Hi,
As you have figured out already, this is a vmware tools issue.
I seem to recall that the shared folder feature in open vmware tools in ubuntu 16.04 had problems.
VMware fixed it, but ubuntu never merged that fix into their repository.
Which version of VMware Tools are you running?
If open vmware tools, then purge that via apt-get and try installing the bundled vmware tools instead.
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Wil