Parallels 19 Hangs upon Startup on Mac M1 Max [Fixed]

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EricE10

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I am running Parallels Desktop 19 on a MBP (M1 Max, 32GB Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.1.2). I have a Windows 11 VM, nothing massive, around 60GB size. Up until today it ran great. However today Parallels starts up unresponsive with the spinning color wheel. It responds to nothing but force quit.

Upon a reboot and fresh launch, it asks me if I want to try reopening windows. I cannot even select "Don't Reopen" because the application immediately goes into a "Not Responding" status in the activity monitor.
Screenshot 2023-12-07 at 12.41.51.png

What can I do? Is simply backing up the .pvm file enough to then delete and reinstall Parallels from scratch?

Thanks for any advice
 
So, I was able to fix this and put what worked for me here just in case someone else stumbles across it:

- Re-downloaded the Parallels 19 installer
- Making sure Parallels is not running in Activity Monitor, then used daisydisk (you could technically do it with Finder too) and deleted all Parallels-related cache files from both User and system space
- Ran the installer
- Restarted Parallels and now it's working.
 
EricE10 said:
So, I was able to fix this and put what worked for me here just in case someone else stumbles across it:

- Re-downloaded the Parallels 19 installer
- Making sure Parallels is not running in Activity Monitor, then used daisydisk (you could technically do it with Finder too) and deleted all Parallels-related cache files from both User and system space
- Ran the installer
- Restarted Parallels and now it's working.
Click to expand...
Can you please be more specific about where the cache files that you deleted are located?
Also, did you try a macOS Safe Boot by any chance? That is another technique for clearing some caches in the OS, but not sure if it affects Parallels caches.
 
Just renewed my Pro Subscription. I'm having a similar issue. (Mac Sonoma 14.1.1 M1 Chip 16GB). I worked the last time I used it, now it opens and I get the continuous spinning wheel. I have no access to the Menu and can only force quit. I downloaded Parallels Toolbox and used it to uninstall Parallels. I tried updating to Parallels 19, and same issue. I uninstalled again and removed all old files I could find in the /users/ directory and this time when I reinstalled it brought me to the initial "Download and Install Windows" screen, where it also froze. Again no access to the menu and I can only force quit.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Jeremiah1 said:
Just renewed my Pro Subscription. I'm having a similar issue. (Mac Sonoma 14.1.1 M1 Chip 16GB). I worked the last time I used it, now it opens and I get the continuous spinning wheel. I have no access to the Menu and can only force quit. I downloaded Parallels Toolbox and used it to uninstall Parallels. I tried updating to Parallels 19, and same issue. I uninstalled again and removed all old files I could find in the /users/ directory and this time when I reinstalled it brought me to the initial "Download and Install Windows" screen, where it also froze. Again no access to the menu and I can only force quit.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
I recommend contacting Parallels Support and getting an active support session going. Sounds like you have some issues many of us have not seen before.
 
If anyone still has this issue, and cleaning the caches and reinstalling did not work for you, this worked for me:

1. Use Parallels toolbox or some other trusted application cleaner to uninstall Parallels and all related app directories and caches.
2.1 Check if you have any folders that have been configured to be used for virtual machines.
2.2 If so, if you happened to have them in iCloud, make sure they are downloaded/synced.
2.3. For example, I had a folder that I used to share files between my VMs and host machine, which was not locally downloaded.
2.4. (Optional) Not sure if needed but I also ensured all my VMs were locally downloaded and then moved them to a new directory.
2.5. (Optional) Not sure if needed but I made sure to stop/exit all VPN services.
2.6. (Optional) This by itself did not work for me but was likely required anyways (since root was not the owner) from an existing KB [1]:
"Wrong permissions to the necessary folder on the Mac side."
"Run: sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/Preferences/Parallels"​
3. Run the Parallels automatic installer.
4. Reboot.
5. (Optional) Again, stop/exit any VPN services that may have started on login.
6. Open Parallels desktop.

[1] https://kb.parallels.com/122953
 
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