Where Does Lima Store Virtual Machines?
Lima VM instances under ~/.lima, and the LIMA_HOME override for relocating them.
Last updated
Lima keeps each virtual machine in its own folder under .lima in your home directory, with the instance name as the folder name. Disks, EFI state, cloud-init data, logs and sockets all live together there, which makes backup a plain folder copy.
The location is overrideable. Setting LIMA_HOME before first run relocates the entire tree, useful for machines with small home partitions. Do not confuse Lima with Colima: Colima is a separate wrapper with its own directory, and the two never share instance folders.
Where Lima stores this, by platform
~/.lima
One subfolder per instance, for example default or ubuntu. Stop the VM with limactl stop before copying anything. Disk images are qcow2 files paired with EFI and state files that must travel together.
~/.lima
Same layout and same LIMA_HOME override as Linux. The default and any custom instances all sit side by side here, so a full backup is one folder copy with every VM stopped.
Frequently asked questions
how do i move lima vms to another drive
Set LIMA_HOME to the new parent directory before starting instances, then move the existing instance folders there. Lima resolves every VM path from that variable, so both new and moved machines follow it.
can i copy just the disk image to back up a vm
No. Lima manages virtual disks, EFI vars and cloud-init ISOs as a set per instance folder. Copy or move the whole instance directory with the VM stopped, never single disk files out of it.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.