[Fix] “Operation Inconsistent with Current State” VMware Error

Case: The “Operation inconsistent with current state” VMware error

VMware Workstation is a popular type-2 hypervisor designed for end users and small businesses or organizations. It is a fairly straightforward and simple-to-use application that helps you to deploy many operating systems workloads and applications on a single server.

Many users create virtual machines (VMs) on VMware Workstation as lab environments to test software, updates, or even virus. And that makes for frequent crashes or errors. The “Operation inconsistent with current state” VMware error is one of them.

Have you also got the error? It occurs not only on VMware Workstation, but also on VMware Fusion or Player. So, what causes it and how to solve it? This article will provide the solution for you.

Solution to the “Operation inconsistent with current state” VMware error

The VMware “Operation inconsistent with current state” error often occurs when you start a suspended virtual machine on VMware Workstation, Fusion, or Player. In your current session, the virtual machine is suspended or closed, however, it remains in an open state in the VM services. This issue may be caused by improperly or forcibly shutting down the virtual machine. And therefore, resulting in the inconsistency.

The solution to the VMware Workstation “Operation inconsistent with current state” error is actually very simple. You only need to shut down the virtual machine and the VMware hypervisor properly, and then start the hypervisor and virtual machine as administrator.

Backup important file on Workstation VM to avoid accidental loss

You may get many unexpected errors while using virtual machines. If a virtual machine is not working properly, you may lose your important data on that VM. To prevent this issue from happening, it is necessary to back up the important data on these VMs.

By installing a backup agent on the guest operating system (OS) of the workstation virtual machine, you can backup it as it is a physical machine. Which means you can exclude insignificant applications and data from backups to reduce the size, and perform granular recovery when you only need some specific files urgently.

Furthermore, in this way you can also migrate all data on one virtual or physical machine to another, for example, convert VMware to Hyper-V or vice versa.

To backup VMware Workstation VMs more efficiently, here I will introduce you a professional backup software, AOMEI Centralized Backupper which can back up all windows systems.

Here is a 30-day free trial for you:

To properly using AOMEI Centralized Backupper to back up virtual or physical machines of multiple endpoints, you need follow these steps:

Attach an IP (better static) to the virtual machine you want to back up.

1. Launch AOMEI Centralized Backupper, and install ACB Agent remotely or manually on virtual or physical machines by clicking Computers > Install Client Program.

For the computers with client programs installed manually, you still need to Request Control over them for the further operation.

2. Click Computers > Uncontrolled Computers to find the correct IP of virtual or physical machines, then click Request Control on the upper bar. A prompt window will show on their interface, once all permission received you can start to back up them whenever you like.

3. Click Tasks on the upper bar, click New Task and select System Backup to create a new backup task. Follow the 2 steps in the prompt window.

4. Click Add Computers to find the correct IP of the virtual or physical machines you want to backup, you can select multiple of them. click OK.

5. Select a location as the destination path. you can click Add Storage in the prompt window to add a Share or NAS Device as a storage end.

Besides, click Settings you can set Encryption, Compression level, Splitting, Intelligent Sector, and VSS in the prompt window.

6. Click Schedule, you can manage the time and frequency to automatically back up virtual or physical machines.

7. Click Scheme, the oldest backup will be automatically deleted once a new one is created, which is space saving.

8. Then click Start Backup, you can choose Only create this task, or Create and execute the tasks.

Once created, tasks will show on Tasks page separately. You can Edit Backup or Restore by clicking Advanced on the upper right of the task.

Summary

Have you ever got the “Operation inconsistent with current state” VMware error when you resume a suspended virtual machine on VMware Workstation, Fusion, or Player? This issue happens may because the improper way you shut down the virtual machine or the hypervisor. You can try restart the hypervisor as administrator to solve it.

Virtual machines are error-prone. To protect the important data in them, you may need to backup them regularly. In this regard, AOMEI Centralized Backupper is an effective and flexible backup software for granular recovery.