cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Announcements
Want to learn some quick and useful tips to make your day easier? Check out how Calvin uses Replay to get feedback from other teams at Dropbox here.

View, download, and export

Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.

cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

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

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

JefW
Collaborator | Level 9

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

71 Replies 71

Anna R.5
Helpful | Level 6

I had the same issue and contacted Dropbox Support today. They explained that this is a Mac OS behaviour and not something to do with Dropbox. I then googled "zip from Mac to Windows generates extra folder _MACOSX" and indeed it turns out it's an Apple thing. Hope this helps someone.

Mxm5G6
Helpful | Level 5

I would like a resolution to this closed issue: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/Mac-osx-strange-extra-files-appearing-when-dow...

 

Summary of issue: downloading non-zipped loose files (for example) in one batch using Dropbox's "↓ Download" button zips the files and includes a "_MACOSX" folder that contains a copy of the files. On PC/Windows 10. Hypothesis is that Dropbox servers use Mac computers, thus this would be default behaviour on this operating system.

 

Dropbox support claims it is a macOS issue and not a Dropbox issue, but there is no Mac involved, only Dropbox, so the likely explanation is that Dropbox uses macOS to host files and/or to zip/compress files, resulting in the observed behaviour. Dropbox has to stop claiming it has nothing to do with this issue if their macOS servers or zipping software is at fault.

 

dropbox download button.png

 

Solution would be for Dropbox to apply a fix at the source so that users don't have to download this extra folder.

structaural
Helpful | Level 6

When I download files from the website I also end up with two folders - the problem is that the files I want are all zero bytes. And the metadata - which is all misnamed files seems to have the data but both sets of files are unuseable. When I use my Dropbox folder on my mac the files are fine. 

This is a pretty bad bug, Dropbox and means I can't share my files with anyone. As no files are useable. Having to look for alternatives which is a shame as I've used Dropbox for over a decade.

Screenshot 2022-01-20 at 14.16.24.jpg

 

 

structaural
Helpful | Level 6

Whatever Dropbox are using to compress my Mac files - it is not doing it properly - as these files should uncompress on a Mac without the __MACOS folder. It's like the files are being compressed on a mac - then unzipped on a PC and then re-compressed again, and something is corrupting the names and data of the resource forks of the Mac files. Fonts for instance keep most of their data in the resource fork (which is why so many don't work on a PC).

If I make a ZIP on my Mac - put it on the server and uncompress it using a PC I get a similar structure to the files from Dropbox but without the corrupted resource data. So it's still useable. 
Dropbox ZIPs though, are corrupted. And anyway as I said at the beginning should not be showing this folder structure but should only show the files themselves on a Mac. This folder structure should only show up when unzipping on a PC.
So Dropbox - the failure is at your end. Please fix!

Walter
Dropbox Staff
EDIT:

Hi all - thanks for your reports and feedback on this.

Could you try the walk-around described here and let us if it works for you?

Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, give it a Like below to let us know.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Need help with something else? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Find Tips & Tricks Discover more ways to use Dropbox here!
:arrows_counterclockwise: Interested in Community Groups? Click here to join

JefW
Collaborator | Level 9

Thanks Walter, but I honestly don't see how that post is relevant to this one at all. Did you accidentally post this in the wrong thread? No one here is saying they're getting an "error 1" when attempting to unzip a file. 
Confused. 🙂

Mxm5G6
Helpful | Level 5

Edit: misunderstanding, all's good (poster posted on the wrong thread and will edit answer)

Walter
Dropbox Staff
Nice catch @JefW - I was indeed intending to post this on another thread. 

I'll go ahead and edit my previous reply to avoid any confusion moving forward. 

For more information on the issue described in this discussion, you can have a look at Lusil's post here

Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, give it a Like below to let us know.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Need help with something else? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Find Tips & Tricks Discover more ways to use Dropbox here!
:arrows_counterclockwise: Interested in Community Groups? Click here to join

Mxm5G6
Helpful | Level 5

@Walter, the answers you linked are not helpful. Is it possible for you to provide a status on this issue? Is it even being investigated at the current time or has it been abandoned as "resolved"? We need to know whether progress is being made on this issue or whether we're losing our time here trying to get a solution. Thank you for your understanding.

 

In my post above, I have specifically described the root cause of the issue, namely that it stems from the Dropbox servers running on Mac and thus being default behaviour. What do you have to say on this? Will you please comment on this explanation specifically?

Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hey @Mxm5G6 - thanks for your nudge. 

When it comes to your hypothesis, I'm afraid it's not quite right. If it was, everyone who uses Dropbox would be seeing those files. 

As mentioned, _MACOSX folders are normally hidden folders containing metadata of the files. However, its contents may be read by Windows OS. 

Were the files you noticed this on stored on a Mac computer at some point in the past?

Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, give it a Like below to let us know.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Need help with something else? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Find Tips & Tricks Discover more ways to use Dropbox here!
:arrows_counterclockwise: Interested in Community Groups? Click here to join

Need more support?