Unable to use a virtual machine with another Mac user account

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Symptoms

A virtual machine can't be used with several Mac user accounts. After you log into User 2 and launch a virtual machine on the User 1 account, a virtual machine looks like:

At User 1 account virtual machine launch is followed by the following notification:

    "Unable to complete the operation for "Windows  ". The virtual machine ID is invalid. To resolve the problem, remove the virtual machine from the list and add it again."
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Cause

Parallels Desktop misconfiguration.

Resolution

  1. Log into your main user account.

  2. Be sure that Parallels Desktop for Mac is quit.

  3. Open the Terminal.app from Applications > Utilities.

  4. In the Terminal window execute the following command :

    sudo rm -rf  /Library/Preferences/Parallels/

    NOTE: No symbols will be shown due to security measures, so just hit the keys and use return/Enter.

  5. Execute the command below in Terminal:

    rm -rf  ~/Library/Preferences/Parallels/

  6. Now execute this command: 

    rm -rf  ~/Library/Parallels/

  7. Perform steps 2 - 5 for each user account you intent to use a virtual machine.

  8. Login under another user account and add the virtual machine to Parallels Desktop Control Center (double click on the .pvm bundle).

    NOTE: By default, shared virtual machines are located in the folder

    /Users/Shared/Parallels

Related articles:

How do I find my virtual machine on Mac?

How to share virtual machine with several user accounts on a Mac

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