Multipass Upgrade (e.g. to 1.16.0 RC3, and likewise RC4) keeps failing on Windows — "Multipass Service ... could not be stopped"

[holta]

This happens almost every single time — e.g. when trying to upgrade to 1.16.0 RC3 or 1.16.0 RC4 on Windows 11 Pro — despite Multipass having no VMs (no instances) at all:

Would you have any suggestions or recommendations to get past this? Thank you!

[Sploder12]

Hi @holta, sorry for all the issues. Could you please send your logs? here is a guide on how to access them.

[holta]

@Sploder12

Windows logs for today attached — please remove the .TXT suffix:

multipass-event-log-2025-07-02.evtx.TXT

Logs from the installation and uninstall process can be found under %APPDATA%\Local\Temp. Sort the contents of the directory by “Date Modified” to bring the newest files to the top. The name of the file containing the logs follows the pattern MSI[0-9a-z].LOG.

PART TWO: Just FYI when trying to get Multipass install and uninstall logs, the instructions ( pasted in above, from the 2nd paragraph of https://documentation.ubuntu.com/multipass/en/latest/how-to-guides/troubleshoot/access-logs/ ) do not work.

1. When pasting %APPDATA%\Local\Temp into Windows' "File Explorer", it responds:

Windows can't find 'C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Local\Temp'. Check the spelling and try again.

2. When pasting %APPDATA%\Local into Windows' "File Explorer", it responds:

Windows can't find 'C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Local'. Check the spelling and try again.

3. Whereas %APPDATA% == C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming does in fact exist.

[holta]

1. Somehow I was finally able to get 1.16.0 RC4 installed! The trick (appears to be!?) more forcefully stopping Multipass's service:

   • Windows key + R > services.msc > Multipass Service > Stop.

   • Whereas Windows' Task Manager claims to stop the Multipass service, but fails to actually stop it.

2. Does paragraph 2 of Multipass guide Access logs > Windows need to be fixed — with a correct path to install and uninstall logs?

[ricab]

@Sploder12, would you mind following up on this? Namely the path of install logs.

[Sploder12]

I took a look into the documentation in question and confirmed the path for install and uninstall logs was incorrect. I have made a PR to fix this #4359, thanks for pointing it out @holta!