Mac osx - strange extra files appearing when downloading files directly.

[JefW]

Just had a strange issue with some files that I directly downloaded from our DB folders.
On the website, I went to one of my shared folders from another team member, and clicked on 2 files (illustrator) and one folder that contained several photoshop images.
I chose to direct download option and downloaded them to my desktop. They downloaded to the zip file, like usual. BUT... when I uncompressed the zip file, there was an ADDITIONAL folder named "__MACOSX" - when I opened that, there was a repeat of the same Illustrator files and the PSD folder, but the file names were changed (most had underscores in them). In addition, these files were very small in size (70 bytes for example, when they should have been 3.3MB - same thing for the PSD images they were all around 100kb or less, when they should have been several MB).
I asked my co-worker to repeat the process on his computer (different OS that what I'm using, but still on a mac) and he had the same thing happen.

Any idea's what's happening? Is this just a glitch?

I'm on an imac, running OS 10.11.6

[lisahinson14]

Of course!

[Walter]

Thanks for this Lisa - I just sent you a brief message so we can work on this together!

Whenever you get the chance, please take a look at your email's inbox and we'll take it from there.

[hshaw]

I'm just backing up all my DropBox files and am running into the same problem. I'm just downloading from my own DropBox account online to my desktop on my home computer (MAC OS). DropBox compresses the folder. When I uncompress it, I get a properly named folder with two subfolders, one is repeat of the original folder and the other is _MACOSX. The contents of the folders aren't the same. I haven't had time to see if the downloaded folder with the proper name is complete. I know that the _MACOSX folder is incomplete. The original filenames would be, e.g., DCUS_1973_M_05.pdf. The funkily named file is D._CUS_1973_M_05.pdf . If I try to open one of the oddly named file, I get a message saying that the file cannot be opened and that it might be damaged or is in a format that Preview doesn't recognize. Anyhoo, it isn't just those two folks.

[Walter]

Sorry to repeat myself here @hshaw - have you had the chance to go through my respone in the first page on this thread?

• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Files-folders/Mac-osx-strange-extra-files-appearing-when-downloading...

If you did and still having questions about this, could you clarify what is the OS your Mac computer is using, its filesystem (i.e. APFS+ or HFS) and if you've enabled hidden files to show on the mentioned device too?

Thanks in advance!

[hshaw]

Hi Walter, I did and saw that it hadn't been resolved yet which was why I chimed in.  I hadn't deliberately changed anything to show hidden files but followed your instruction in this thread to ensure that I would not see them.  I did a test download after that and still get these files. I agree with the others who say that this is a new thing. I've been using Dropbox a long time and hadn't had this happen in the past. My operating system is OS 10.13.6 and the "file system personality" says Journaled HFS+

[Walter]

Thank you for clarifying this and providing this additional information @hshaw - it's much appreciated.

At this point, could I reach out to your Dropbox associated email address so we can have a further look into this?

[Rich]

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@JefW wrote:

... when I uncompressed the zip file, there was an ADDITIONAL folder named "__MACOSX" - when I opened that, there was a repeat of the [files/folders], but the file names were changed (most had underscores in them).

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Just to point it out for the Mac users that may not be aware, but this is pretty common when a PC user receives a compressed file from a Mac user. I'd wager that it's actually your own system that's creating these files in the first place, and not Dropbox. These are the folders/files that OS X uses to store resource forks or extended attributes; not a file or folder that's created by Dropbox. Google it and you'll find MANY discussions describing exactly what these files and folders do, why they're created, etc.

Every Zip file I've ever received from a Mac user has those files in it.

[hshaw]

Hi Rich, In my case, there isn't a PC involved. And what is unusual here is that it didn't happen before but is happening now. So something changed. You could be right that it is something about Macs. In any case, it is something between Dropbox and Macs that is now functioning differently than it had been.

[hshaw]

@Walter Sure.

[lisahinson14]

@JefW I have this senario happen all the time but it has NEVER happened before a few weeks ago. PC or Mac.