You plug in a pen drive and the VM acts like nothing happened - or the device shows on the host and never offers itself to the guest. USB passthrough in VMware confuses everyone once, because of one rule nobody explains: a USB device can belong to the host or to the VM, never to both at the same time.
When a device connects to the guest, it vanishes from the host - that is the design, not a failure. Knowing that, the fix list is short: connect the device through the VM menu, check the USB compatibility setting matches the device, and confirm the host's VMware USB Arbitration Service is alive. Work in that order and most invisible devices appear within minutes.
USB has no sharing. The moment a device connects to the VM, the host loses it completely, and when the VM shuts down or you disconnect it, the host gets it back. So "the pen drive disappeared from Windows when the VM grabbed it" is success, not a symptom. Half of all USB panic is this single fact discovered at the wrong moment - usually with the only copy of a file involved.
Plug the device in while the VM is running. If Workstation asks whether to connect it to the host or the VM, choose the VM. If it silently went to the host, open the VM menu, then Removable Devices, find the device by name and choose Connect (Disconnect from Host). Inside the guest, give it a few seconds - a brand-new device in the guest may also need its driver there, especially printers and dongles.
Open VM Settings, then USB Controller and check the compatibility level. A controller set to USB 2.0 can make some USB 3 devices invisible or flaky, while some older dongles and licence keys behave better forced onto the older standard. If a device refuses to appear, changing this one setting is a legitimate and reversible test - shut the VM down to change it, then reconnect the device.
If the Removable Devices menu shows nothing at all, look at the host. The VMware USB Arbitration Service in the host's services.msc is the traffic controller for every hand-over; if it is stopped, no device will ever be offered to any VM. Start it and set it to Automatic. Also confirm the VM actually has a USB controller - a VM built without one can have it added under VM Settings while powered off.
Some devices are awkward by nature. A phone must be unlocked and set to file transfer mode before any computer, real or virtual, sees its storage. Licence dongles can be sensitive to USB version and timing. Printers often work better shared over the network than passed through. If a device works perfectly on the host but refuses every guest on every setting, the honest suspect is the device's own demands - test it in a different VM before rebuilding anything.
The video walks through the VMware settings that solve everyday VM problems like this one - watch it with your VM open beside you.
Watch Full VideoBecause USB devices belong to exactly one machine at a time. Connecting it to the guest is a hand-over, not a copy. Disconnect it from the VM menu, or shut the VM down, and the host receives it back immediately.
Workstation asks or remembers for the session in many cases, and a device plugged in while the VM window is focused is typically offered to the VM. For a device that must always land in the guest, connect it once through Removable Devices each session - it takes seconds and avoids surprise hand-overs while the VM is busy.
The hand-over worked; the guest simply needs its own driver for that device, exactly like a fresh real PC would. Install the maker's driver inside the guest. Passthrough moves the hardware - it does not bring the host's drivers with it.