We're making changes to the Community, so you may have received some notifications - thanks for your patience and welcome back. Learn more here.

Forum Discussion

Art G.7's avatar
Art G.7
New member | Level 1
10 years ago

Why do I have duplicate file names prepended with "._" ?

In all or most of my folders, my file names are duplicated but with a period-underscore "._" appearing before each duplicate.  The duplicates don't open to anything except "This file type can't be vi...
Desktop
Setting up the apps
Robert S.'s avatar
Robert S.
Icon for Super User alumni rankSuper User alumni
10 years ago

As I said above, "._" files are MacOS X system files. The reason you see them is because the Mac Dropbox folder has been placed on a disk volume formatted with a non-Mac filesystem which doesn't respect the hidden attribute of those files. You can delete them, but they'll be recreated by your Mac every time you access those files.

The effect would have been mitigated by ensuring the target volume was first formatted to the native MacOS filesystem. However, I would also note that Dropbox are pretty clear that they don't support removable drives or network volumes.

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!