn't particularly interested in implementing a way to avoid those scares you get when trying to start a VM you really really need.
Amazing, thank you for letting me and my readers know!
Still work with 17.0.2 - thanks!
Thank you so much! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You saved me a lot of frustration. Really appreciate it. Back to my CCIE labs!
Awesome, great to hear that, even better for the users would be if VMware made this article unnecessary by building something like this right into the UI.
have used vmrun.exe to start vm at server boot and whan lauch vmware workstation appear ownership request, any ideas to resolve it. tnx
Glad to help!
Thank you so much
Awesome, that’s great to hear!
Wow, that's good to hear!
Still works, using VMware 16.2.2
Always great to hear happy news, thank you!
Thanks a lot man. I was about to delete my image. re install and install all applications again.
Awesome!
worked for me just today, moved the .lck directories in a temp folder, then I could start the server which previously just kept saying 'take ownership'. I'll delete the stuff in temp now.
Crazy that this is still a thing, but glad you're squared away now!
Wow, that is good to hear, thank you for the information!
FYI, for next year, another way to get VMware Workstation you might be interested in:
https://TinkerTry.com/vmug-advantage-vmware-cloud-director-workstation-16-fusion-12
Thanks. Solution still works with version 16.0.0.0
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you - I can't say it enough. And yes, the same fix works in v15.5.6.
I have provided the right contacts at VMware about this issue, and am glad to have received a response that their engineering team will take a look into this. Naturally, you can expect any alterations to the core product functionality to take a while, but hopefully this article gives them all the data they need to allocate resources appropriately.
Great to hear, glad it helped!
+1 It was easy fix, thanks!
I just noticed the lifetime analytics on this article, about 137,000 visitors: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a9eed18a4afca1aa8b395581fcd5d6a6365eb3e33612ed788db58fa8f3daf7b9.png
Dang, that's a long time. I'll try to see if I know somebody who might know who the PM for this product is, perhaps they'd consider adding a clean-up or recovery-function right from within the UI after the failed power-on to avoid user-freak-out/panic, closely followed by frantic Googling for articles/videos like mine...
You’re welcome, and thank you for visiting TinkerTry.com!
Still work for vmware workstation 15.5 (run on windows). thanks a lot for the tips :)
Awesome, glad to help!
Sure is nice to hear that, although it would be even better if VMware had a fix for this!
no matter what year this post, still help much people like me
For me running it as admin solved the problem..
Thank You. Saved me from trouble.
You'd save more time by not alternating between caps and lowercase in your typing.
Excellent, glad to hear this article is still helpful!
perfect solution when I had archived a linked vm and tried to open it again.
seems to work with the 15.x versions all the same ;)
thanks this was quite easy and worked..
Glad to hear, thank you for the feedback!
Nice, good to hear!
This fix still works in VMware Workstation Pro version 15.1.0
Thanks!
Still the solution is working for the version workstation player 15.
You saved my time man. Thanks alot
https://media1.giphy.com/media/1uC8xfkZRi7Kw/giphy.gif
A bit surprising, but great to hear!
This fixed 2 issues of mine while I was using Gravity Zone by Bitdefender, inability to connect to database fixed and lock out fix, thank you very much.
Just letting you know this fix also works in Workstation 15!
Great to hear that, thank you for letting us know!
Fix work with Workstation 15.0.2.10952284 too.
thanx
I’m not sure, probably best to contact VMware support to inquire about they safest next steps to take. I hope things work out for you!
Hi, i had the same problem and solved it using that method. And now the same problem is back because the laptop wasn't shut down properly, that method now doesn't work. I deleted the .lck files but they reappeared when booting the virtual machine.
any ideas?
Always great to see happy people here, thank you!
Thanks Usama you are the best bro
ThAnKs BrO YoU SaVeD Me A LoT LMAO xD thx !! :)
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbafc00953a874751b196b60c3fba3b26b4f215598b67c3fe85086917ba54b03.png
Thank you, this solved my issues after a power outage.
Before finding its solution, I tried other ways, I suppose one of them caused the CIDs to be lost or modified, since after using the solution it starts the virtual machine but another error appears: "The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created. The content ID of the parent virtual disk does not match the corresponding parent content ID in the child ...... "
Please help with this, it is important because there I have project sources in Visual Basic
i have little different kind problem. İ have dual boot system one of them win7 other one win10. i instaled linux virtual on vmware at both OS. when i opened linux virtual at the win10 OS it asked me take ownership and i accepted its succeded after all i could not open OS of Win7 its stucked on the black screen when it almost opened the desktop state but just stuck on black screen. What should i do for this. Can anyone help.
2019 still works, Thanks!!! :)
Thanks!
Excellent, great to hear that!
Nice .. After deletion of the .lck file in VM location .VM resumes.
But didn't really find out what was the reason behind it.
How the .lck file created?
How the operation become normal after the deletion of .lck file.
Still working with player V15 on Windows 10
Thanks a bunch!
worked as of december 2018 in workstation 14. Thanks a lot!!
This fix still works. Workstation 12 PRO. THANK YOU!
Awesome, always nice to hear that!
Great to know, amazing that it's still a thing. Thank you, NeNo!
Thanks you saved my day..
Amazing that this still applies, even on Mac, all the more reason this kind of recovery/clean-up should really be build into the product. I'll keep trying to figure out how to reach the Product Manager. I didn't manage to find the time to look for a VMware Workstation booth at VMworld last week, unfortunately.
2-september-2018.
VMWare 14 pro.
Still works.
MacOS High Sierra Final
Great advice, thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and so will my readers!
Just a note. If you're working off of a Mac. Go to the VM file, right click and open package contents. That's where you'll find the .lck file.
Still works like a dream in 2018! Thank you! Thought I was in for another long GNS3 drawn out fix!
You are welcome!
So glad you somehow found my article before giving up, and thanks for taking the time to drop a comment, something only about 1 in roughly 2,000 visitors bother to do, on average. I really appreciate it!
I was about to delete my virtual machine because I kept getting the error: "Failed to lock the file / Cannot open the disk '[file path]' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on / Module 'Disk' power on failed / Failed to start the virtual machine". For some reason, searching these errors did not lead me to this solution. This easy solution fixed the error and now I don't have to re-create my VM, thanks!
Thank you! I was wondering why I couldn't see it. Found it in my Documents folder.
Excellent, thank you! Article updated:
https://TinkerTry.com/how-to-resolve-this-virtual-machine-appears-to-be-in-use-error-in-vmware-workstation#mar-20-2018-update
Thank you! Just got my VM booted up again. I can confirm that this still works in Workstation 14.
Great to hear that. Was it VMware Workstation 14?
Thank you . God bless you . You just solved my problem
thank you so much
that''s so helpfull for me
Thank you my friend,
Glad to hear it!
Many thanks!! Got scared at first when I saw the error message!! Worked perfectly!! THanks again
Warms my heart, with yet another user helped. Thank you for taking the time to comment!
Thank YOU!
Thank you so much! it helped.
A bit of deep Google digging, and some trial and error testing, some years ago.
Glad it helped!
mid 2017 and this still seems to be an issue, and with the same solution, thanks a ton!
Big Thank you for this solution! How did you come up with it?
Genial !
Wow, this article seems to get a lot of that sentiment, so glad I took the time to write it up!
Thanks a lot! You saved my day!
:)
(Hope you have backups too!)
This fix still works, thanks!
i deleted the lck folder (only 1 is seen though) ...but it comes back everytime i start my vm(cloudera)
Great you had success, phew! Was that VMware Workstation 12.5 in Windows 10?
Thanks so much! I had four "*.lck" directories to delete. Worked perfectly!
I was a bit worried since after the "take ownership" button failed the default option it gave me was to delete the (link to the) virtual machine!
Ah, good info, thanks! This article is now getting a bit old, good to hear it's gotten a little simpler with later VMware Workstation releases, like the Workstation 12.5.2 I'm using.
You don't have to close VM Ware Workstation, only delete the files. Not with v12, anyway. IDK about 10 or others.
It would appear you may need to work with VMware technical support directly, which is available on a per-incident basis:
http://fave.co/2ngnGkx
Sir,I still face the same error even If I delete the .lik file.Can you please help me
This worked for me, thanks.
"Strangely enough, even though it's 6 years later, with VMware Workstation 10, the answer is still the same."
Nothing strange about it at all. What we have here is a work around for the problem, not a fix. The problem is that VMware gets into this mess, in the first place, as you state, years after the problem first started occurring and multiple major revisions of the product. A fix would be VMware identifying what causes these lock files to screw up in the first place and fixing it. It's like having a rattling noise, in a piece of machinery, that you are able to stop by giving the piece of machinery a good whack. What we actually need is for VMware to dive under the hood and fix the rattle.
I guess, with the work-around being so easy VMware have identified it as not being commercially viable to come up with an actual fix.
Thank you
Thanks buddy...you just my all configurations..:)
Cool, glad it helps, you're welcome!
Thank you, worked like a charm in VMware Player v. 6.0.7!
Great to hear it! Upgraded to 12.5 myself recently, haven't yet had to use my tip yet, but likely I will, soon enough. Admittedly, I don't use local VMs as much as I used to, and actually had my first BSOD in years soon after my upgrade to 12.5. I've noticed that such BSODs tend to happen when I have both a USB 3.0 hub attached, and am running VMware Workstation, with a VM with xHCI controller installed in the VM. I've since removed that (I rarely need to map a USB device to a VM).
Thanks Ruud! I've updated the article above:
https://TinkerTry.com/how-to-resolve-this-virtual-machine-appears-to-be-in-use-error-in-vmware-workstation#sep-29-2016-update
accordingly.
very handy ... also true for vmware 12.5 ... thx... Ruud
That is always nice to hear, thank you for leaving a comment!
You saved my day,Thanks
Thank you Sir! Worked like Charm :)
OMG thx love u =*
Thx for sharing. And thumb up for "even though it's 6 years later ..." - that's so true also for other long-running VMWare issues (e.g. powering on the virtual machine fails) - it looks like it requires herculean efforts to solve them.
You're welcome!
Glad it helped!
Thank you! This has been driving me crazy!
Thnx!
Always nice to hear that, thank you, you made my day!
Thanks!!
Oh dear, I probably should have mentioned that. Thank you, I really appreciate your taking the time to drop that very helpful comment!
Thank you, it works on vmware fusion too :D
I'm not sure of the question.
Thank you for taking the time to mention the exact path, much appreciated!
I found this type file, but I can't see them in VMware workstation. what's wrong with my VMWare?
Who can deal with, please!
In Vm 12 , the lck /lock files-folder were found in Document Folder of windows
C:\Users\xxxxxx\Documents\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Professional
Thankyou...... you saved lot of my time.. God Bless you...!
You just saved my bacon. Thanks!
ayham raed
Still works, using VMware 17.6.3