Misc Tips

Other uncategorized tips that may be useful - Updated on 5/24/2021

This information hasn't been updated in years.

Some of these items do not apply to modern versions of UTM. Please check the official UTM documentation, and ask for assistance in the UTM Discord server if you have any questions.

Can’t find VMs when updating from 2.0.17 or earlier on macOS?

If you are updating from < 2.0.17 on macOS, when you open UTM you will not see any VMs you previously created! To fix this, move your .utm files from ~/Documents to ~/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents. You can do it in Terminal with the following command: mv ~/Documents/*.utm ~/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents

Easy ISO creation on macOS

If you want to create an ISO file to use in a VM, place files you want into a new folder. Make an ISO from this folder using Terminal: hdiutil makehybrid -o ~/Desktop/output.iso /path/to/folder/ -iso -joliet You need to replace the /path/to/folder/ with the path to your folder. You can get the path like this: https://themacbeginner.com/full-path-on-terminal-by-dragging-a-folderfile-mac-os-x

VHDX to QCOW2 conversion

Due to an issue with QEMU’s handling of VHDX images, sometimes VMs will be corrupted from normal usage. This results in BSOD or random application crashes/errors. To work around this issue, it is recommended that you convert the VHDX image to a QCOW2 image. Currently, UTM does not provide this functionality in the UI, so you have to do it directly from QEMU.

1. Install Homebrew if you do not have it already.

2. Run brew install qemu to install QEMU and its command line utilities

3. Download a fresh Windows VHDX, as the old one is corrupted if you see crashes.

4. Run qemu-img convert -p -O qcow2 /path/to/input.vhdx /path/to/output.qcow2 while replacing the paths with your own. For example, if I wanted to use a VHDX called WindowsTest.VHDX inside my Downloads folder, and I wanted the converted one to be placed in my Desktop, I would run the following: qemu-img convert -p -O qcow2 /Users/EXAMPLE/Downloads/WindowsTest.VHDX /Users/EXAMPLE/Desktop/WindowsTestConverted.qcow2

5. You must specify an output path, or else you will get a Must specify image file name error.

Now you can use the QCOW2 image with UTM.