._ shows at the beginning of songs on an SD card for music in my car

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Level 1

8 points

._ shows at the beginning of songs on an SD card for music in my car

I've added content to an SD card from iTunes and use it to play music in my car. When I go to play the songs the songs are listed with a ._ in front of the song name and when I click on the song to play it says invalid and scrolls through the list greying them out until the original song I added shows up normally and it plays. More annoying than anything.

Are the ._ files album artwork and how do I fix this issue?

Thanks,

Gavin

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), SD card used in a new vehicle (2013

Posted on Sep 2, 2013 3:41 PM

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Answer 1

C F McBlob

Level 4

2,885 points

Sep 2, 2013 5:36 PM in response to gavinaok

the ._ files are a reference file. (to an icon or the artwork, I don't really know) the reader in your car stereo is not set up to read Mac files apparently. The ._ files are hidden and don't appear when you copy to the SD, but the car stereo CAN see them and tries to read them.
I see these files all the time in Windows when I connect a Flash Drive, because I always have my folder options set to show hidden files and folders.
There's a Preference Pane called "Secrets" that allows you to see hidden files in OS X and you can remove the ._ files before you eject the SD card so they won't cause you troubles in the car.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/27025/secrets

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Answer 2

gavinaok Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 9, 2013 8:30 AM in response to C F McBlob

That is an ok solution. I wish I didn't have to download an additional program.

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