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Troubleshooting USB redirection problems in VMware View Manager (1026991)

Symptoms

USB redirection in a View client fails to make local devices available on the remote desktop
Some devices are not available for redirection in View client

Purpose

This article provides information to troubleshoot issues with USB redirection in the VMware View client.

Resolution

There are many potential causes for USB redirection failure in a VMware View Manager environment.

USB redirection is not supported for Windows 2000 systems or for View desktops that are managed by Microsoft Terminal Services. See the Feature Support Matrix in the View Architecture Planning Guide for operating systems that support USB access.
USB redirection is not supported for boot devices. If you run a View client on a Windows system that boots from a USB device, and you redirect this device to the remote desktop, the local operating system might become unresponsive or unusable. For more information, see Redirecting a USB boot device from View Client might make the system unresponsive or unusable (1021409).
By default, View Client for Windows does not allow you to select Human Interface Devices (HIDs) and Bluetooth devices that are paired with an HID for redirection. For more information, see Configuring USB device filters and redirecting Human Interface Devices (HIDs) in View Client for Windows (1011600).
RDP does not support the redirection of USB HIDs for the console session, or of smart card readers. For more information, see Configuring USB device filters and redirecting Human Interface Devices (HIDs) in View Client for Windows (1011600).
RDP can cause unexpected problems when using USB flash cards. For more information, see Preventing RDP from redirecting USB flash drives (1019547).
Windows Mobile Device Center can prevent the redirection of USB devices for RDP sessions. For more information, see Windows Mobile Device Center can prevent the redirection of USB devices for RDP (1019205).
For some USB HIDs, you must configure the virtual machine to update the position of the mouse pointer. For more information, see Mouse pointer does not track the movement of a redirected USB human interface device (1022076).
Some audio devices might require changes to policy settings or to registry settings. For more information, see Redirecting USB audio devices in View Client for Windows (1023868).
Network latency can cause slow device interaction or cause applications to appear frozen because they are designed to interact with local devices. Very large USB disk drives might take several minutes to appear in Windows Explorer.
USB flash cards formatted with the FAT32 file system are slow to load. For more information, see Redirecting a USB flash drive might take several minutes (1022836).
A process or service on the local system opened the device before you connected to the remote desktop.
A redirected USB device stops working if you reconnect a desktop session even if the desktop shows that the device is available.
USB redirection is disabled in View Administrator.
Missing or disabled USB redirection drivers on the guest.
Missing or disabled USB redirection drivers or missing or disabled drivers for the device that is being redirected on the client.

To resolve these issues:

If available, use PCoIP instead of RDP as the desktop protocol.
Connect the View Client to the View desktop before you plug in your USB device, otherwise the device will not be redirected
If a redirected device remains unavailable or stops working after a temporary disconnection, remove the device, plug it in again, and retry the redirection.
In View Administrator, go to Policies > Global Policies, and verify that USB access is set to Allow under View Policies.
Examine the log on the guest for entries of class wssm_usb, and the log on the client for entries of class wswc_usb. Entries with these classes are written to the logs if a user is not an administrator, or if the USB redirection drivers are not installed or are not working.
Open the Device Manager on the guest, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, and reinstall the VMware View Virtual USB Device Manager and VMware View Virtual USB Hub drivers if these drivers are missing. If these drivers are disabled, enable them.
Open the Device Manager on the client, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, and reinstall the VMware View Generic USB Device driver and the USB driver for the redirected device if these drivers are missing. If these drivers are disabled, enable them.

Update History

08/09/2012 - Added note to connect View Client -> Desktop before connecting USB

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