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Forum Discussion
Mac osx - strange extra files appearing when downloading files directly.
Just had a strange issue with some files that I directly downloaded from our DB folders. On the website, I went to one of my shared folders from another team member, and clicked on 2 files (illustra...
I would like a resolution to this closed issue: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/Mac-osx-strange-extra-files-appearing-when-downloading-files/td-p/355269/page/6
Summary of issue: downloading non-zipped loose files (for example) in one batch using Dropbox's "↓ Download" button zips the files and includes a "_MACOSX" folder that contains a copy of the files. On PC/Windows 10. Hypothesis is that Dropbox servers use Mac computers, thus this would be default behaviour on this operating system.
Dropbox support claims it is a macOS issue and not a Dropbox issue, but there is no Mac involved, only Dropbox, so the likely explanation is that Dropbox uses macOS to host files and/or to zip/compress files, resulting in the observed behaviour. Dropbox has to stop claiming it has nothing to do with this issue if their macOS servers or zipping software is at fault.
Solution would be for Dropbox to apply a fix at the source so that users don't have to download this extra folder.
When I download files from the website I also end up with two folders - the problem is that the files I want are all zero bytes. And the metadata - which is all misnamed files seems to have the data but both sets of files are unuseable. When I use my Dropbox folder on my mac the files are fine.
This is a pretty bad bug, Dropbox and means I can't share my files with anyone. As no files are useable. Having to look for alternatives which is a shame as I've used Dropbox for over a decade.Whatever Dropbox are using to compress my Mac files - it is not doing it properly - as these files should uncompress on a Mac without the __MACOS folder. It's like the files are being compressed on a mac - then unzipped on a PC and then re-compressed again, and something is corrupting the names and data of the resource forks of the Mac files. Fonts for instance keep most of their data in the resource fork (which is why so many don't work on a PC).
If I make a ZIP on my Mac - put it on the server and uncompress it using a PC I get a similar structure to the files from Dropbox but without the corrupted resource data. So it's still useable.
Dropbox ZIPs though, are corrupted. And anyway as I said at the beginning should not be showing this folder structure but should only show the files themselves on a Mac. This folder structure should only show up when unzipping on a PC.
So Dropbox - the failure is at your end. Please fix!
