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SB96's avatar
SB96
New member | Level 2
4 years ago

Entire Dropbox duplicated with ·_ preceding the duplicate; Needing to delete all the ·_ duplicates

I recently had my computor worked on and when I reconnected it to Dropbox all my files, in all Dropbox accounts I am involved with and linked to duplicated every file with ·_ preceding the duplicate....
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  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    4 years ago
    SB96 wrote:

    ... all my files, in all Dropbox accounts I am involved with and linked to duplicated every file with ·_ preceding the duplicate.

    They're neither duplicate nor corrupt files. They're AppleDouble files, and they're created by a Mac when files are stored on a non-HFS drive partition. The Mac operating system uses them to store the resource fork of files stored on filesystems that don't natively support it.

     

    Are you on a Mac? If so, you may not want to delete them just yet, at least not until you're certain how they were created and whether or not your OS needs them. The ._ files are usually hidden on a Mac as they're considered system files. On Windows they're visible and don't serve a purpose.

     

    If you're on Windows, just search within your local Dropbox folder for ._ and delete them all.

24601's avatar
24601
New member | Level 2
2 years ago
Hi
It’s frustrating & not good experience for an newcomer.
When I upload any file/folder into my dropbox it creates a copy of the original file (which is what I want) & another file with same name starting with symbols .-
When I click on the file starting by .- no file is opened.
How can I fix this annoying feature?

Thank you.
Antonio
  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 years ago

    Hey 24601, I moved your post under this related one.

     

    You can take a look at the info provided by Rich above, to clarify the situation.

     

    For context, these files are called AppleDouble files and more information on how to handle them can be found by searching for "apple double files" online.

     

    Are you on a Mac computer? And where is your Dropbox folder currently stored?

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