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Sometimes while using VirtualBox, I have tried copying text from the virtual machine to the host machine but failed. Whenever that happens, I fix it by rebooting the virtual machine. Is there a solution to this because I don't want to keep rebooting again and again.

Note: Iit is always possible for me to copy text from the host to the virtual machine.

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Have you tried just re-installing the Guest Additions in the Virtual Machine? If not, check the answer from Pisu below. You didn't mention how you originally installed VirtualBox (external package from VirtualBox's website, or the virtualbox-ose package from the Ubuntu repositories) Also, what version you are on (both Ubuntu and VirtualBox). This info may help us help you. – Jayson Rowe Sep 30 '11 at 1:58

4 Answers

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In the Oracle virtual box setting go to

Settings > General > Advance

There is a an option Drag n Drop. Select the direction you want to copy the text.

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If your guest OS is ubuntu then running following two commands in ubuntu terminal should help:

$ killall VBoxClient
$ VBoxClient-all
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+1 as I too had this happen right after taking a snapshot of an Ubuntu 12 installation. These two lines did the trick for me! – HostileFork Mar 7 at 5:18
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I found that I can do one thing to fix this problem.

That is, In virtualbox XP, I can kill VBoxTray.exe and restart it by task manager(ctrl+alt+del).

Thank you for answering my question.

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Unbelievable, it works great though :) Also on my Windows 2008R2 x64 virtual OS. Thanks for sharing! – Koen Zomers Apr 6 '12 at 14:00
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If needed, upgrade VirtualBox to latest version, currently 4.1.2, they solved many issues. Then reinstall Guest Additions on the VM, as copy-paste is managed by guest additions drivers.

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