Appledouble files on NAS drive in mixed windows/apple

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Appledouble files on NAS drive in mixed windows/apple

Hello everybody,

A problem I learned about is the creation by an Apple computer of so called "Appledouble files". It seems Apple computers create a double of each file to store some extra info about the file on non-Apple hard drives. Not really a problem as it are small files but if you use the same NAS on a Windows computer you see all those files double?

As I use the NAS drive to store my pictures, music, movies, ... and I will access them on my Windows computers and also on my Apple I am afraid all these double files will create problems in specific programs I use to access my pictures, music, movies.

As an example I use XBMC on my media Windows computer to play movies on my TV. Having all files double will create problems when the program searches for new movie files and will show all movies twice.

I found on another forum this:

You can prevent Mac OS X from creating these files on a network share by using a program such as TinkerTool or by opening Terminal.app and running the following command:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

Would this command actually prevents the creation of appledouble files?

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Regards,

Dino

Posted on Feb 21, 2015 9:42 AM

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Answer 1

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Japib

Level 4

2,831 points

Feb 21, 2015 9:52 AM in response to Dino737

"DO you see all those files double": you will only see them if you have set your computer to show hidden files. And even if they show, they won't create any issue because they all start with a dot. for ex < document.docx > would turn into < .document.docx >, and windows will only search/recognize the "normal" files.

Edit:

Here is an old thread but a nice recap by Dr. Smoke

._Files

Note that the ._file files you note are the resource forks of Mac files you copied to the drive from your Mac, and these are only visible when you use the Flash drive on a PC. These are normal and indicate the Flash drive is already formatted for Windows.

When you copy or save a file from a Mac OS X system to a Windows shared volume or a Windows-formatted disk, the Mac creates two files: the data fork (xxx) and the resource fork (._xxx). This is called Apple Double Format and is normal. The resource fork contains additional data about the file that is exclusive to the Mac that cannot be saved otherwise on Windows-formatted disks. This is new with Mac OS X, as documented in Mac OS X: Apple Double Format Creates File Name With the Prefix '._'.

The resource fork files (._xxx) are necessary if you want to copy the file back to the Mac and retain the metadata. The resource forks of files are invisible when they are used on the Mac: the Mac OS Extended file system (aka HFS Plus or HFS+) uses forked files, with a file having both data and resource forks.

You can delete the resource forks on the Windows disk if and only if you don't care about losing the resource fork information should you copy them back to the Mac, such as comments, image preview icon, etc. Some Mac applications use the resource fork data, so deleting the resource fork can be problematic if you copy the file back to the Mac. Likewise moving the file while not also moving its associated resource fork when using the data on a PC can result in problems when using some files again on the Mac.

You can't prevent the resource forks from being created if you copy or save files from the Mac to the Windows share or Windows-formatted disk via Finder.

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Answer 2

Dino737 Author

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Feb 21, 2015 10:50 AM in response to Japib

Thx for your answer.

I really hope they deliver no problems on my windows computers and in windows programs.

I would still feel more comfortable if someone actually tried already ones my configuration. 🙂

If I take the decision to buy an Apple I will keep you informed about the results...

Greetings,

Dino

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Answer 3

Japib

Level 4

2,831 points

Feb 21, 2015 11:40 AM in response to Dino737

Iwould still feel more comfortable if someone actually tried already ones my configuration.

If it comforts you, I use the exact setup you have talked about (Mac+PC+XMBC+NAS+...), plus many more devices, including my Internet Provider TV box (running a specific version of Linux), which is able to read and search through my NAS, and there are absolutely no problems.

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