why is my starter taking hours to boot up?
**"Why is my starter taking hours to boot up?"**
From Genymotion’s perspective, long-running use of Genymotion Desktop can lead to memory leaks that cause devices to become very slow or unresponsive, including slow boot times. This is a known limitation of Genymotion Desktop when used for extended periods, and we recommend using Genymotion Cloud solutions for automated, long-running tests or many devices. If you’re experiencing extremely long boots, this might be related to that issue, especially if you’ve been running multiple instances for a while. You can find more details in our Desktop slowdown article and the latest Desktop release notes:
- Genymotion Desktop becomes unstable and slow after a while: https://genymotion.com/blog/genymotion-virtual-devices-version-3-0-2-for-genymotion-desktop-and-saas-cloud-are-out
- Genymotion Desktop Release Notes (3.9.0 and related): https://genymotion.com/blog/tutorial/connect-saas-device-adb and https://support.genymotion.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002907778
What you can try now:
- Restart the Desktop app and, if possible, reboot your host machine to clear memory.
- Make sure you’re running the latest Genymotion Desktop version (3.9.0 as of our latest notes) to benefit from fixes and performance improvements.
- Limit the number of active virtual devices or disable non-essential services while booting.
- If you need reliable, long-running automated tests, consider using Genymotion SaaS/Cloud for cloud-based devices.
Additional quick checks:
- Ensure your host machine has sufficient free RAM and CPU headroom.
- Update graphics drivers and enable virtualization features in BIOS/UEFI if applicable.
- Check for quick-boot or device-specific issues noted in our known-issues lists (some Android images can impact boot speed on certain hardware).
If you’d like, we can help you compare Desktop vs Cloud setups for your use case and guide you to the best option.
One quick question to tailor help: are you running Genymotion Desktop on Windows, macOS, or Linux, and how many virtual devices are you booting simultaneously?