On a Linux host, copy a VirtualBox VM (Win 10 guest) to another location?

There are several questions here covering this question of copying (or moving) a VM from one location to another. But all of them seem to assume that your host OS is W10. I have a Linux (Mint 22) host OS and my guest OS is W10.

I tried the simplest method of just literally copying three files, .vbox, .vbox-prev and .vdi to the other location, and then trying to open by using "Add" in the main application dialog. This gives "can't open machine".

I've also tried using File --> Tools --> Virtual Media Manager --> Copy ... and got the same error.

Some of the W10-host answers suggest you have to tweak one or more .xml files, located under \Users ... obviously that is not applicable for Linux.

Anyone know how to do this (relatively simple) thing?

You can't copy VMs in Virtualbox by copying files on the host OS.

Each VM and disk file have UUIDs (long hex numbers) that identify the VM or disk file to Virtualbox. Additionally, the UUID for the VM is provided for the guest OS to activate itself or other software inside the guest OS.

Virtualbox won't let you use copies of VMs or disk files with the same UUID as presently-registered VMs and disk files.

To make a new copy of a VM, right click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's list and click "Clone". Pick a different VM name and new location, then make a "full" clone, then you'll get a complete copy of the VM with all the inside data intact. All the new VM files will have different UUIDs, however, so the guest OS will have to reactivate, because the new UUID tells the OS it's on different "hardware".

FWIW copying VM files (the .vbox file and the disks) is good for, and only good for, making backups of the VM files for restoration in the event of a VM failure, or to transfer the copied VM to a different Virtualbox host. And it's really best to copy the whole VM folder, just in case you have snapshots and forget about the Snapshots folder.