Fusion 13.6 "Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Module 'Disk' power on failed." error after upgrading to MacOS 15

[Jacinto Perez Calavera]

After upgrading to macos 15 I got the following error, and vm do not start: 

Cannot open the disk '/Library/Application

Support/VMware/VMware Fusion/Shared/Windows 11 x64 Nov 2022.vmwarevm/Virtual Disk.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

Module 'Disk' power on failed.

Failed to start the virtual machine

[RARelph]

I saw this once myself. It persisted even after a reboot of the host. I noticed that there was a lock file still present. I deleted the lock file and all was well.
The lock file is in the directory Virtual Machines.localized/<machine name="">.vmwarevm/Virtual Disk.vmdk.lck.
There was a single file in there. I rebooted the host one more time, the lock file was still there. Since I hadn’t run Fusion since the last host reboot, I knew the Virtual disk could not be locked any longer. So I deleted the lock file.
The error message was not a great help.

[Abdullah Hukum]

Thank you @RARelph!

Initially I couldn't figure out where the .lck folder is because it seems hidden. I unhid all hidden files but it still wouldn't show. While exploring I tried right clicking on the VMBundle file and then clicked on "Show Package Contents" and that's where the .lck file you mentioned was listed.

You may spot TWO folders with .lck suffix, pls focus on the folder named "Virtual Disk.vmdk.lck" and delete the file in this folder.

Here are screenshots for anyone else trying the same.

[Stacey Bradley]

Thanks so much.

Almost cried out my eyes

[itscastle]

I'm having a similar issue.  

I followed the steps, found the lck file/folder, deleted it, restarted, deleted again, and it still won't open.  The VM machine ran out of hard drive space and shutdown.  I can't expand the hard drive parameters without properly shutting down the VM machine, but I can't do that because it won't open.  Is there anything else I can do?  

[Technogeezer]

This error message typically isn't one that you'd see because of lock files being present. It points to an issue with the files that make up your VM's virtual disk. 

Can you post the vmware*.log files found in the VM's bundle? That might give us a better idea of the underlying error. 

When you say that the VM ran out of space, did the host Mac run out of disk space, or did the VM use up all the space it was allocated? If the former, it could point to a virtual disk corruption. But the logs might help us figure that out. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[itscastle]

Thank you so much for the quick response.

Here are the logs. (I am a complete novice at this, so if these are not
correct, I apologize.)

[lensv]

I have similar problems. Would you need log files to investigate?

[lensv]

I'll send a bunch of logs here anyway, since I may not be able to watch this thread over the weekend...

[Technogeezer]

If you can get to it, the vmware.log files found in the bundle plus the ~/Library/Logs/VMware Fusion/vmware-vmfusion*.log files would also help.

Or, if you have the time, here's a small script that collects a bunch of information (it's a subset of the Fusion "Collect Support Information").  It creates a zip file thats suitable for attaching to a future post.

Simply unpack it into a folder you have write access to, open the Terminal, navigate to that directory, and type:

./collect_info.sh path-to-vmwarevm

It will create a zip file you can attach to your next reply.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[lensv]

Hi @Technogeezer!

Here comes that additional log file that you asked for.

As for the scrip, I may do something wrong (?). Here's the command/output...

mac00829:VMW lensv88$ ./collect_info.sh /T7/_VM/"Windows 11 64-bit Arm - LELEVEN.vmwarevm"

[ERROR] /T7/_VM/Windows 11 64-bit Arm - LELEVEN.vmwarevm is not a Fusion virtual machine

[lensv]

Forget the last question (I missed do add /Volumes) :-o

Output attached...

[Technogeezer]

Thanks - by the way thank you for trying out the script. It made getting the data that I wanted to look at very easy.

From what I'm seeing in the logs. It appears that the lock files that Fusion uses for the vmdk files are still present. That's why Fusion is throwing the error.

Here's what I would do:

Make sure Fusion is shut down.

Make a copy of this VM. If the VM is on a disk formatted as an APFS file system, I'd suggest using the Finder to make a duplicate. (It'll take almost no time and space because the Finder is making a clone).

Open the VM bundle and remove the directories Windows 11 64-bit Arm.vmx.lck, Virtual Disk-000001.vmdk.lck, Virtual Disk-000002.vmdk.lck, and Virtual Disk.vmdk.lck

Then start Fusion and try to power on the VM. 

If the VMDK powers on, you can delete the duplicate copy of the VM. 

One thing I am a bit concerned with is that there are virtual disk slices in what I believe to be the base virtual disk Virtual Disk.vmdk that are not present in the snapshots. Could you zip up the vmdk descriptor files (Virtual Disk.vmdk, Virtual Disk-000001.vmdk, and Virtual Disk-000002.vmdk) so I can take a look at them?

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[Technogeezer]

And a personal opinion - you have snapshots that are from July 2024. That's a very long time to be running on a snapshot. The longer you run on snapshots, the greater the possibility of something breaking them (IMO VMware hypervisor snapshots in general are brittle).

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[lensv]

Thank you - This time it worked to start it (by removing those lock files/folders). As for the Snapshot, there should not be any of those present at all. Is Fusion just bad at cleaning up stuff?

*An additional question... Should I do something about those snapshot files?

[lensv]

@Technogeezer - I repeat my last question, in case that you missed it... Should I do something about those snapshot files (or whatever it was that you found)?

[Technogeezer]

Sorry about the lack of reply.

VMware desktop virtualization products (including Fusion) have been known not to clean up totally by themselves. If you can run a cleanup from the GUI after refreshing the file utilization, you may be able to force it to clean up.

However it might be a good idea to check a couple of things in the virtual disk configuration to make sure there's not something else awry. Can you attach the virtual disk descriptor filescan leave files from snapshots aroundCan you attach the vmdk descriptor files Virtual Disk.vmdk, Virtual Disk-000001.vmdk, and Virtual Disk-000002.vmdk so I can have a look at them?

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[lensv]

Hi! Required files coming up...

[lensv]

Hmm... I don't know where they went, but here's another try.

[Technogeezer]

Thanks for posting. The 3 virtual disks are still interconnected even though you don't see any snapshots active. I'd proceed as follows:

Make a copy of this VM with the VM powered off and the VM shut down.

Make sure that no snapshots exist in the Fusion GUI: Virtual Machines > Snapshots... > Snapshots...

If no snapshots exist, refresh the virtual machine's disk usage by clicking on the small circular arrow next to the VM's disk utilization graph in the Virtual Machine Library window:

Then, go to the VM's Settings, and open the General tab. See if there's an option to clean up the virtual machine. If so, click on it.

If that doesn't work, the next best thing might be to consolidate the VM's virtual disks manually. That's a little more involved, so let's do this first. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[lensv]

OK! A Clean up is done now... What should I be looking for (I'm not really sure of which files it was that you found)?

[Technogeezer]

Look in the VM's bundle folder and see what files are there. If cleaned up, there should be one set of files for your virtual disk. That would be about 34 files with a .vmdk extension from what I saw out of your prior log postings. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[lensv]

Thanks a lot @Technogeezer!

Now Virtual Disk-000001.vmdk, and Virtual Disk-000002.vmdk (+ all subfiles) are removed and everything seems to work as normal. This community delivers thanks to a few competent and really engaged members :)

/LS

[Technogeezer]

If what @RARelph suggested doesn't work, please locate the vmware*.log files found in the VM's bundle, zip them up, and attach them to a reply to this thread. The log files may contain information about why the power-on failed.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[Jacinto Perez Calavera]

thank you, Paul. @RARelph solved the issue but your tip will help in the future for sure!!! Thank you both