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I have a host machine running OS X 10.9.3 and VirtualBox 4.3.12 VM running Windows 7. I want to copy and paste between the host machine and the VM. By default copy-pastes don't seem to be transferable between machines. How can I do this?

There were some similar questions but using Linux/VMWare but the solutions have been specific to the VM in use.

ChristianF
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1 Answers1

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It's not by default. If you have installed Guest Additions, then you can do this:

  1. Start the VM

  2. Go to Machine > Settings in the file menu.

  3. Go to the General tab, then Advanced.

  4. Set the Shared Clipboard setting to Disabled, Guest to Host, Host to Guest or Bidirectional.

Jeff Miller
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ᔕᖺᘎᕊ
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  • Waitaminnit -- are you saying that Guest Additions are now available for OS X? If so, where do I get them? – fearless_fool May 04 '16 at 13:44
  • @fearless_fool click the link to guest additions in the answer :) – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ May 04 '16 at 15:15
  • That's exactly my point: the docs specifically state that Guest Additions are NOT available for OS X (as specified in the OP). Am I missing something? – fearless_fool May 14 '16 at 00:02
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    @fearless_fool It worked for me when I wrote this answer. I think what I did was the instructions directly after 4.2.1.1. Installation at https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#additions-windows, where it says On Mac OS X hosts, you can find this file in the application bundle of VirtualBox. (Right click on the VirtualBox icon in Finder and choose Show Package Contents. There it is located in the Contents/MacOS folder.) http://i.stack.imgur.com/Obz5K.png – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ May 14 '16 at 08:45
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    Bingo! And there it is. Thank you for the enlightenment. – fearless_fool May 14 '16 at 08:52
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    It was a simple menu command for me: When running the VM, select Devices->Insert Guest Additions CD Image. This popped up a prompt in my VM to install them. – Stan James May 27 '17 at 21:53
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    I wish virtual machine would somehow warn you to install the guest additions, I had no idea.. – Pellet Sep 18 '17 at 05:08
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    Is there anything else II have to do? I have GE installed and everything up to date yet when I try to copy things into Ubuntu from OSX I am getting nothing. – ConstantFun Dec 07 '18 at 07:09
  • @ConstantFun AFAIK you shouldn't have to do anything other than enable it :/ Are you sure you've got the right direction set in settings? (eg bidirectional?) – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ Dec 07 '18 at 21:44
  • I too have done all the above and still cannot paste. – d8aninja Dec 20 '18 at 04:30