cant copy/paste from guest to host

[gokufast]

i was searching trying to solve this problem but nothing, the problem is that i cant copy any file from the guest and paste in the host.

I try to uninstall the vmware tools and install it again and nothing, reinstall vmware tools and nothing.

it happens when i try to copy text or files, any text and any size/type of files.

but, when i try to copy any file/text from de host to the guest it copy in the VM.

it is a problem of my host? vmwaretools? vmware workstation?

Host: Windows 7 64bits

Guest 1: Windows 7 64bits

Guest 2: Windows XP.

[djbarrett]

I had all the same symptoms and just managed to fix this by doing the following steps in order. (VMware Workstation 9.0.2 build-1031769, CentOS 6 guest, Windows Server 2008 host)

1. Go into VM / Settings / Options / Guest Isolation
2. UNCHECK both checkboxes (Enable drag and drop, Enable copy and paste) and click OK.
3. Shut down the guest, and shut down VMware Workstation
4. Reboot the host computer
5. Run VMware Workstation but do not launch the guest yet.
6. Go into VM / Settings / Options / Guest Isolation for the guest, and CHECK both checkboxes
7. Power On the guest.

Copying and pasting now works.

[tigerwood2006]

this tip works for me.

[esotericbyte]

All I have to say is "Wow!".

Unset reboot host, reset - boot guest to make a setting stick.... it's coded wrong someplace! I'm going to try it but how often am I going to have to reset a setting that was set.

This started when i updated to 9.0.3 and re-installed vmware tools.

Rebooting the host is a particularly ridiculous step.

[jlivings3]

The solution is to re-install vmware-tools and run /usr/bin/vmware-user; then restart X

[djbarrett]

jlivings3: Glad to hear that worked for you on a Linux host, but much of the discussion is about a Windows host. Reinstalling VMware Tools and rebooting didn't help me on Windows, but the method of comment 20 did the trick.

Also my Linux box doesn't appear to have a program /usr/bin/vmware-user (nor any other "vmware-user" executable). This is for VMware Workstation 10.

[Mischka_2013]

The only way works for me without reboot:

• Close the VM - only the VM with the messy clipboard
• In Confirmation Window click the run in background option
• Go to the VM Path and click the *vmx of the machine
• Clipboard start working again

Win7 x64 / VMWare WS 10.0.1

[markp1994]

VMWare Workstation 9.0.2 build-1031769

host: Windows7 Home Premium SP1

guest: WindowsXP Home Edition SP3

FWIW ...

I've had this setup running for about a year and up until today was always able to cut-n-paste between host and guest (both directions) without any problems.

Before trying the steps in comment #20 (do I also have to stand on one leg and drink soured milk through my right nostril while singing Kumbaya in Klingon?), I re-installed VMWare Tools in the guest ... rebooted the guest ... SUCCESS! ... I can now cut-n-paste between host and guest (both directions).

If re-installing VMWare Tools doesn't address the issue then I'm wondering if there's a (flaky) bug in the Workstation build ... ?

[quiettime]

I'm running 9.0.3 build-1410761 on host Windows 7 x64. This afternoon I had a guest Windows 7 x64 where copy and paste stopped working. In another guest running at the time Windows XP x86 it was working fine sharing the clipboard with the host. I tried these things for the Windows 7 x64 guest but none of them worked:

- Reboot the guest.

- Uninstall latest VMWare Tools and then reinstall.

- Run in background and then reopen Workstation and reopen the VM.

- Cut on the host and then paste on the guest, then cut on the guest then paste on the host (believe it or not this simple trick actually works sometimes).

Too much is going on with the host so I couldn't reboot it. To investigate what happened I took a snapshot of "cut and paste not working" then restored some earlier snapshots to see if cut and paste would work, and it worked in all of them. Then I restored the snapshot where cut and paste didn't work and guess what... it's working now. So a solution might be to restore to a snapshot where it's working then go back to the snapshot where it's broken and restore that and then it may work.

I know sometimes VMWare developers read these threads and it would be great if they could give us a tech talk on how cut and paste works and some theories on what may be happening. I don't want to upgrade to VMWare10/11 right now because of cost.

Thanks

[ChanKaiShi]

Disabling/enabling of "cut and paste" in options did the trick for me. No reinstallation/restarts etc was required.

[abmoharram]

Avoid copying (or dragging) from Administrator folders. Like the desktop of the users folder

Some times authority issues affect the copy/paste (or drag/drop) operation

[tjyang]

I followed this procedure and it work for Fusion 6.0.4 with CentOS 6.5 guest VM.

[matthewls]

These functions usually work fine for me (windows 7 64 bit gues hosted by Linux Mint 17) then decided to stop working today. I fixed it by uninstalling VMware tools, rebooting the virtual machine, reinstalling VMware tools, and rebooting the virtual machine again. All is well now.

[quiettime]

It still happens to me occasionally in Workstation 10 on a Windows 7 x64 host. Is anyone from VMWare going to look into this? There is clearly something that breaks in the pipe or something. Read my earlier post in this thread for more details.

[djbarrett]

I just tried fixing this by uninstalling and reinstalling VMware Tools as was suggested two replies up. The uninstallation invalidated my copy of Windows, saying "The computer hardware has significantly changed." Sheesh.

[Ruud_H]

Reply to 20

I didn't look through all responses, so if someone beat me to it. Sorry!

You do not have to reboot the host if you have enough rights to restart the VMWare services. I restarted them all and killed the VMWare-Tray process. Then Nr 20 trick works as well.

[djbarrett]

Note: if your problem is pasting between Google Chrome on the host and your VM guest, there appears to be a Chrome bug at the moment.

Issue 395077 - chromium - Cannot copy and paste from Chrome into Windows under VMWare - An open-sour...

Re: Copy and Paste issue - specific and wierd case

[Taras_UA]

Hi,

I had the same problem on my PC with Windows 7 and Workstation 10-11 - copying from a VM to the host didn't work when vice-versa (from the host to a VM) worked fine.

What helped me was running Workstation as administrator.

[quiettime]

It's arbitrary that that worked for you. This is some bug in VMWare and why they don't fix it is beyond me. Things like this are infuriating and I'm considering transitioning our work to VirtualBox.

[VM0Sean]

Thank you Mischka_2013 - that worked for me without having to reboot anything.  Very easy workaround!

[Draven666]

Maybe I'm a bit too late, but I've experienced a copy/paste problem this morning.

Strangely, I think there's a file size limit on a copy/paste between a host and a guest.  I was transferring files and everything was going well until I try to transfer 1.14GB of files.  Nothing happens.  So, I've tried to transfer the files in 3 batches (about 400MB each), and the transfer went smoothly.  I don't know if it's a bug or a limitation in VMware, but strangely, every files or group of files over 1GB seems to behave this way.  I'm pretty sure it won't solve your particular issue (because you said "any size/type of files") but maybe it will help someone with that particular problem.

Just my 2 cents.