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Forum Discussion
How to stop ._ (dot dash) files being uploaded
I recently switched my storage folder from internal hard drive to my external drive. Since then, in every drive there's a duplicate under the extension of ._xxxx as well as "conflicted copy of xxxx". Can't delete files on the root folder which isn't nice and every new file gets duplicated.
Solutions to delete them...permanently?
Mac 10.10.5
Dropbox 3.10.8
There is no way to hide ._ files, they are created by OSX to store extended attributes when the files are on a filesystem that doesnt support OSX extended attributes.
How much space they take up depends on the data stored in them - most of the time they are less than a Kilobyte in size.
@Atiqah, yes if you delete the, they will keep on reappearing unless you move the files to a drive that is not FAT32 formatted. It's been a big issue in my organization's account and resulting solution is not syncing the dropbox desktop on a removable drive.
Thank Robert O. So, it seems no end solution.
I think we should do a backup...it is tiring to delete all the files...
@Atiqah: Been there, done that. You'll still backup the ._ files. What we did was set aside some time daily for about a week and assigned folders to team members to delete the files. Have people who have the app on their devices uninstall them until it's the cleanup is done so the files don't get resynced. Good luck
Is that any other issues, if I just delete the ._ file. I know it will appear again and again if I deleted the ._file...I am just afraid that I will lost all my documents.
Will find a day do a back up....Thanks again:-)
Doing a backup regularly is recommended. Regarding the ._ files, if you do a proper cleanup the first time, they'll only appear again if someone uses the wrong type of storage that generates them as far as I know.
Since the time we did the clean up, we've had the files regenerate on two instances but since we introduced the policy of how to store offline Dropbox files, we've had no instances.
- Rich
Super User II
they'll only appear again if someone uses the wrong type of storage that generates them as far as I know.
Correct.
So, it seems no end solution.
The solution is to move your Dropbox to a drive partition that is properly formatted for OS X/macOS. Your Mac is doing this; not Dropbox.
So, since my partner accesses our shared dropbox folders with his Mac, and I access them with my Windows machine it seems there is no solution to getting rid of those files, right?
- Rich
So, since my partner accesses our shared dropbox folders with his Mac, and I access them with my Windows machine it seems there is no solution to getting rid of those files, right?
If your partner stores his Dropbox folder on a partition type that doesn't support extended file attributes (such as FAT32, which most external drives are formatted as), then no, there's no solution.
If he stores his Dropbox folder on a partition type that does support extended file attributes, such as the native partition type for OS X/macOS (HFS+ I believe), then this problem won't occur (once you clean up the existing ._ files).
Thanks Rich R. for the solution....
the solution is: select the file. click cmd l - delete the new file originated. (forgive my bad english)
