.ds store

Search www.versiontracker.com for a utility that will search for, and remove .ds_store files. Are these on a windows PC, because they should be hidden on the mac.

The .DS_Store file is used by the Finder to store information about the folder - you are stuck with them on a local drive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.DS_Store

Somehow, you've turned on visibility for all items on your Mac. You're seeing files, which are supposed to be there, that are normally hidden.

I would have thought new leopard would have made this easy to switch these off at the flick of a button ...or switch.

You can't turn them off. They're supposed to be there! That's how the OS keeps track of each folder window. Where you last left it, what size you had it last opened to, how the files were show (list, icon, etc).

What you want to do is hide OS X's invisible files so you can't see them. Go to the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and launch Terminal. Copy and paste in the following line, then press Enter.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles False; killall Finder

That's it. The .DS_Store files (and all other invisible items) will no longer be shown on your desktop.

I think I will back up everything first. anyway ... but then will the .ds store will be on those too???

Yes. But again, they're supposed to be.

Hey the "terminal fix" worked..but how did we turn them on?Do you know? I had same problem.Anyway yer a genius

Hi 123walter,

Not sure. There have been a dozen or so posts I've seen where the invisible items got turned on, but the user apparently didn't do it themselves. My guess is that the .plist file that holds the information you corrected by entering the Terminal command was corrupt. Forcing the OS to rewrite the file fixes it.

Kurt,

thank you man.I've been going crazy about the .ds_store file.But i've followed your instuction and FINALLY!!

regards.

Thanks Kurt.

Found this thread very useful. Used your terminal command +(defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles False; killall Finder)+ and voila! .DS_Store and .localized files disappeared from view.

Wanted to shed light on possible general cause. Was trying to uninstall Adobe 7.0.5. Found suggestions for trashing certain library preference files. plist files, cache files. Did it half way and was discouraged. I was worried might have been deleting Adobe Photoshop shared files. Then downloaded Appzapper. Used this to try to delete Adobe 7.0.5 completely. After that, desktop icons and finder column icons turned a lighter, semi-transparent color and .DS_Store and .Localized files showed up.

Your fix not only hid the above files but returned normal appearance to icons. Thanks again!! Still have to deal with Adobe uggh.

Any idea what happened?

Any idea what happened?

Nope! 🙂 A number of things can corrupt data just enough to cause intermittent minor problems when the computer seems fine otherwise. Power loss, doing a forced shut down while the OS is still writing cached data in RAM to disk, minor disk directory damage, etc.

I notified Adobe on a nasty bug that was in CS3 and is still there in CS4. I wasn't sure with CS3 if it was my data, or something Adobe did, but seeing the exact same thing happen in CS4 pointed it their way. You may have noticed (at least with the Design Premium version) that when you install any portion of the software from the DVDs, the top level folders within the Applications and Utilities folders all get reset to a default size. You can reset the folders the way you prefer and they'll stay like that for the current session. But as soon as you restart, they all go back to the default OS X size and position. The only way to fix it is to reinstall the OS. Very irritating.

Hi again Kurt,
Yep, very frustrating stuff. Might just leave Adobe Reader sitting there in disuse. Don't want any blowback from trying to delete it.

Anyhow, I appreciate the reply.
Take care

The reader has no effect on the rest of the Adobe apps. Ditch it if you like and use Preview to view PDF files.