I can't preview certain images on the Dropbox site, why?

[AR18]

Hello community. i've discovered that some photos i've archived in bulk are not visible and opeanble. The message says that the format isn't correct. This is the icon shown. Even downloading on my desktop i cannot open it anymore. Isn't that, somehow, they have been corrupted once transferred onto Dropbox? Do you have ideas in how to manage this thing. It's about a big number of images. Thanks

[Jay]

Hi @AR18, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

These appear to be ._ files, which are known as Apple doublefiles. You can read more about them here in a previous post.

Essentially, these are files that Apple creates when files are copied to a non-Apple formatted hard drive, such as a Windows machine, and then synced to a Mac. They contain metadata for the real file, but no actual image or data.

You'll need to locate the real images on your machine, which should have the same name without the ._ at the beginning, and then upload those to Dropbox.

Keep me updated with any progress!

[AR18]

Thanks for your quick response. What if i don't have anymore the original pictures? May i convert them somehow?

[Jay]

Unfortunately, the wouldn't be possible with the Apple doublefiles. These files are tiny, most likely only a few KB in size, and there's nothing that can be done to convert them to the original copies, since they have none of the original data.

Are you certain that you don't have the originals also uploaded to the site? Have you tried searching for them?

[AR18]

Unfortunately i've deleted once uploaded in Dropbox. Do you have a process/solution to follow how to convert such kind of files not to repeat the mistake please?

[Jay]

There isn't any process as such for these files, since they are automatically created by Apple. 

These files would exist in the same folder as the real images, so for instance, ._IMG_0072.jpg would be in the same folder as the real image, IMG_0072.jpg. 

So, instead of uploading any ._ files, always look for the files without ._ at the beginning. You should also be able to tell since the normal files are larger in size when compared to the ._ files.