VM is not accessible: Fix Taking ownership of a VM failed

VMware Workstation Pro is the industry standard for running multiple operating systems as virtual machines (VMs) on a single Linux or Windows PC. IT professionals, developers, and businesses who build, test, or demo software for any device, platform, or cloud rely on Workstation Pro. In this article, we shall discuss “VM is not accessible: Fix Taking ownership of a VM failed”. Please see How to Check what files are taking up space on Windows 11, Remove Expired Configuration Profiles on Mac, and how to setup a cache-only DNS server.

VMware Workstation runs on standard x86-based hardware with 64-bit Intel and AMD processors and on 64-bit Windows or Linux host operating systems. For more details, see our System Requirements documentation.

Here are some similar VM errors, the virtual machine has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (1×0). You are not authorized to connect to this Virtual machine. And Windows failed to start, a recent hardware or software change might be the cause.

The root cause of the Error

This can occur when attempting to open another VM console while one is already running, or if there are lockfiles or lockdirs present. To fix this issue, kindly follow the steps discussed below.

Method 1

You already have an open console and you are trying to open a new one:

Even if you try to taking ownership of the VM, it will fail with the following error below.

Just search for an open VM session from the taskbar. This will open the Virtual Machine window

Method 2: Delete lockfiles or lockdirs

If the above method does not work for you, please try the following method as suggested below. See these guides on some related content: How to fix VirtualBox Displaying only 32 bits Option. And how to enable Hyper-V on a VMware Workstation.

- Exit (close) the VMware Workstation
- Find and delete all files with the extension .lck or .lock in the directory of the VM that is causing this trouble

Try to start the VM again.

I hope you found this blog on taking ownership of a VM post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.