VMware Workstation

When booting up the VM, everything works normally. After using the feature for a while-copying from the VM and pasting to the Host-the paste function on the Host stops working. In my case, only the copy-from-VM / paste-to-Host direction fails. Conversely, copying on the Host and pasting into the VM continues to work fine.

I've tried resolving it the following ways, all without success:

1. Restarting the VM.
2. Pausing and resuming the VM.
3. Copying, then clicking the device bar before going to the Host to paste.
4. Copying and using shortcuts like Ctrl + G and Ctrl + Alt instead of the mouse.
5. Restarting the vmtoolsd.exe process.
6. Restarting the VMware Tools Service.
7. Uninstalling and reinstalling VMware Tools.
8. Updating VMware Tools to the latest version (13.0.5).

The only thing that works is shutting down the VM and restarting the Host. Copy/paste comes back, but it stops working again shortly after.

Additional Information:

• Product: VMware Workstation Pro 25H2
• Host OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0.26200 Build 26200.6901)
• VM OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0.26200 Build 26200.7462)
• Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI is disabled.

I'm facing still the same issue and reported it few months ago.

A resolution is outstanding.

Same issue for me , last VmWare pro version and Windows 11 IoT Enterprise

Hi,
I just installed VMware Workstation Pro 25H2 which is running on Windows 11 Enterprise and I am having the copy and paste issue. Even through I cleared the Clipboard data in System > Clipboard. It worked for a few times ( one or two times only).  

Same here 

-------------------------------------------

I did some testing, and it looks like I had enabled the Windows 11 clipboard history. I disabled it and restarted the VM. It seems to have fixed the issue. Disable it to test.

Unfortunately, this tip didn't solve the problem. Or rather, "Clipboard history" hadn't been activated before.

Hello everyone.

I was having the same problem, copying text from the VM to the Host. I use Windows 11 as both Host and VM. At first I noticed that when it stopped working, I just had to put the VM to run in the background, close VMware and open it again, which temporarily resolved it. Along with this, sometimes a monitor error message would appear:

"The virtual machine could not be changed to the selected monitor layout. If you just added a monitor to the host computer, you must power off and power on the virtual machine to use that monitor."

When trying to resolve the monitor issue, it seems the copy and paste problem stopped. The VM was using Vulkan, so I changed the .vmx file and added the lines:

mks.enableVulkan = "FALSE"
mks.enableDX11 = "TRUE"

I also configured the Display, unchecked "Use Host setting for monitors" to "Specify monitor settings"

What does the monitor have to do with copy and paste? I confess I don't know. But it's working, I've been using it for hours and hours and my copy and paste is working correctly.

Give it a try, if anyone finds any solution please let us know.

Thanks

It worked for me for a while then it went back to the failure picture. 😒

Seems to be some kind of banana software – it ripens at the customer side. 🤔

I solved the problem including manually the following instructions on .vmx file:

isolation.tools.copy.disable = "FALSE"
isolation.tools.paste.disable = "FALSE"
isolation.tools.dnd.disable = "FALSE"
isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"

Sounds promising to me. my VM runs longer than before and the COPY/PASTE function is still working. 😐
To my shame, I must confess that I have already used the same properties, but probably hadn't waited for the VMware tools to start. 😞

The tests will continue.

Just an update about the promised test. After few hours the problem went back.

Steps I performed:

1. All 4 properties added.
2. Worked for a while by using also COPY/PASTE, all good.
3. I left the VM untouched. no actions were e performed.
4. After few hours startet next test case for COPY/PASTE.
5. Problem is back

My 5 cents from todays test case:

The behavior of copy/paste after installing various properties is twofold:

1.  Copy/paste works perfectly when copying text from the host to the VM.
2. Copy/paste works perfectly, albeit only briefly, when copying text from a VM to the host.

If you focus solely on the first point, you might assume that everything is working perfectly.

Reinstalled 17.6.2 build-24409262, seems to be working seemlessly. I'll keep you posted if it stops working.

Now it's to the developpement team to determine what breaking change they made between the two versions that made this stop working correctly.

tested clipboard history and also tried those .vmx edits-the mks and isolation settings. The problem persisted.. no luck

Same problems here.

I've come to the conclusion that 25H2 is absolute hot garbage. A sad decline.

Mie too  infact have tried all method gemini suggested but clipboard from vm to host stops i believe will have to revert back to version 17

What worked for me was to have reboots between installation steps:

• Copy/Paste does not work (Windows 10 VM, Windows 11 Host)
• Uninstall VMWare Tools using Control Panel on VM
• Reboot VM
• VMWare Workstation: Install VMWare Tools onto VM
• Reboot VM
• Copy/Paste Works

My performed steps:
Copy/Paste does not work (Windows 11 VM, Windows 11 Host) - but it shouldn't be matter.
Uninstall VMWare Tools using Control Panel on VM - done
Reboot VM - done - A reboot was requested from uninstall process anyway.
VMWare Workstation: Install VMWare Tools onto VM - done
Reboot VM - done - A reboot was requested from install process anyway.
Copy/Paste Works - after few hours the problem is back - the proposed solution works as a kind of mayfly.

I have upgraded the VMware tools for windows to version 13.0.10-25056151.
You can confidently abstain from installing it. It doesn't resolve the problem.
The copy/paste function doesn't work right after the tool is fresh installed. Tested it 2 times (2 reboots).

Yes this issue is extremely annoying. 

Has anyone raised a case or spoken to support, on when the issue will be fixed??

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2026 11:27 AM
From: HansJoachim Ballin
Subject: 25H2 Copy/paste works at first, then stops

I have upgraded the VMware tools for windows to version 13.0.10-25056151.
You can confidently abstain from installing it. It doesn't resolve the problem.
The copy/paste function doesn't work right after the tool is fresh installed. Tested it 2 times (2 reboots).

How do we report it? 

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 01, 2026 08:59 PM
From: steve ss
Subject: 25H2 Copy/paste works at first, then stops

Yes this issue is extremely annoying. 

Has anyone raised a case or spoken to support, on when the issue will be fixed??

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2026 11:27 AM
From: HansJoachim Ballin
Subject: 25H2 Copy/paste works at first, then stops

I have upgraded the VMware tools for windows to version 13.0.10-25056151.
You can confidently abstain from installing it. It doesn't resolve the problem.
The copy/paste function doesn't work right after the tool is fresh installed. Tested it 2 times (2 reboots).

...

I don't think Broadcom makes that available to regular users.

I tried, but no luck. To open a case on the support site, from what I gathered, you need to upgrade your user/profile, which they call "Build." To do that, you need a Site ID associated with a corporation.

Well, I tried it without any of that by clicking the "Build your profile" button, but it won't let me move forward because my email isn't a corporate one. And if I try to open a case without doing that upgrade, it says my user doesn't have the OKTA token.

Only the chosen ones can help us now... lol

Even if you do have a Site ID, you can't open a support case for Workstation. In order to open a case, users must have a support entitlement - a paid support contract or subscription for a product. Broadcom stopped providing entitlements for Workstation in late 2024 when they made the product free for all use cases and stopped selling subscriptions  

This forum is the only available support avenue.

So yes "only the chosen ones" - that is, Broadcom employees that may monitor this forum - are the only ones that can open internal tickets to investigate bugs. 

it same for me. copy and paste worked for a while, then no longer working

I have the same issue on my Linux quest and Windows host.

 I tried all the suggestions, and the problem keeps coming back after some time, sometimes fee minutes, sometimes 2-3 hours.

Welcome to the real myths and legends. 😶

I'm still on v17.6.4 here.  This copy/paste problem started after installing VMware Tools v13.0.10.  I've since reverted to v13.0.5 and the problem has apparently gone again - all has been good for a couple of days now, anyway, so fingers crossed.

This seems like a regression, as I remember having such problems quite a lot in the past.

Hi, how did you manage to install VMware tool 13.0.5? Where did you download it? Thanks 

-------------------------------------------

same place you download the workstation, https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/free-downloads

Unfortunately my vm system is Linux, not Windows, but the same problem 😄  and I can't find  older vmw tools for Linux. 

According to this: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?legacyId=2073803

They expect you to use open-vm-tools, and they expect your distribution to provide appropriate installation packages.  I know this is true for my OPNsense firewall, but I don't interact with that in the same way so I'm not sure if it has copy and paste issues.

More details about open-vm-tools can be found on GitHub

-------------------------------------------

just realized I never tried downgrading Tools to 12.5.4. I'll give a shot later

Few weeks ago I downgraded the Tools to 12.5.0 without the expected result.

The problem were still present.

You don't need to go to a version prior to Win 11 support. 

Version 17.5.2 works just fine probably in all problem areas. It was the last original vmware-team version.

Few days ago I downgraded the VMTools to 13.0.5 on linux (quest)

The problem were still present.

I reverted to the recommended version 17.6.2., but the problem still persists.

Sounds to me, that there are many other stumbling blocks in the road.

I had to format my PC for another reason, so I took the opportunity to install the previous version, 17.6.4.
When I opened it, I had to return the hardware compatibility format from 25H2 to 17.5.
And it worked!
Thank goodness, that bug was really taking a toll on my work.

The issue exists in every debian machine even after uninstalling wmware 25h2 and reinstalling 17.6.2. 

I've reinstalled vmware from 25H2 to 17.6.2 and the bug persists. 

same here

After upgrading to version 25H2U1, I think the problem was solved. It's been a few hours and copy-paste is still working.

Has anyone else moved to version 25H2u1? Any issues? I'm still running 17.6.4 and a bit wary of updating..

Hi,
I moved to VMWare Workstation version 25H2u1and it solves the copy and past issue.

Kind regards,

MT

Pedro, all good.

Review my last two posts in Guest Isolation Lost After Upgrade to VMWare Workstation Pro 25H2 | VMware Workstation.

25H2u1 fixed the copy/paste failing issue between my Windows 11 Host and Windows 11 VMs

Still broken for Linux hosts. 

And now also getting a message that Broadcom no longer ships VMWare Tools for this guest OS (Ubuntu).  Seems they don't want to fix copy/paste issue on Linux.

> Broadcom no longer ships VMWare Tools for this guest OS

That's correct that Broadcom no longer bundles those "legacy" VMware Tools installation packages for Linux (as well as some other operating environments no longer supported by their vendors/developers). The Linux VMware Tools are no longer included because Broadcom (and VMware before it) recommends to install the open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop packages that are provided by the distribution.  Ubuntu's repos have had open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop packages available from their repos for quite a while now (I've personally seen them in 20.04 LTS and later).

Broadcom froze the content of those legacy Linux tools installers - the last version of them was 10.3.26 -- which is quite old now. They're only recommended for use on older Linux distributions/kernels that don't provide open-vm-tools. If you are running such an old Linux distribution, you can still find the frozen packages at https://packages-prod.broadcom.com/tools/frozen/linux/ 

All this being said, Broadcom needs to start taking into account that the Linux world is moving from X11 to Wayland (GNOME and KDE have both deprecated X11 session support, and others are following), and that the host components and open-vm-tools need to be updated to better support these environments.

i am facing the same situation with  25H2u1 and Fedora43.
i tried a lot of recommendations but nothing worked for me.

But i noticed that while i am in a VM , and focus the main VMware Workstation Pro ,then Ctrl+V  paste works

Hi,

I installed VMWare Workstation 25H2u1 on Windows 11 Enterprise and I created a Virtual Machine, Fedora 42 and it is working fine. 
There is no problem with bidirectional copy/paste. 
Please try Fedora 42.

Kind regards,

MT

@Technogeezer I installed open-vm-tools just to tick the box, because I expected Broadcom wouldn't report the issue otherwise.

But as expected, it changed nothing. The problem is not in the guest.  It is the bridge between Wayland and the Workstation Pro window itself.  Even pasting directly into the Workstation Pro window fails, for example when renaming a VM.