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rajeevba's avatar
rajeevba
Explorer | Level 3
6 years ago

Dropbox changing file types to "Dropbox Attributes", original files gone

Not seeing original files, only seeing versions that have file type as "Dropbox attributes"!!
  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    6 years ago

    Thanks for the additional information rajeevba  - much appreciated!

     

    The files you are seeing being added are "resource forks" or "extended attributes" (xattrs) that are hidden additional information that are part of the file but can't normally be seen.

     

    Please note, while Dropbox is generally able to sync these file types across all computers, there are some situations in which these additional attribute files may be generated by either Dropbox or a computer to retain this information in situations where the file system on the computer does not support the extended attributes.

     

    In general, these supported file systems are NTFS for Windows, HFS for Mac and on Linux a file system with xattrs support. If you are not running a default file system, you may want to check if your file system supports xattrs.

     

    When a file with a specific type of extended attribute is synced to a computer that is unable to support writing extended attributes, such as filesystems like (FAT32), then a separate extended attribute file is generated by Dropbox to retain this information on the device. These files generally appear as files with :com.dropbox.attributes attached to the name, and would then be synced to dropbox.com and shared with other users if this is part of a shared folder.

     

    If a file with unsupported attributes is added to a computer's Dropbox folder from a networked drive, dual boot configuration, or external drive with a different file system than that of your main drive's file system, the OS on your computer may generate these extended attribute files. This would happen as your computer's file system is unable to retain these attributes as part of the file. These files are in turn synced to dropbox.com as well.

     

    To resolve this issue, you should be able to find the user or computer that is adding these files by checking the "Version history" of the file on dropbox.com. To do this, use the following steps:


    1) Sign in to the Dropbox website:
    https://www.dropbox.com
    2) Find one of the attribute files
    3) Select the file and choose "Version history"

    Here you should be able to see which user and computer first added the file. You can have this user try and use a supported file system or attributes and verify that they are not pointing folders in their Dropbox folder to a networked drive with an unsupported file system.

     

    You can read more about xattrs here.

     

    For information about supported attributes and file systems you can check the details for your specific OS.

     

    Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Thank you.

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