How do I enable the shared clipboard in VirtualBox?

Question

Where is the configuration option for sharing clipboards (copy & paste) between the host OS and the guest OS?

Answer 1

With Guest Additions installed, the clipboard of your guest OS can be shared with your host OS.

Highlight the Guest VBox in the VirtualBox console, open General -> Advanced. Here you can choose between various Shared Clipboard settings: Disabled, Guest to Host, Host to Guest or Bidirectional

Answer 2

Windows 7 64-bit host, Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit guest.

I enabled clipboard and drag and drop before installing Guest Additions. After installing Guest additions clipboard and drag n drop did not work. I disabled clipboard and drag n drop, uninstalled guest additions, rebooted, reinstalled guest additions - still failed.

To fix I did this:

Uninstalled guest additions and disabled clipboard and drag and drop. Then from the terminal I used

$ apt-get install make gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Reinstall (should be error free), reboot, enable clipboard and drag and drop. Voilà!

Answer 3

In VirtualBox Windows versions 5.1.8 until 5.2.6 (maybe older or future versions as well) it is accessible in two ways:

1. General settings
2. Active guest account window

If someone knows what other versions work as well, please add them as comments.

1st Version: General settings

Machine>Settings:

General>Advanced>Shared Clipboard

2nd Version: Active guest account window

Devices>Shared Clipboard>Desired option Available options: 1. Shared Clipboard>Disabled 2. Shared Clipboard>Host to Guest 3. Shared Clipboard>Guest to Host 4. Shared Clipboard>Bidirectional

Answer 4

At the Virtual Box base windows , just go to settings of your machine and in General you can change the settings.

Answer 5

Install Guest Additions for Windows XP. That will allow you to integrate the guest operating system with the host.

Some features:

• Shared Folders - Meaning you can create folders that are accessible by both the guest and host systems.
• Accelerated Video
• Mouse Integration - You no longer need to capture the mouse. Focus follow your mouse.
• Shared Clipboard

To install the Guest Additions, refer to the User Manual, Chapter 4.

Answer 6

I had the same problem with clipboard not working on my host windows 10 , and ubuntu 16.06 guest. I tried all of the above to no avail. Finally, from the virtual box website I tried this command

If you suspect that something has gone wrong, check that your guest is set up correctly and try executing the command

sudo rcvboxadd setup

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#idm1948

Then after a reboot of the guest machine shared clipboard copy and paste finally worked correctly

Answer 7

In order to share your Host clipboard you will need the Guest Additions installed first.

As for the options for the clipboard, Right click the Guest VM within Virtual Box, Select Settings, In the General section select the Advanced tab.

Answer 8

I struggled with this topic many years. Activating bidirectional drag'n'drop and installing the guest additions did not solve this issue, it was simply not working.

Finally, I figured out that I also have to install the "VM VirtualBox Extension Pack". It can be downloaded from the official virtualbox website.

This solved my problem.

Answer 9

For my Kali linux VM it works immediately after setting the "Devices" > "Shared clipboard" > "Bidirectional"

Answer 10

I've tried all the above but it didn't work. But this worked :

sudo pacman -S linux-headers virtualbox-guest-utils
sudo modprobe vboxguest vboxsf vboxvideo
sudo systemctl enable --now vboxservice.service

Since I'm on arch, the package manager is pacman but if you're on debian/ubuntu it will be apt.