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"Unable to start the Virtual Device" error

  • Updated

1. Windows specific issues

1. Reboot Windows

VirtualBox 6.1 may require a reboot after first run. Try to reboot your computer first.

2. Windows Defender

The Memory Integrity Core Isolation feature of Windows Defender is known to cause this type of errors. You may need to disable it before using Genymotion Desktop. For more information, please refer to How to disable Memory integrity in Windows 10?

3. VirtualBox issues

Every time Genymotion Desktop is run, it calls VirtualBox to verify the availability of at least one VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter. If none is available, it tries to create a new one. Unfortunately, this operation fails on some Windows 10 configurations. To fix this, try the following solutions:

a. Solution 1

  1. Open Windows Settings > Network & Internet > Change adapter options
  2. Right-click on VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
  3. Select Disable
  4. Right-click on the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter again and Select Enable

Fix_Host_only_interface.gif

b. Solution 2

  1. Open Settings > Network & Internet > Change adapter options
  2. Right-click on VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
  3. Click on Properties and then Configure
  4. Click on the Driver tab
  5. Click on Update Driver
  6. Select Browse my computer for drivers. Now choose Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer
  7. Select VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter from the list and click on Next
  8. Click Close to finish the update

c. Solution 3

  1. Open VirtualBox
  2. Go to File > Host Network Manager...
  3. Remove all the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter

Remove-host-only.gif

d. Solution 4

Try to remove and re-install VirtualBox:

  1. Remove VirtualBox
  2. Download VirtualBox 6.1.14 for Windows hosts here
  3. Right-click on the installer and select Run As Administrator, even if your account has admin rights.
  4. Reboot your PC

e. Solution 5

On some configurations, VirtualBox 6.1 does not operate correctly. You may need to uninstall VirtualBox and downgrade to a lower version:

  1. Remove VirtualBox
  2. Download VirtualBox 6.0.24 for Windows hosts from here
  3. Right-click on the installer and select Run As Administrator, even if your account has admin rights
  4. Reboot your PC

4. Windows security

Every time Genymotion Desktop is started, it calls VirtualBox to perform several operations:

  • verify the availability of at least one VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
  • create a VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter if the above fails
  • list all the deployed virtual devices

These operations require administrator rights to be performed successfully. If your Windows user account has too tight security settings, they may fail.

To avoid this, make sure that:

  1. your Windows user account has Administrator rights (i.e. it is a member of the Administrators group)
  2. your Windows security settings are not too tight

Note

If you get many User Account Control (UAC) pop-ups prompting for Administrator permission, you may also consider turning them off. For instructions, please refer to this article: Enable or Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows

2. The Virtual Device state is not "power off"

The virtual device may not have been shutdown correctly:

  1. Close Genymotion and open VirtualBox.
  2. Verify the virtual device state. If it is not Power Off, right-click on the device and select Close > Power Off:

VBox_power_off.gif

3. Firewalls

Firewalls can interfere and block Genymotion player communication with VirtualBox. If you use a firewall, make sure to refer to Genymotion Desktop and firewalls first.

4. VPNs

If you are using a VPN, stop your VPN or refer to the article Genymotion Desktop and VPN.

5. The Hardware virtualization feature is disabled

Make sure that the Intel VT-X, AMD-V or SVM virtualization feature is enabled in your BIOS. Please refer to "Your CPU is incompatible with virtualization technologies" error for more details.

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