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VirtualBox Host Only Adaptor Disappeared

Published: December 1, 2025 (Updated: Dec 1, 2025)

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Fix the VirtualBox VERR_INTERNAL_ERROR: Host-Only Adapter Missing After Windows 10 Update!

Hi there, I’m Darren, and welcome to Darren’s Tech Tutorials!

If you’ve recently updated your Windows 10 or Windows 11 machine and suddenly found that your critical VirtualBox VMs won’t start, you are definitely not alone. It’s incredibly annoying when you try to boot up your virtual machine and are greeted with a networking error like this:

Interface ('VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter') is not a Host-Only Adapter interface (VERR_INTERNAL_ERROR).

What usually happens is that a recent operating system update wipes out or corrupts the configuration for the Host-Only Adapter that VirtualBox relies on. Without this interface, your VMs lose their ability to communicate with the host machine, causing the startup failure.

But don’t worry! The fix is quick and straightforward. In this tutorial, we are going to walk through the two essential steps needed to get your VirtualBox networking back up and running.

Why Did My Host-Only Adapter Disappear? (Diagnosis)

When you see the VERR_INTERNAL_ERROR regarding the Host-Only Adapter, it means VirtualBox can no longer find or correctly identify the network interface it was previously assigned to.

While this can happen for several reasons, the most common culprit is a Windows update. Windows updates occasionally see the custom VirtualBox network configuration as extraneous and remove or misconfigure it during the installation process, leaving you with a broken networking setup inside VirtualBox.

The solution is simple: we need to manually recreate the necessary adapter and then reassign it to your virtual machines.

Step 1: Recreating the VirtualBox Host Network Adapter

Since the previous adapter disappeared, we need to create a brand-new one using the VirtualBox Host Network Manager tool.

Follow these steps carefully:

1. Access the Host Network Manager

Open VirtualBox and navigate to the top menu bar:

  • Click File.
  • Select Host Network Manager.

2. Create a New Adapter

In the Host Network Manager window, you will likely see no adapters listed, or only those that are misconfigured.

  • Click the Create button (often represented by a green plus sign).
  • If you are prompted by Windows for administrator permission, click Yes to allow VirtualBox to create the new network interface.

VirtualBox will automatically generate a new adapter (it will usually be named something like VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #4 or similar, depending on how many were previously created).

Before closing, ensure the settings are correct for standard host-only usage:

  • Under the Adapter Tab, ensure Configure Adapter Manually is checked, and the IP/Mask looks correct (e.g., 192.168.56.1).
  • Switch to the DHCP Server Tab and ensure Enable Server is checked. This allows your virtual machines to easily grab an IP address from the host automatically.

Once you have verified the settings, click Apply and then Close.

Step 2: Assigning the New Adapter to Your Virtual Machine (VM)

Now that the new host-only adapter exists, your virtual machines need to be told to use this new adapter instead of the broken, missing one.

1. Access VM Settings

  • Select the affected virtual machine (VM) in the VirtualBox list (e.g., your CentOS, Ubuntu, or Windows VM).
  • Click Settings.

2. Update Network Configuration

In the Settings window:

  • Click Network on the left menu.
  • Ensure Adapter 1 is enabled.
  • Change the Attached to: dropdown menu to Host-only Adapter.
  • Crucially, in the name selection box below, select the new adapter you just created (it will be the highest-numbered one on the list, e.g., VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #4).

3. Save and Start the VM

  • Click OK to save the settings.
  • Attempt to start the virtual machine again.

The VM should now boot up without the VERR_INTERNAL_ERROR and successfully connect to the VirtualBox host-only network!

A Note on Static IP Addresses

If you previously had static IP addresses configured inside your virtual machine (meaning you didn’t rely on DHCP), you might need to adjust those settings.

When VirtualBox creates a new Host-Only Adapter, it might use a different network range (e.g., 192.168.56.x changes to 192.168.57.x). If you assigned a static IP to your VM, you must ensure that the static IP falls within the new network range established by the new Host-Only Adapter you created in Step 1.

Conclusion: Back to Virtualization!

That’s all there is to it! Dealing with configuration errors after system updates can be frustrating, but thankfully, VirtualBox provides the tools we need to quickly reset the networking components and get back to work.

If this guide helped you resolve the dreaded VERR_INTERNAL_ERROR, please let me know in the comments below! We love hearing your success stories.

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