Why do these com.dropbox.attributes files show up everywhere?

[Richard W.1]

These files are cluttering up my folders. There seems to be one for every real file that I have. I'd like to delete them.

What are they and where did they come from? And how can I stop them?

[Rich]

And dropbox are still ignoring this

Dropbox has not ignored this. They explained the issue in this very thread back in May 2015.

• https://www.dropboxforum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/201275139-Why-do-these-com-dropbox-attributes-...

[Bob M.58]

My response to their explanation is the same now as it was then...

I've identified the device as Andrea instructed, but for me to contact someone, I don't know, in our company in a different state, and division, and ask them move their dropbox somewhere on their computer is not a good solution. Is there another way to do this?

[Rich]

Is there another way to do this?

No, there isn't. It's their computer creating these files. To Dropbox, they're just files like any other that need to be synced, so it syncs them.

Are you on Windows? If so, run a recursive attrib command on your Dropbox folder to set those files to hidden, then disable the display of hidden files. Create a batch file with an easily accessible icon and you can run it any time you see more of those files appear. There's likely a similar solution for other operating systems as well.

[Vladimir2]

So i looked in file previous versions - the PC that made all this .identifiers is my work-PC (Windows10). I checked just now (im at work atm) - the dropbox folder is on drive, that formated in NTFS. What am i doing wrong?

P.S. All this .attribute and .identifier files are just ruining my mobile expirience with dropbox - as im not seeing this files at PC, only at mobile phone app, ipad app and web interface. Makes very hard to work when i have 109 000 files and at least half of that is that attributes wich i dont even care about.

I wish we had an option to disable syncing of this .identifier etc. files cos i dont care for extra atributes, im ok with basic attributes +files contents.

[ythak]

did you managed to find a solution to this problem. I am having same issue running dropbox on windows 10. lots of these atrributes files

[Zed · Accepted solution]

Hi, 

The issue you're seeing is a Mac issue that occurs when copying files with extended attributes metadata into a file system that doesn't support them.

Depending on the information stored in the metadata, you may or may not need these files.

These files are called AppleDouble files and more information on how to handle them can be found by searching for: "apple double files"

To avoid this issue if you have your Dropbox folder on an external drive, we recommend ensuring that the drive is formatted in the default file system format for the Operating System that is installed.

A quick fix to remove those files: from the website you can search "attributes" in the search bar.

You can select all the results and delete them all together.

Thank you!

[stanislavsheyn]

yeah, that select-and-delete fix doesn't work. First, when you search for all "attribute" file name, you noly get 100 on the first aoge and have to apn down to see more. about 100 more per pan move. If you have over 6000 of those, you can iamgine how long it takes. When you do get to the end of this super long list by panning, you can't evel select them all. Fail #2. Going thru folder and selecting them sith "shift" will take you about a day if you don't want to wipe out all your pictures.

Get you act together, dropbox, or you can forget about me ever upgrading to any of your premium service. you suck.

[Rich]

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stanislavsheyn wrote:

Get you act together, dropbox

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This has nothing to do with Dropbox. Your operating system is creating the files, not Dropbox, because you've stored your Dropbox folder on a non-native hard drive partition, or the Dropbox folder on one of your linked devices is on a non-native hard drive partition. Dropbox is doing what it's supposed to do; sync the files that are in your Dropbox folder.

If you want to stop this form happening, then read the entire thread and follow the recommendations, or Google for AppleDouble files, dot underscore files, or mac com attributes files and you'll see why they appear and what you need to do to prevent it from happening.

[stanislavsheyn]

 .Blaming an operating system for flaws of yor service when servicing computers using that operating system is cavalier and condescneding. I am done wit this overpriced, superiority-complex-ifused service. Going to Amazon cloud.

[stanislavsheyn]

hey [removed by moderator], how about you read what I actually wrote? Then maybe you'lls ee that i don't have a problem with spawning of these files, rather than dealing with thousands and thousands that were created in short period and effectively selecting and deleting them without it becoming a time hog?

thanks,