Entire Dropbox duplicated with ·_ preceding the duplicate; Needing to delete all the ·_ duplicates

[SB96]

I recently had my computor worked on and when I reconnected it to Dropbox all my files, in all Dropbox accounts I am involved with and linked to duplicated every file with ·_ preceding the duplicate. These duplicates are corrupted/do not open. How do I delete several thousand files at the same time, without needing to go through and delete one at a time?

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@SB96 wrote:

... all my files, in all Dropbox accounts I am involved with and linked to duplicated every file with ·_ preceding the duplicate.

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They're neither duplicate nor corrupt files. They're AppleDouble files, and they're created by a Mac when files are stored on a non-HFS drive partition. The Mac operating system uses them to store the resource fork of files stored on filesystems that don't natively support it.

Are you on a Mac? If so, you may not want to delete them just yet, at least not until you're certain how they were created and whether or not your OS needs them. The ._ files are usually hidden on a Mac as they're considered system files. On Windows they're visible and don't serve a purpose.

If you're on Windows, just search within your local Dropbox folder for ._ and delete them all.

[SB96]

Thank you Rich! This is a Windows machine and it took some doing as it didn't seem that windows recognized my search for *·_* only coming up with a few files, like 70 some when we had multiple thousands. Downloaded another search tool and was able to bring 3,100+ files together, select and delete! All is well and thank you for the help

[24601]

Hi
It’s frustrating & not good experience for an newcomer.
When I upload any file/folder into my dropbox it creates a copy of the original file (which is what I want) & another file with same name starting with symbols .-
When I click on the file starting by .- no file is opened.
How can I fix this annoying feature?

Thank you.
Antonio

[Hannah]

Hey @24601, I moved your post under this related one.

You can take a look at the info provided by Rich above, to clarify the situation.

For context, these files are called AppleDouble files and more information on how to handle them can be found by searching for "apple double files" online.

Are you on a Mac computer? And where is your Dropbox folder currently stored?

[Poeiabird]

When I first uploaded files, Dropbox told me ._.DS._Store was an invisible file that I don't need and it wouldn't be uploaded. But not only does it upload that for each folder, it uploads an invisible file for every single document. If I upload a folder with 3 files called apple, banana, and pear, in Dropbox there are 7 documents:

._DS._Store

._apple

._banana

._pear

plus the 3 actual documents

They only use 4KB each but they make organizing things an unreadable mess. How do I get it to stop. Can I get rid of the ones that already uploaded?

I know ._.DS_Store is an invisible Mac file but I switched to PCs a couple of years ago. That may be a factor. Many of my documents haven't been opened since, but do need occasional access to them. 

[Hannah]

Hey @Poeiabird, thanks for joining us on the Dropbox Community.

I moved your post to this thread with a lot of info relevant to your query. 

Make sure to take a look and let me know if you have any questions!