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Jul 08

This virtual machine appears to be in use

Tips & tricks Add comments

I am getting more and more familiar with VMware Player since I use it almost every day in my current project. When I restarted my computer and the image after an unexpected shutdown I got this message: This virtual machine appears to be in use. This post lets you know how to easily get your image up and running again.

virtual machine in use

Above you can see the alert box I got when I tried to start my image in the VMware Player. The configuration file only tells you the path to your image, I added a censor strip since the path revealed my customer name.

  1. Go to the configuration file path (where you have you image)
  2. There you will find some folders with .lck ending (this is the locking file state)
  3. In my case three folders (imagename.vmem.lck, imagename.vmdk.lck and imagename.vmx.lck)
  4. Delete those folders
  5. Restart your image

This did the trick for me :)

Take notice that you might loose unsaved work on your image by doing this.

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22 Comments to “This virtual machine appears to be in use”

  1. Geoffrey Coan says:
    July 19, 2010 at 20:32

    Thanks, your tip worked a treat. I changed the CPU speed on my motherboard and everything worked fine – briefly – then after launching Windows 7 and VMware player it all froze completely.
    Had to reboot my machine and got the same “virtual machine in use error”. Trying the “take control” option didn’t work at all and I was tearing my hair out until I found your tip above.
    All perfect now
    Thanks
    Geoffrey

  2. Per Ola Sæther says:
    July 20, 2010 at 17:01

    I am glad that I could help :)

  3. Mradios says:
    October 8, 2010 at 01:30

    Many thanks in advance, follow your tip and after VM started fine.

  4. Per Ola Sæther says:
    October 9, 2010 at 11:39

    Mradios, thanks for the comment. Good to hear that it worked for you as well.

  5. LittleDanniel says:
    December 16, 2010 at 20:45

    thank you so much for this tips. You saved me.

    My windows host crash when I came back, I got this message.I thought I’ve to lose all my stuff in the VMware.

    You Rock!!!

  6. Per Ola Sæther says:
    December 16, 2010 at 22:52

    LittleDanniel, I thought the same when I got this error and was very happy when I solved the problem. I am glad to hear that it helped you :)

  7. Andi says:
    May 21, 2011 at 10:02

    Thanks a lot :)

  8. Per Ola Sæther says:
    May 24, 2011 at 20:01

    You’re welcome :)

  9. chad says:
    May 29, 2011 at 03:02

    Worked

  10. Gregg says:
    July 1, 2011 at 15:25

    This worked perfectly. Thanks.

  11. Per Ola Sæther says:
    July 1, 2011 at 21:07

    I’m glad it worked for you guys as well.

  12. Ana says:
    July 6, 2011 at 19:01

    Thanksssssss

  13. Per Ola Sæther says:
    July 8, 2011 at 19:11

    You’re welcome Ana

  14. Stefano says:
    August 3, 2011 at 14:37

    Thankyou very much guy, this page solved my problem :)

  15. mahmoud says:
    August 16, 2011 at 08:52

    thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks

  16. Per Ola Sæther says:
    August 21, 2011 at 16:04

    I’m glad you found the post helpful :)

  17. Rory says:
    September 7, 2011 at 10:53

    Hey Per,

    Worked perfectly, thanks very much for that mate!

    Rory.

  18. bansal says:
    October 11, 2011 at 10:49

    works!thanks!

  19. Stefano says:
    October 28, 2011 at 08:13

    Thanks, everything is working smoothly right now. :)

  20. Per Ola Sæther says:
    November 14, 2011 at 17:21

    Cool to see that it helps you guys too :)

  21. London Dave says:
    January 11, 2012 at 15:28

    You’re the best – saved me a boat load of time

    Cheers

  22. mary says:
    May 11, 2012 at 17:10

    thank you

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