I have an Ubuntu 16.04 system and a Win 7 vdi from my previous computer. The first time I installed virtual box it installed 5.0.4.24. I installed extensions and guest additions for the same version. I got everything working in the VM but USB. I tried 2.0 and 3.0, neither change helped. I googled around a bit and found that I need to add my user to vboxusers group. I did that. Now I can see the usb devices in the device list but they aren't installing on my VM. What else might I need to do?

Look at this maybe. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox/USB

Are you trying to use usb temporary or permanent?

jefro, the devices I'm using would be temporary (Thumb Drives and External Hard drives). I followed your link, everything in there I have tried. I'll also note that not all USB isn't working. My USB keyboard and mouse work fine, but 4 differently branded thumb drives and 1 external hard drive do not work. At least 2 of these thumb drives and the external drive did work on the VM when it was on my old machine.

Are you a member of the vboxusers group on the new host?

You know how to check?
Terminal > id
output will show.

You should be.

Habitual, I am a member.

Additionally, after 5.0.4.24 didn't work I upgraded everything to 5.1 and it's still not working.

Well, how about plugdev group? Thanks.

I am a member of plugdev as well.

when you plug in a usb device does it show and work correctly in the host? lsusb maybe for clues.

See where it is mounted if automounted.

Could be that some drive gets mounted in host and has some process working on it and the client can't take control.

I get the feeling that usb keyboard and mouse act differently but that is a good observation.

jefro, apparently keyboard and mouse get auto-mounted so that doesn't necessarily help me with my issue. When I plug in a USB device it's listed as seen, but when I put a checkmark next to it nothing happens on my VM.

The way the vm works has the mouse and keyboard working differently.

Can you access the usb in the host?

jefro, I can access any USB I plug in on my Linux host. It's just getting them recognized in Windows.

Guess you could take a usb flash drive and load on debian or ubuntu then install virtualbox and see if your windows 7 vdi still does this.

It may be that the host has locked the device in some program maybe or the guest additions didn't work correctly or an oddity of permissions or some oddity of the windows 7 image at this point still.

The Windows Vista Guest VM does not see the attached USB mem stick. I've spent hours on-line and found no solutions for this issue that appears to be a significant problem. Oracle has a post from years ago for the same problem that states resolved with no explanation. Originally, the Vista VM did not see the USB at all. After turning off the Vista VM's Window's firewall the VM shows the presence of the USB mem in the lower status bar but the Windows Vista guest does not see it. I checked the VM Windows Device Manager and it has 3 sub folders (Drivers), "Standard Open USB Host Controller" which is OK, "USB Root Hub", also OK, and "USB Mass Storage Device", flagged with the caution sign. Opening this folder(driver), Device Status is "this Device cannot stat. (Code 10)". I used the "Check for Solutions" option and it comes back stating the the current driver is the best.

Is anyone actually running this configuration successfully or has had this issue and found a real solution?. Everything else is functioning correctly with the Vista VM.

After installing the VM's > Devices > Gust additions CD Image and installing in Guest/Vist, Vista automatically installed Service Pack II. Now the USB 2.0 selection sees the USB memory stick and all is well.