Cannot copy or drag any files

[iiNNeX]

Hello all,

I have recently moved from HyperV to VirtualBox and I can't seem to get Drag n Drop or Copy & Paste to work properly (bidirectional).

The host and all Guests are running the latest version of Windows 10 64 bit and I have the latest version of VirtualBox installed too (Version 5.2.12 r122591 (Qt5.6.2)). I have also installed and reinstalled the Guest Additions multiple times and rebooted both Guests and the Host several times too.

The issue I have is I used to be able to drag into the Guests about a week ago and now I can't do either. Pretty sure the copying worked too then and nothing on the machine has changed since then (not even ran windows update yet).

PC Spec: intel i7 8700
32GB Corsair memory @ 2400mhz
Samsung 860 EVO ssd
Nvidia GT 1030

Any help will be highly appreciated, thank you

[socratis]

We're going to need a complete VBox.log, from a complete VM run:

• Gathering the necessary information:
  1. Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state).
  2. Observe the error, i.e. try to drag and drop something.
  3. Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
• With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
• Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.

By the way, Copy/Paste (C/P) only works for simple text. Nothing like files, images, or anything more complicated than simple (think Notepad) text.

[iiNNeX]

Hello again,

Thank you for the prompt response. So I have started the machine from cold on a freshly booted host, and was able to drag a file to it. However I cannot drag the file back, the error I receive is as follows:

"Drag and drop operation from guest to host failed.

Current drop operation still in progress.

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: GuestDnDSourceWrap
Interface: IGuestDnDSource {dedfb5d9-4c1b-edf7-fdf3-c1be6827dc28}
Callee: IDnDSource {d23a9ca3-42da-c94b-8aec-21968e08355d}"

I've attached a screenshot of it and the log as requested.

Thank you

[socratis]

Everything in your log seems in order. I see the error in there as well:

00:00:39.589762 ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_FAIL (0x80004005) aIID={dedfb5d9-4c1b-edf7-fdf3-c1be6827dc28}
	aComponent={GuestDnDSourceWrap} aText={Current drop operation still in progress},
	preserve=false aResultDetail=0

Not sure what to make out of it. Personally, I rarely use DnD because it's finicky (at best). My advice would be to use either VirtualBox shared folders, or Windows networking and share the folders.

[mpack]

IMHO Windows DnD is prone to this kind of problem, because getting such an operation to work across two PCs (physical and virtual) is not trivial. In particular it is prone to the host deciding not to carry out an operation (e.g. because of a glitch or permissions problem), but the guest not knowing that's happened. There has been past discussions on how to re-enable the DnD feature without having to shut down the guest, you could search for those.

Personally: I'd stick to shared folders, a much simpler and more robust mechanism.

[iiNNeX]

Thanks for the feedback, I will try and use shared folders. Just sucks a bit since HyperV never had issues with DnD/Copy and paste, however that had it's own problems for my work environment.

Thank you guys

[Martin]

Another workaround would be to use a windowed RDP session directly to the guest instead of using the VirtualBox guest window.