▷ What to do when virtualbox does not recognize usb

Today we present the solution to a fairly frequent problem, when VirtualBox does not recognize inserted USB, the origin of the problem is almost certainly a thing of this free Hypervisor. Even in most cases, it is always due to not knowing the procedure to work with a USB correctly or simply because the driver of the USB version used is not installed.

Index of contents

VirtualBox is a software virtualization program that we can acquire for free through its website. Among the many features of this program, we have the possibility of interacting with all kinds of removable devices to work with them from the virtual machines themselves. In this tutorial we will see how to interact with USB storage drives from a virtual machine, and we will solve the common error that VirtualBox does not recognize USB.

Install VirtualBox Extension Pack to ensure compatibility

Before proceeding to explain how to access the contents of a USB from a virtual machine, we are going to install a small extension, since in a basic way, the Hypervisor only have the drivers for USB 1.1 devices available, when we currently work with USB 2.0 and 3.0.

The first thing we will have to do is go to the VirtualBox website and access the " Downloads " section. Once inside, we will have to look for the section “ VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack ”. Just below we will see a link that says " All platforms " or in English. We are going to click to download the extension.

Now we only have to double-click the downloaded file to proceed with its installation. All we have to do is follow the wizard to complete the installation. If we already had a previous version installed, we will click on " Update " to carry out the process.

Activate USB 2.0 / 3.0 Controller in the virtual machine

The next thing to do is enter into the virtual machine configuration, clicking on the option with the same name (orange gear). We must go to the " USB " section in the list of options on the side.

At this point, we must ensure that the virtual machine is turned off, something that we have not done and that is why the configuration appears deactivated. But as we can see, we have previously activated the USB 2.0 option. Of course if your USB is 3.0, then you must activate the corresponding option.

The next thing we must do is start our virtual machine, and we will take the opportunity to explain how to interact with the USB from it.

Access USB drive in VirtualBox from virtual machine

Once the correct driver is installed so that our USB is recognized, we must keep in mind the way it works in VirtualBox.

If we are inside the virtual machine and insert a USB, obviously this will not appear in the system, and this is because we do not have the possibility of interacting with it simultaneously from the two operating systems, the physical and the virtual. This is why the USB will be detected, initially by the host system and not by the virtual one.

Well, if we look at the bottom of the virtual machine window, we will have a series of icons, among which is a small USB symbol. At this point we must have the USB inserted into the computer.

We will click on it with the right button to display the menu of USB devices that are connected to our physical computer. Among them are for example the mouse, the keyboard, the headphones, etc. Well, one of these must be yes or yes our USB drive, we can find it by identifying its name, although it may not appear or we don't know it, in which case we will have to guess what it is.

Ours by discard, the device attends the name of " SMI Corporation USB Mini R ". Well, let's click on it, we will immediately hear the typical device disconnection sound and the connection sound in the VM. Now our USB will have disappeared from the host system and will be available in the virtual machine.

In addition, if we open the drop-down menu again, we will see that the USB appears with a "check", indicating that it is activated for the VM.

We access " This computer " if we are in Windows, and we will see that indeed the device is here.

If we now wanted to see it again on the host system, we would have to go back to the VM drop-down menu and disable it. The USB would disconnect from the VM and appear on the physical system.

If the problem persists, reinstall or update VirtualBox

That is the way to solve the problem that VirtualBox does not recognize USB. In our experience, we have never had an error due to anything other than this one. If the error persists, what we will have to do is uninstall VirtualBox and install the latest version, as it could be because the Hypervisor we have is too old to detect new devices.

Without further ado, we leave you with some tutorials that may interest you as well:

We continue learning small tricks of VirtualBox, little by little there will be no problem to resist us. If you want to know more about VirtualBox or have a problem that we have not yet covered, leave us a comment to inform us.