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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

Mxm5G6
Helpful | Level 5

Well, it seems like the issue might have been silently resolved perhaps because I cannot reproduce it anymore with the same steps and files (on Windows 10).

 

I used to be able to reproduce it every time no matter the files. Can anyone else test if they can still reproduce the issue? If so can they provide a minimally reproducible example with exact steps with fresh files?

structaural
Helpful | Level 6
Hi Walter,

Thanks for continuing the conversation.

(Edited for clarity)

On my Mac desktop using my Dropbox folder everything is rosy.

But, if I choose to download more than one Mac file (ie: it contains extra resource forks, like a font file) from the browser version of Dropbox running on Chrome, then Dropbox generates a ZIP file.

When I open this ZIP, which should be also encoded for Mac, but isn't, it is not unpacked correctly for OS X. Normally, the __MACOSX folder structure is never seen in Finder, as the two folders of data are put back together seamlessly by OSX and only the files (as shown in Dropbox in the browser) are shown.

This does not happen with the ZIP format Dropbox are using to download our files. So Finder cannot resolve these ZIP files and they look like they were unzipped on a PC. And now my Mac files that rely on properly resolved data and metadata are useless.

Can this be changed? Can you update your code to properly encode a ZIP file for both platforms? It's still only one ZIP file.

Thanks. I live in hope...

JefW
Collaborator | Level 9

Just echoing what @structaural commented on. 
The problem still persists on my mac here too.

If I select more than one file (using the Chrome browser), and select "download" - then dropbox dowloads a zip file to my system. When I double-click that, the folder has the files I need, but it also ADDS a folder marked as that "__MACOSX". I've learned that the folder can simply be deleted, but it's a pain. So the original problem (that I posted about nearly 2.5 years ago) still persists. 😞

I've come to just live with the glitch and have no expectations that it will be resolved. 😞

structaural
Helpful | Level 6
Most files don't have resource data so it's not important, just delete the _MACOSX folder.
But older Mac files actually have useful information in the resource header, that is often required. And they are normally kept when you compress a file in Finder, and uncompress it, for instance.
But that stuff is thrown out with Dropboxs' ZIP format and it's now in a folder called __MACOSX which is not useful...
Corrupt files basically, not a glitch...

They're fine on Dropbox, though.

structaural
Helpful | Level 6

There's something very wrong with the way Dropbox is handling mac files - at least on the web browser part of it. I just downloaded a single font file - so ZIP wouldn't be required - and the file is zero bytes. The file is definitely not zero bytes. So even worse than ZIPs - Dropbox is stripping the metadata/resource fork from single files too. Damnit, now I've got to find a new cloud service, I have fifteen years of Mac work and home on here.

JefW
Collaborator | Level 9

I noticed this too! I transferred all of my fonts over to DB thinking it would make for a good backup, only to learn later (not sure when it might have happened) that all the fonts were corrupted and as you say show a files size of zero. 
(I'm glad I have another means of backup and did not lose all those fonts!)

structaural
Helpful | Level 6

Just to point out my fonts are fine if I go to them using the Finder and the Dropbox folder structure on my Mac drive. Then they are properly structured with metadata intact. So you might find that yours are fine, if you try this. I have 2TB of data though, so I tend to use selective sync a lot.
But in the browser - they are listed as zero bytes and don't download correctly. So I think I'm only going to use the browser for searching for files and certainly not for sharing them.
Older fonts are particularly prone to this as they store all their data in the resource fork. 
Anyway no response from Dropbox, I can assume this won't be fixed, as this thread is over 2 years old.

Labtab
Helpful | Level 5

I too have not had a resolution... I'm leaving Dropbox as it's too unreliable and they're obviously not going to fix this bug, also having issues with Selective Sync, Dropbox you were almost awesome!

structaural
Helpful | Level 6

Yeah, I think they give less and less of a **bleep** about Apple - we're probably in a minority - most of us using iCloud (which I refuse to, apple can sod off here in the Netherlands too - doesn't support our main way of paying here.). Time Machine doesn't work with Dropboxes offline files either - forces them to download. And we're still waiting for an M1 version of the Dropbox app - which Dropbox said they had no interest in developing. And they broke symlinks a couple of years ago, which I heavily relied on. 

 

Still, historically why I like Dropbox is when I couldn't pay for it for six months (bad time) they didn't delete my files or stop me from downloading them. I just couldn't upload. Wheresa I failed to pay for iCloud for a couple of months and they deleted all my data...

Mirlo9
New member | Level 2

Hi JefW

I've experienced the same issue. I think I found a workaround using Dropbox transfer. You can send it to yourself via email and download the file back in your computer. The file is still compressed in a zip, but when downloaded the _macosx folder isn't there anymore. I've tried it once and worked for me. Hope you can have a go and please let me know if it works! 

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