The recent development in nanotechnology resulted in growing of various nanoplate like structures. High attention was devoted to graphene sheet nanostructure, which enforced the scientist to start developing various theoretical models to investigate its physical properties. Magnetic field effects on nanoplates, especially graphene sheets, have also attracted a considerable attention of the scientific community. Here, by using the nonlocal theory, we examine the influence of in-plane magnetic field on the viscoelastic orthotropic multi-nanoplate system (VOMNPS) embedded in a viscoelastic medium. We derive the system of m partial differential equations describing the free transverse vibration of VOMNPS under the uniaxial in-plane magnetic field using the Eringen's nonlocal elasticity and Kirchhoffs plate theory considering the viscoelastic and orthotropic material properties of nanoplates. Closed form solutions for complex natural frequencies are derived by applying the Navier's and trigonometric method for the case of simply supported nanoplates. The results obtained with analytical method are validated with the results obtained by using the numerical method. In addition, numerical examples are given to show the effects of nonlocal parameter, internal damping, damping and stiffness of viscoelastic medium, rotary inertia and uniaxial in-plane magnetic force on the real and the imaginary parts of complex natural frequencies of VOMNPS. This study can be useful as a starting point for the research and design of nanoelectromechanical devices based on graphene sheets. (C) 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.