vboxmanage.exe error could not rename the directory

Question

I am using VirtualBox 4.2.18 and Vagrant 1.3.3 on Window 7. I have done a vagrant box add

vagrant box add MyBox http://ergonlogic.com/files/boxes/debian-LAMP-current.box

But, when I get to the step of vagrant up I get the following error: "vboxmanage.exe error could not rename the directory..."

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Derek

Levins

Enable debug VAGRANT_LOG=debug vagrant up and see more output. Is VAGRANT_HOME present? – Willywilly

Thanks Terry! That was a very helpful tip and got me further along. I can see now that the command that is failing is: VBoxManage modifyvm f975034b-43c2-46cb-abfc-6c233d23d61c --name Vagrant_default_1380153421 which throws the rename error. – Levins

There are a number of upvotes on my answer if you wanted to select a correct one :) – Breathless

Answer 1

I tried:

• vagrant destroy -f
• manually deleting the virtualboxes in their directory
• restarting my machine
• reinstalling both vagrant and virtualbox
• downgrading vagrant and virtualbox
• running with sudo

and nothing worked. The only thing that worked for me was opening Virtualbox interface and going to Preferences and changing the Default Machine Folder from VirtualBox VMs to just VMs

Wasted about 4 hours of my time on that problem. Hopefully someone with the same problem finds this post.

Breathless

Thanks to your reply, I've only wasted ~30 mins of my time. – Anxiety

I would up vote this 100 times, if I could! Thank you! – Worthwhile

+1 because this might have helped me, but only after destroying all boxes with vagrant destroy and then manually creating a C:\Users\myusername\VMs folder. Thanks. – Tern

i wasted 45 min,before hitting this post – Savoirfaire

Answer 2

I went to the Directory

VirtualBox VMs

And deleted everything inside. Then I just did vagrant up, and it worked.

Stratiform

This worked for me as well. Although make sure that before you delete everything inside, you run vagrant destroy -f – Sparid

Answer 3

I was finally able to figure this out. Turns out it is useful to know how to set two specific directory paths for VirtualBox. This was particularly useful because I run my machine under an account that does not have administrative privileges. So I needed to get VirtualBox to used directory paths which I had access to security-wise. The first is the VBOX_USER_HOME environment variable which can be done within the System Properties/Environment Variables on Windows 7. In this way the VBOX_USER_HOME variable will control where the .VirtualBox directory goes. Secondly, set where the *.vbox files goes which is typically a directory called VirtualBox VMs. To set this path open the VirtualBox GUI and go to File  Preference and set the path at the Default Machine Folder input box.

Hopefully this info will help others.

Derek

Levins

I also had problem with admin privileges. By default, VirtualBox creates machines in a unit that requires admin privileges to run. This is not a problem for VirtualBox, but it causes problem for external programs trying to work on this folder. – Ful

Could you explain more of what needs to be set for the VBOX_USER_HOME and in the virtual box GUI? – Fruit

Answer 4

Thing that worked for me:

1) I had to manually delete C:\Users\My_name\VirtualBox VMs\machine_name folder.
2) To prevent this from happening again, before 'vagrant destroy' command I always stop current machine with 'vagrant suspend'.

Spondylitis

does not work every time , sometimes it says the folder is in use. – Unconcern

Well, I think that killing Vagrant process before trying to delete a folder would solve the issue :) – Spondylitis

Answer 5

I just removed every sub folder under this folder and it worked

Metamorphic

Answer 6

Don't destroy your vagrant machine! This is a last option.

Write in you console:

VBoxManage list vms

Copy id of your machine, something like:

7fca07b2-65c6-420e-84b5-b958c15449a1

Open your vagrant machine id file, something like:

.vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/id

Replace with id you just copied and do:

Vagrant up

This allways works for me. If not, only as last option you can try: vagrant destroy -f

Decameter

VBoxManage wasn't available in PATH, so I had to find it in C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage list vms. But this worked just now in Windows 10 with Laravel/homestead. – Odessa

Answer 7

On Windows 10 using VirtualBox v6.1.26 I encountered the same problem.

Here is how I could re-create the VM after a broken vagrant destroy

Try:

1. Run vagrant destroy -f
2. Check the available machines with vagrant global-status --prune
3. Find the VMs folder in C:/Users/your_username/.VirtualBoxMachines and try deleting the one with the name of your machine using the file explorer manually
   • If you cannot delete the folder (some processes has open files with in it), try restarting your computer and delete then
4. Now it should work again with vagrnat up

This worked for me!

Distichous

Answer 8

That error means there is other VM in Virtual Machine with the same name as the one you used for this VM. So go back to the folder of that VM you run previously and destroy it with "vagrant destroy -f". Then try again running this VM.

Ezara

Answer 9

Vagrant

Working with Vagrant I had a similar error. This was due to naming conflicts. What solved it for me was to remove the name of the instance from the Vagrantfile.

vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id,
              "--name", "oracle",
              "--memory", "512",
              "--natdnshostresolver1", "on"]

Change that to

vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id,
              "--memory", "512",
              "--natdnshostresolver1", "on"]

Baptism

Answer 10

You Just need find your folder called VirtualBox VMs

In that folder should see your machines

And rename what folder you want, and run:

vagrant up

So you have run it successfully.

Coadunate

Answer 11

1. vagrant destroy -f

2. find the folder VirtualBox VMs --> delete the machine you want to rename

3. Run vagrant up in your project root

This worked for me!

Tremann

Answer 12

i don't know how it works but i just kill the process of VB like the Following image and i run 'vagrant reload'

Chesnut

Answer 13

In windows OS, if none of these solution works, try to run the command in PowerShell as Administrator.

Surovy

Answer 14

Please follow the instructions below if none of the above solution worked:

1. Delete everything inside C:\Users{PC}\VirtualBox VMs (replace PC with your PC Name)
2. Delete .vagrant.d under C:\Users{PC} folder
3. Open VirtualBox Manager and remove any instance from the left sidebar by right clicking.
4. Open the cmd as administrator.
5. Go to C:\Users{PC}\Homestead and run vagrant up again.

Mylor

Answer 15

Gentleman and ladies oh no. Just go to the vagrant file change the file vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--name", "oracle", "--memory", "512", "--natdnshostresolver1", "on"]

change the name variable as it conflicts with another 'installed' or failed to 'installed' vagrantbox. the new Vagrantfile should be like: vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--name", "oracle2", "--memory", "512", "--natdnshostresolver1", "on"]

Bloodless

Answer 16

On Ubuntu 20.04

First, run

vagrant destroy

Go to this directory

/home/your_username/VirtualBox VMs

This step deletes all your VMs:

Delete all files and directories in that directory like so

rm -rf *

And then run

vagrant up 

Alita