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    [Solved] The VM Session was Closed Before Any Attempt to Power it on

    DineshBy Updated:

    For some reason, if the Oracle VirtualBox is giving the below error while powering on a virtual machine, this simple trick will be useful. You may get an error saying “The VM session was closed before any attempt to power it on“, and closes by itself while switching on a particular VM.

    Here is the solution that worked for me to overcome this issue.

    I tried the following methods but did not work.

    1) Tried several snapshots to restore back the VM to an earlier state. But it gave me the same error.

    2) Restarted the host computer.

    3) Stopped all VirtualBox services and restarted. It is almost identical to restarting the physical computer, but I tried that too.

    So, here is the working solution.

    If you get the ‘the VM session was closed before any attempt to power it on’ message and the Virtual Machine doesn’t start, don’t panic. Just take a snapshot of the virtual machine to protect the current state. Then, follow the steps.

    The Working Method for VirtualBox Error

    Go to the Storage option of VM; remove hard disks and CD drives.

    Remove Storage
    • Once all storage is removed, it will have no attached storage. Start the Virtual machine now. You will see the Oracle VirtualBox screen with boot medium error because there is no bootable CD or hard disk attached.
    • Shut down VM now and add the correct storage disks as it was earlier.
    • Now switch on the virtual machine, which will start normally.

    Other Possible Cause

    Also, the possible corruption or broken saved state of the VM could cause this issue. You might have closed the VirtualBox software while the VM is working without properly shutting down it or you saved the VM while the guest OS was doing some busy tasks. After that, when you try to start the same VM, you may get a similar error.

    In this case, discard the ‘Saved State” and start the Virtual Machine.

    Discard State - vm session was closed before

    VirtualBox may come up with some fixes for this issue. But, I can confirm this method worked for me.

    Share.

    Dinesh is the founder of Sysprobs and written more than 400 articles. Enthusiast in Microsoft and cloud technologies with more than 15 years of IT experience.

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    31 Comments

    6. Nick on

      Had the same error after upgrading. CD was still pointing to the Virtual Box Guest Additions CD (from the previous version). I changed it to empty and it booted. So little bit faster than removing and re-adding all the drives – maybe it will work for you!

    8. Jester on

      Had the same problem and followed what Nick suggested regarding the CD pointing to the additions. Fixed my issue.

    14. Martin on

      Hi there, I clicked change and then changed the sort order of the boot-steps and have set the HD first. Then it worked as well.

    17. Tired of always getting unsolvable problems while it works for everyone else on

      It did not fix ANYTHING!!!!! I removed ALL storage devices in the VM, tried to boot, and I got the message again. The only workaround is to create a NEW VM and reinstall everything! What is the point of giving false information? This is getting me extremely MAD! I cannot rely on anything on the Internet, because EVERYTHING is FALSE and OUTDATED!!!! Before I got stuck with this, the VM was extremely slow. I took ages just to install something in the virtual Ubuntu, which was periodically hanging. I know that Ubuntu itself is a possible cause for the problem, but now, that is VirtualBox that refuses to start the VM with my Ubuntu, so I would have to restart the installation again. It’s been almost TWO HOURS I am trying to install the Ubuntu guest, and now I would have to start again.
      What can I do to install a virtual machine if VirtualBox does NOT work at ALL?

    20. ray on

      Hi, I encountered the same error. I tried the solution but the error still comes up.
      Just rebooting the host PC, starting VB solved the problem…

    24. Mike Blyth on

      Thanks for the tip. What worked for me and is worth trying first, if you have a saved machine state, is just discarding it — Machine – Discard.