Genymotion does not start Android virtual device

Question

How to resolve Genymotion/VirtualBox issue, when can't start Android virtual device?

Bellow message is received:

Unable to start the Genymotion virtual device.

The VirtualBox software returned an error: "incompatible state".

Please, run the VirtualBox software to check for issues. Then, try to run the Genymotion virtual device directly from VirtualBox to have a possible explanation.

For more information refer to: https://cloud.genymotion.com/page/faq/#vbox

Unable to start the Genymotion virtual device - "incompatible state"

Because, it's a type of knowledge sharing: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/its-ok-to-ask-and-answer-your-own-questions/ — ViliusK, Dec 18 '13 at 16:08

score 74 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 18 '13 at 16:03

74

The issue is that virtual device is in Saved state. You need to turn it off to state Powered Off.

You need to start VirtualBox.app and power off the device.

In the screenshot below Tablet device would not start Oracle VM VirtualBox with several Android virtual devices

So you need to Start the device which is in Saved state and then power it off (by closing window) like this: <code>Power off</code> Android virtual device in VirtualBox

answered Dec 18 '13 at 16:03

ViliusK

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You can also right-click on the virtual machine on the left in VirtualBox and select "Discard saved state". – Ben Jakuben Dec 30 '13 at 21:37
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@Ben Jakuben the option is disabled in device which is in stopping mode. – SkyWalker Jan 07 '14 at 12:31
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Helped me as well. Thanks! – X-HuMan May 10 '14 at 13:35
Since I did not have the option to "start", because the machine was in a "shutting down" state, I had to restart my PC. But once done, everything is working fine. – Edison Spencer Sep 16 '15 at 14:15

score 47 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 14 '14 at 16:31

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In Windows, if the device is stuck in "Stopping" mode you can shutdown Virtual Box and kill these two processes in the Task Manager (CTRL + ALT + DEL or CTRL + SHIFT + ESC)

VBoxNetDHCP.exe
VBoxHeadless.exe

Then launch your virtual device in Genymotion.

answered Aug 14 '14 at 16:31

dunwan

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THIS HELPED ME A LOT! THANKS! :3 – CMA Jul 22 '15 at 03:22

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 28 '17 at 10:54

7

You can also in kill the vm process in the OS and shut it off this way.

In windows Ctrl+Shift+Esc choose vm processes and stop the processes restart your gennymotion it should work.

Added by barlop
The following screenshot(while it doesn't involve genymotion), illustrates how, you have the main virtualbox process, and a virtualbox process for each running machine. If you expand task manager and look at the command line column, you see the parameters to virtualbox.exe give details about which machine it is, so you could see which device you were killing if you killed it from there (though I tend to poweroff the virtual machine normally and load a snapshot, I can see how they could potentially be powered off from task manager)

enter image description here

edited Nov 28 '17 at 10:54

mx0

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answered Mar 06 '14 at 14:38

sivi

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named what? i.e. what are the names for example of individual vm processes? – barlop Jan 26 '15 at 15:31
VBox ... .exe VBox ... .exe VBox ... .exe also see this link for more info: http://stackoverflow.com/a/25313114/1984636 – sivi Jan 27 '15 at 16:01
well those aren't individual VM instances are they those aren't the individual virtual machines. They are instances related to virtualbox but they aren't the virtual machines. The virtual machines don't have individual instances. – barlop Jan 27 '15 at 23:52
sivi, you write "the genymotion platform is built on top of vm-virtual box" Nobody is denying that GenyMotion uses Virtual Box. But Virtual Box is not a Virtual Machine, (and neither is GenyMotion). VirtualBox is a hypervisor that runs Virtual Machines within VirtualBox. A hypervisor e.g. VirtualBox, hosts Virtual Machines. You might have a Windows 7 Virtual Machine, a Windows XP Virtual Machine.. But VirtualBox is a hypervisor not a virtual machine. The processes you mention do not relate to any specific virtual machine, but relate generally to the hypervisor, that is, to virtualbox. – barlop Jan 29 '15 at 00:07
they are processes and if they were not processes they would not ne in the OS processes list ;0 – sivi May 08 '15 at 13:10
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yes I know they are processes. Anyhow, I see that besides the main virtualbox.exe, there are additional virtualbox.exe processes, and each of those additional virtualbox process relates to a virtual machine, and task manager shows which, so I see what you mean now. I have hence added a screenshot and some explanation to your answer. – barlop May 08 '15 at 15:08
Though you seemed to be talking about different processes VBox....exe The only VBox....exe process I have is VBoxSVC.exe – barlop May 08 '15 at 15:13
Ok we found a common base eventually. – sivi May 08 '15 at 15:23

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 13 '14 at 11:12

when i was trying to run the virtual device,

i was not in the saved state but in "guru meditation state" or something like that in this saved/discard/start were not accessible. So how did i solve this problem

I started the virtual box app and in that u can get the logs of the device by Right clicking on that device. At the bottom of the log there is the exact reason why it happened.

For me the reason was something related to "low host memory error" using this low host memory incident as a reference which said to kill the processes related to VM and "googlecrashhandler.exe" as it will clear the memory and now ur device will be in paused state.

And the Start/discard/saved will be accessible, Now do as @ViliusK has said in his answer.

I caused this by trying to run multiple emulators at the same time. All options were greyed out in VirtualBox until I terminated `VBoxHeadless.exe`, this forces the VM into an `aborted` state and I was then able to interact with it in the VirtualBox Manager. — Red Taz, Jun 11 '14 at 20:19

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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If you are using Linux, just goto terminal

sudo su

check processes running Virtual Box with

ps ax

get process id and kill them with priority using kill -9

like

kill -9 3217

and then start virtual box again.

that will help

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered May 17 '16 at 13:04

ProgrammerCk

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 13 '15 at 08:21

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go to Oracle virtualbox and check if the device's RAM exceeds the one from that of the Oracle Virtual Box (Ex: HAXM storage:1024 MB then device's RAM should be less than 1024MB)

answered Oct 13 '15 at 08:21

Mahesh V N

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score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 01 '16 at 16:07

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The simplest solution that works for me,

Run genymotion as administrator

answered Mar 01 '16 at 16:07

Andrew Lam

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Genymotion does not start Android virtual device

7 Answers7

sudo su

ps ax

kill -9 3217

Linked