[SOLVED] Can't add user to group 'vboxsf'

Hello friendly Ubuntu fans!

Not sure if this is the best place to post this problem, but I am running Ubuntu 16.04 on Virtualbox on a Windows 10 host so posting this here:

I'm trying to share folders from the host to the guest, should be straightforward, but I can't successfully add the user I'm logged in as (meep) to the vboxsf group. Instead, to access the shared folder, I have to sudo su to root and then I have full access.

Permissions of the shared folder are as expected:
meep@meep-VirtualBox:/media$ ls -al
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Nov 3 09:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 Oct 20 13:25 ..
drwxr-x---+ 2 root root 4096 Nov 3 09:56 meep
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Jan 1 1980 sf_G_DRIVE


To add meep to the group I've entered:

sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf meep

but I still don't get access to the shared folder. Strangely though, I get the following responses from the 'groups' command:

meep@meep-VirtualBox:/media$ groups meep
meep : vboxsf adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare libvirtd

but when I just enter:

meep@meep-VirtualBox:/media$ groups
meep adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare libvirtd

so am I a member of vboxsf or not?

calling:
meep@meep-VirtualBox:/media$ getent passwd |grep meep
meep:x:1000:999:Meep,,,:/home/meep:/bin/bash

would suggest there's just one user called 'meep' to me, but why is there capitalisation at the beginning of a Meep there?


I'm banging my head against my desk with this one.
Please help!

Gareth