virtualbox.org

I've understood that one of the main new features of v4 is the totally new VM files' layout, whose main goal is VM portability.

If I'm not mistaken the idea is that, having all the VM's stuff in one single folder, you can move or copy the VM elsewhere (for example to another host), while keeping all of it (settings, snapshots, saved states...), just moving around that single folder.

My question is: supposing I have VBox4 installed on two hosts and a JohnDoe called VM set up and running on host A, what do I have to do to have it duplicated and running also on host B?
I thought it was enough to copy the JohnDoe folder from "VirtualBox VMs" (host A) to "VirtualBox VMs" (host B) and then start again VBox (host B), which would look into it's own "VirtualBox VMs" and find and list the added VM, but things seem to be less easy than that, as VBox (host B) does not "see" the newly arrived VM.
What steps am I missing?

Hello,

VM list is for each host, so your VM is new for host B :
Add the new VM using "Machine, Add"

The "VirtualBox VMs" folder is just a default place where new VMs are created - that folder has no magical properties. VMs will not be automatically recognized, regardless of which folder you copy them to. As someone else has mentioned you must direct VBox to the folder using "Machine | Add". I personally would also check that the VM is entirely self contained (all media referenced in the VM.xml, no absolute paths).

I wasn't expecting any... magical properties; I just thought that maybe, as that folder is unique to VBox and its location is stored in the main configuration settings, the program would automatically look into it. Now I know it does not.

Thanks for the help.
I did not notice the "Machine -> Add" command and did not find anything about it in the user manual.