VM Gone after removing App Store version and installing downloaded version

[trollfred]

I have removed App Store UTM app and then installed downloaded UTM app
What is expected:
VM is still there
What happened
VM was gone and no where to be found

Is this behaviour by design or was it a bug?

MacOS: 15.1.1
UTM: 4.6.3
Guest OS: MacOS 15.1.1

[osy]

Deleting just the app shouldn't affect the data. How did you delete it?

[trollfred]

@osy I have had older version installed via App Store (I do not remember which one exactly, and App Store did not show the "UPDATE" button so I though I would just download newer version from the website). So I opened launchpad, long click on UTM, and delete button. Then I have installed fresh version from the website and it could see that there was VM but it showed error something like "This VM can not be found" and there was a red button which I hit unfortunately that removed my VM from the list completely. Then I have installed UTM from App Store again, this time it was up to date but VM was not on the list any more. I have looked into ~/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents/ and it was empty. I have looked for large files and folers via Daisy Disk hoping to find it somewhere but could not see it anywhere. Luckily this VM was not of big value to me but still worth looking into

[freebrowser1]

When one deletes an app from the /Applications folder using the Finder, the Finder will prompt whether you want to delete the associated files. The default is YES, so all VMs will be deleted.
So watch out and select only 'utm.app' and unselect all others !

[trollfred]

@freebrowser1 thats not how I deleted app store version
and when I deleted downloaded version I did not get any prompt 🤔

[osy]

When you delete an App Store app from Launchpad, all its data will be deleted. This is not something we control and is how both iOS app store and macOS app store works. If you drag an app to the trash, this will not happen. You can also overwrite the app with the downloaded version and this will not happen. I wish Apple was more clear in the popup when you delete something from Launchpad but this is something you may report to https://www.apple.com/feedback/