Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

maldonfruit's avatar
maldonfruit
New member | Level 2
8 years ago
Solved

I have an issue with indexing "._" files. Any ideas?

Why are files prefixed with ._(then file name) showing in all my folders? Is this a mistake?
desktop
FAQ
Mac
sync
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    8 years ago

    Dot Underscore ( ._ ) files, otherwise known at AppleDouble files, are created by Apple's OS X or macOS operating system, typically when you store files on a non-native hard drive partition. They're used to hold extended attribute information that cannot be written to the partition along side the files. This is most common when using external hard drives that are formatted as FAT32, though it can happen with other partition types as well.

     

    You usually don't see these files on a Mac because the operating system knows to hide them (they're still there though, and if you can see hidden files, you'll see them). On other systems the files are visible, including on Dropbox which will sync them like any other file. Note that an Apple Mac operating system is creating these files; not Dropbox.

     

    Try a Google search for AppleDouble or dot underscore files and you'll find a lot more information about them.

HS4's avatar
HS4
Explorer | Level 4
8 years ago

Try in the website, and check if it works, I totally tought the same at the beggining before i got upset with the service.

Mark's avatar
Mark
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
8 years ago
I did. It Worked fine.

I just searched for ._ and they all show up, or, rather did as I have removed them.

What I am going to say is that I am a Professional customer (www.dropbox.com/professional) which I know gives higher searching capabilities - mainly searching inside files, but, I dont know if that has anything to do with it.
  • Debra & Allen H's avatar
    Debra & Allen H
    Helpful | Level 5
    6 years ago

    I'm late coming to the discussions about the ._ files. I'm not a Pro user.

    When I search on the ._ files on any folder, the result is "no files found" and if I add the year (I don't rename  photos), it results in every file beginning with the year (._ or not). If I add year & month, I seem to get all of them with a few random. And I'm on the computer that likely caused the problem.

    But it's nice to know that most of the photos are on dropbox regardless of the ._ files. (Of course, except the ones my husband wanted at 2am. LMFAO)

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

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, Facebook or Instagram.

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!