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

Thanks Daphne,
Opened up a new browser (Firefox - initial browser was Chrome), and yes same exact issue.
Downloading files from my one user (not shared) also produced the same results.
There was no need to clear browser cache on firefox since it was the first time I've ever visited DB on that browser.
Incognito window produced the same results as well (using different files too).
Thoughts?

Daphne

Hey there @JefW,

So after looking into this in a bit more depth on my side, the "__MACOSX” folder contains the metadata of the files and is a “hidden folder”. This folder won’t be seen on OS X 10.13 or higher but for other operating systems you will see this hidden folder when unzipping.

I’d suggest for anymore specific info about this that it might be better to either do a quick web search or contact Apple Support perhaps, as this is an OS related behaviour rather than specifically with Dropbox they should have a better understanding.

I hope this points you in the right direction - Thanks!

Thank you for your time Daphne.
With respect though, I don't think this is all entirely accurate, in that I've always downloaded files directly to my system, and while I can't recall the exact date of the last time I did this, I know it would have been within the last month or so - which means it was working just a little while ago with my current OSX 10.11.6. So this tells me that it's something that Dropbox must have changed in how they zip the files.
This will just be a frustrating glitch I guess from now on (until I can upgrade my system at some point.)

One additional follow up...

I talked with my co-worker and he confirmed he's using 10.13.6, and he's having the same issue.

Hey there @JefW - sorry to jump in here; I just wanted to add my two cents on this.

I went through your problem's description and I saw that you mentioned that the files in question had an underscore within their names.

I'm going to take a guess here and say that they probably include a (.) dot too - right?

If I'm correct and that's indeed the case (you're seeing '._' within your files' names), I'll need to inform you that, unfortunately the issue you're seeing is a Mac issue that occurs when copying files with extended attributes metadata into a file system that doesn't support them. Depending on the information stored in the metadata, you may or may not need these files.

These files are called AppleDouble files and more information on how to handle them can be found by searching for: "apple double files"

To avoid this issue if you have your Dropbox folder on an external drive, we recommend ensuring that the drive is formatted in the default file system format for the Operating System that is installed (those would be HFS+ or APFS for Macs).

Formatting drives may cause data to be deleted. Please consult resources from your Operating System's manufacturer (Apple in your case) for steps and recommendations on formatting drives to a different file system. The most common default file systems are NTFS (Windows), HFS (Mac OS X) or ext4 (Linux).

Let us know if this helped please!

Hello Walter,
I do thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm afraid though that it still does not seem to apply to my (and my co-workers on a different computer) situation.
We both have our DB folders on our local computers, and not on External Drives.
The issue I was describing is when I do a 'direct download' to my desktop (also not an external drive, if you're familiar with macs). And what's most important here to remember... This is only a recent problem (within the last month)... ie: in the past whenever I did the direct download I never had an issue. Now for some reason, both mine and my co-workers imac are having the same problem.
I assure you my imac HD is properly formatted.
But I thank you for your time.
Just to add to the puzzle, this is only when I 'direct download' to my system and unzip the compressed files. I attempted a zip and decompress with other local files and had no issues, so it's something that Dropbox is doing to the zip files.

Thanks for the response Jef!

Now, kindly note that Dropbox does not have the capability of changing your files in any way.

As I mentioned, if you're indeed seeing "._" within some of your files' names, these are usually the metadata of the original files (these are hidden normally) - more information on this can be found by a mere web search with the search string "Apple's Double Files".

If you're still having issues with this, please let me know and I'll reach out to your Dropbox associated email address to work on this together.

Thanks in advance and have a lovely day until we speak again.

Thanks Walter,
Well, I know this is a technicality, but if I upload 2 files, and then choose to download them directly, Dropbox compresses those files into a zip file... which is changing my original files. The process of compression is what I meant by Dropbox changing the files.

Yes, my original issue is still unanswered. Just to re-state the issue...
When I do I direct download, and then uncompress the zipped files there are these extra files showing up.
About a week or more (month maybe) it never used to do this.
Something recently changed - And I don't think it was my system, since it is also happening on my co-workers computer.

Thanks for your time.

Thanks for the additional information and sorry to hear this persists Jef.

At this point, as I'll need account specific information to help troubleshoot this issue, may I reach out to your Dropbox associated email address so we can have a further look into this matter?

In addition, have you checked if your device is showing 'hidden files'? If that's the case here, to avoid seeing hidden files:

Open the Terminal app and click Applications, Utilities, and then Terminal
Copy and paste the following line into the Terminal app, and then press Enter:

defaults write com<SPAN class="hljs-selector-class">.apple</SPAN><SPAN class="hljs-selector-class">.finder</SPAN> AppleShowAllFiles NO

In any case, I'll be waiting for your response so we investigate further!

Thanks again Walter. No my system is not set up to view 'hidden files'. This issue is only with the downloaded zip files from dropbox. (yes, I've also tried other zipped files and they work fine).
While I appreciate your time, I'm afraid my work has just gotten crazy and I no longer have the time to put into troubleshooting this issue on my system.
I would encourage you that if you know someone with a mac (surely someone on your team must also have a mac?) to have them check if this issue is just specific to myself and my co-worker or if this is happening to all mac users?
I'd be really interested to know the answer to that.
Thanks
J

I tried this solution and still get the weird _MACOSX folder and funny files.

This only started happening 2 days ago out of the blue.

Thanks @lisahinson14 for the reply. While I'm sorry it's happening with your system too, I am glad to know it's not just myself and my coworker.

Would sure like a solution though 8/

Daphne

Hey there peeps!

I just wanted to ask and clarify if the folder/file that you’re trying to download from the web is currently compressed (and shows as an archive file) within the Dropbox folder on your desktop? As in, was the folder compressed on a Mac system and then uploaded to Dropbox?

Let me know - Thanks!

Hi Daphne,
Negative. I tried 2 options - one was a regular folder with multiple files (photoshop) files in it, and then 1 single file (Illustrator). The second several tries I just selected one Illus file and one text file.
Thanks

When this happened to me. I'm just downloading a regular folder like I've done a million times before.

These are my steps.

1. create a new folder within a folder that I share with someone else (so they also share this new folder I created)

2. Upload 250 NEF files to the folder.

3. The person that shares the folder with me creates a new folder within the folder holding all my NEF files.

4. I tick the box to indicate I want to download the files in the new folder and when they get to my mac / download folder they are zipped (all of this is normal so far). I double click on the zipped file and they show up in a folder.

5. this new folder has 2 folders inside of it. One with the same name as the folder created when I clicked on the zipped file and one that is _MACOSX with a bunch of odd files inside.

Does that help?

I have one other bit of information - an anomoly and a thought about the cause of this.

1. I have a paid dropbox account and the person I share with recently upgraded to a Professional account - this happened right around the time of the weirdness.

2. I rename a shared folder that is placed in my account which then causes the original folder put in by the person with the Professional account to show it is 'deleted.' The renamed folder is still showing.

Is this caused when 2 people have different versions of Dropbox - i.e. profession vs. regular?

HERE IS THE HIERARCHY of the folders:

FOLDER AT THE ROOT WHICH WE SHARE
I fill will NEF FILES

PERSON with PROF. VERSION INSERTS A FOLDER OF MERGED FILES NAMING "X"

I RENAME FOLDER "X" to be X xyz and download to my computer

THE WEIRD FOLDER APPEARS ON MY SYSTEM ALONG WITH THE DOWNLOADED FOLDER.

I'm not sure how these facts could be related to be honest @lisahinson14.

Would it be OK if I reached out via the email address that's associated with your Community's profile so we can investigate further?

Of course!

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.

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.

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-files/m-p/355372/highlight/true#M54798

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!

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+

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

@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).

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.

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.

@Walter Sure.