Copy/Paste - From Mac to Virtual box

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22885658

  •  28-06-2023
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Question

I am working on a document on mac (osx 10.9) and I have a virual machine running windows 7 - the issue is I dont know how to enable it so I can copy text from the word document in mac to the word document or application in the virtual box.

I have guest editions installed and enabled ...

How does one enable copy and paste from host to client?

Was it helpful?

Solution

Check if the "Shared Clipboard" feature is disabled. It should be somewhere around Settings > General > Advanced. You can set it to bidirectional or any other setting you need.

OTHER TIPS

I'm using a Windows VM on a Mac OS host. I had to install the Guest Additions onto the actual VM so that it knows how to communicate with the host machine. Here's what I did:

  • launch the Windows 10 VM
  • In the top menu go to Device -> Insert Guest Additions CD image
  • On the Windows VM go to Explorer, then look for the drive that represents the newly "inserted" CD
  • Once there, run VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe as administrator and install
  • Enable Clipboard and Drag&Drop under either VM settings or the Devices menu

This article has helped me understand how it works.

Copy from MAC with ⌘ + C and Paste to VirtualBox with ctrl + ⇧ + V

Vice versa ctrl + ⇧ + C in VirtualBox and ⌘ + V on MAC would also work! ;)

You can use the help menu in VirtualBox (and other applications) to very easily to find what you need:

enter image description here

I prefer bidirectional setting so I can copy and paste back and forth between systems

In machine display, you can do follow, 100% work:

  1. Devices -> Drag and Drop -> Bidirectional
  2. Devices -> Insert Guest Additions CD images, then install it.

The above solution did not work for me.

This worked for me.

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#additions-windows

  1. Open Virtualbox.app (show contents) in Applications, look under MacOS folder and copy this file VBoxGuestAdditions.iso to desktop
  2. Point your virtugal optical disc to this iso and your ubuntu will ask to install.

Install it and copy and paste will work from your mac to ubuntu virtual box termninal.

You will want to turn Shared Keyboard on in the devices menu in VirtualBox. Also, in MacOS you will need to go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy > and check VirtualBox under Input Monitoring and Accessibility.

Bidirectional Clipboard requires the Guest Additions. To get Guest Additions to work I had to use the following steps.

  • Enable Clipboard
    • Settings > General > Advanced
      • Shared Clipboard > Bidirectional
      • (Note, Host -> Guest works by default but Bidirectional requires the Guest Additions)
  • Add guest additions
    • Add optical drive
      • VirtualBox > Settings > Storage
        • On the IDE controller click the "Add new storage attachment" > Optical > Leave Empty
        • (Do not select the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso image as the installers won't run as expected within the VM.)
    • Start the Machine
      • In the Devices Menu in the MacOS bar, select Insert Guest Additions CD Image...
      • Follow prompts for install
    • Restart machine
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