Why doesn't Apple fix the ".DS_Store" bug?

I've only used TinkerTool in order to observe the behavior of the (usually invisible) .DS_Store files. How else are you supposed to do it?

Yes, sorry. Forgot about that.

What makes you think the issue should resolve itself?

My thought was that if you can't select it, then it won't copy. That doesn't help when you're copying an entire folder, though. The .DS_Store file will go with it. But it still shouldn't stop.

The oneway problem:

Read my explanation about that I think that the tiger structure too different with the new OS structure may be the cause.

Deletes:

You can delete all DS_Store files with a tool, like Onyx. These files do not take part in OS. You do not need them.

I would like to add, since you still do not follow my thinking (correct or not): the copying starts (sequentially) with the first file, goes on to the second... and stops on a file that it can not copy for some reason, the normal copy can not exclude a particular file unless you do that by hand and that is too cumbersome in this case, you might do that for one or two folders with files in it, but that is not feasable for you.

This is clearly an Apple bug, but here's a quick and easy workaround that worked for me:

• I was trying to copy a big (800 GB) folder from one external drive to the root of another. It consistently failed with the above error message.
• My fix was simply to create a dummy folder in the root of the "To" drive and copy my big folder to that.
• After it ran (3 hours, no problems), all the files were successfully copied to the dummy folder, so I just dragged that to the root and deleted the dummy folder.

OK, I'll try it again:

I'm a photographer. I have 2 external hard drives, Master and Backup. To make a backup (besides what I have on Time Machine), I want to copy my 800GB Pictures folder from Master to Backup.

This used to be easy, just drag from one EHD to the other. Recently, perhaps since Mavericks, it's been failing with the .DS_Store error. I read all the posts in these forums, tried about 12 things, and here's what works for me:

- Start with an empty Backup EHD

- Create a dummy folder at the top level of the Backup EHD. Call it Dummy, whatever, it doesn't matter.

- If I try to drag Pictures directly to Backup, it fails, but if I drag Pictures and drop it inside Dummy, it works.

- After the copy is complete, I just drag Pictures out of Dummy and put it on the root of Backup. None of this touches my MacBook's SSD drive.

- Delete Dummy, because it's empty and not needed anymore.

Dumb trick, shouldn't be needed, but it solves my problem.

Make sense?

Lex,

Regarding a, not an Apple bug:

You're saying that if I have an empty external hard drive, then use Disk Utility to completely erase it, and then try to copy a folder to that drive, when I get the message

"The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists."

then that's the expected behavior?

I'm no Apple guru, but to me, that's not a feature, it's a bug.

This used to work for me with no problems, but then started failing a while ago. It may have started with Mavericks, but I don't know, don't care, am not going to mess with it further because I have simple, 10-second workaround that gets around this "feature."

My only continuing interest is whether my workaround is helping others. If it worked for you or did not, either way I'd be interested in hearing about it. There are at least a dozen threads on various forums about this issue, with lots of people way smarter than me not being able to get past it, so I'm curious if my simple fix is a universal solution until Apple allows us to do a copy the natural way, copying to the actual desired destination.

Lex. IT IS A BUG. Get over it! I have a new WD NAS to which I have pushed tons of music. I have a new mini with no external apps (ones that didn't come with the system) except my music player. The music on the NAS is my gold standard. If I change any tags, I do it on the NAS, then copy back to my mini. I frequently get this problem when I try to copy back. BTW, the reason I have two copies, one on the NAS and one on the local machine is backup. I backup from the NAS to my local drive. Why I do it this way isnt' the issue either. The fact that copy is broken IS the issue.

Also, yes this is a ML forum, but I have a clean Mavericks install, and that is it. It has nothing to do with the file structure of Tiger, or Leopard, or.... being different. What this does mean is that this is a persistant bug, lasting through several genertions of OSX.

@Cyberchucker
It is a bug when all or most installations have it. In your case it is you or a few more of the millions. That is called a glitch (unlluckily that is much more difficult to solve). It might even have to do with the Nas in your case (Nas is not one of the strongest points of OSX), I do not know. It comes back to the definitions.

In the iHope case I still think that it is between Tiger and Mavericks, that can be a different glitch (at least that is my opinion now still).

Lex

Hi CyberChucker, iHope and all.

Thanks for all your inputs, I've read it all and in a way I'm happy I'm not the only one experiencing this bug / glitch. Call it how you want, the fact is that a simple copy do not work with some folders.

I have the same error as you guys :

"Impossible d’effectuer l’opération car un élément intitulé « .DS_Store » existe déjà." (in French)

My configuration is : I bought a 4To to put into my 2008 MacPro, so that I have a backup disk with everything on it. The purpose of this disck is to store everything I have on my disc and put it some place else so that if my appartement burns I have a copy safe. I also have a 4To Time Machine drive in the MacPro, but that's for every day backup.

The thing is CyberChucker, your trick does not work for me. I've been on other forums and apple support pages and some guys did present this idea of copying to a dummy folder, but I've tried it many times and it does not work.

Strangely, It's only some folders that are a problem. Some copy well, some just don't, and it's always the same ones.

I'm sorry I don't come with an answer, I just wanted to state that I also have this problem AND that CyberChucker's trick unfortunately does not work for me.

If you guys have any other lead on how to solve this, I'd be happy to read it.

Cheers !

Is the issue solved already?

.DS_Store is a file that appears in every folder, when you delete it it will reappear.

There are however possibilities to avoid creating them on "network" disks:

In your Tinkertool utility choose the Finder tab and check that setting.

You can also delete the .DS_Store files on a volume or in a folder with the help of a utility called Onyx (http://www.titanium.free.fr), they will be rebuild. This may solve the issue.

In Onyx you choose the "Maintenance" page, in there choose the "rebuild" tab, in there is a section called "Appearance of folder's content", in there choose the disks or folders that you want to clean.

Maybe after all .DS_Store files rebuilt you have no or less issues.

Do not use Onyx for anything else ! Uninstall it when you do not need it any more.