User profile for user: h_md
h_md Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Question marks appeared in files names

Recently I've found out question marks before (and sometimes after) the names of some of my files and folders.


If I search ? in the search bar there won't be any result. i.e. it seems like the computer doesn't know the question marks are there.

I can remove them manually but there are hundreds or maybe thousands of files with this problem. Does anyone know how to get rid of these question marks?


They are really annoying and they mess with the alphabetical order of the files as well.User uploaded file

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 2, 2015 3:42 PM

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User profile for user: h_md
h_md Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Jun 5, 2015 11:28 AM in response to cdhw

Thanks for your reply. Here's the result after entering the terminal commands:

total 102400

drwxr-xr-x 5 Hossein staff 170 Mar 13 2014 .

drwxrwxrwx@ 658 Hossein staff 22372 Jun 4 13:58 ..

-rwxr-xr-x 1 Hossein staff 12609701 Aug 27 2011 U2 - City of Blinding Lights.flv

-rwxr-xr-x 1 Hossein staff 33447833 Jul 4 2011 ?U2 - With Or Without You??.flv

-rwxr-xr-x 1 Hossein staff 6367897 Jul 4 2011 ?U2 - With or Without you - lyrics??.flv

Hosseins-MacBook-Pro:U2 Hossein$ ls | hexdump -c

0000000 U 2 - C i t y o f B l i

0000010 n d i n g L i g h t s . f l v

0000020 \n ? 200 ? U 2 - W i t h O r

0000030 W i t h o u t Y o u ? 200 ? ?

0000040 200 217 . f l v \n ? 200 ? U 2 - W

0000050 i t h o r W i t h o u t y

0000060 o u - l y r i c s ? 200 ? ? 200

0000070 217 . f l v \n

0000076


I also ran Etrecheck as you asked and here's the result for that as well:

Problem description:

? appeared after the files names


EtreCheck version: 2.2 (132)

Report generated 6/5/15, 10:25 PM

Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck


Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Click to remove] links for help removing adware.


Hardware Information: ℹ️

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) (Technical Specifications)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,1

1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 211 - SN = D864024T7WBFT5YA5


Video Information: ℹ️

Intel Iris

Color LCD 2560 x 1600


System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10.3 (14D136) - Time since boot: 6 days 0:22:2


Disk Information: ℹ️

APPLE SSD SM0512F disk0 : (500.28 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

Macintosh HD (disk1) / [Startup]: 499.07 GB (11.92 GB free) (Low!)

Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked

Core Storage: disk0s2 499.42 GB Online


USB Information: ℹ️

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller


Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Configuration files: ℹ️

/etc/hosts - Count: 20


Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Anywhere


Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

/Applications/DAEMON Tools Lite.app

[not loaded] com.disc-soft.DAEMONTools.VirtualSCSIBus (1.0.2 - SDK 10.8) [Click for support]


/Applications/MacX Video Converter Pro.app

[not loaded] com.digiarty.driver.goodSysAudioCapture (1 - SDK 10.8) [Click for support]


/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.kerio.kext.kvnet (8.0.0 - SDK 10.5) [Click for support]


/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.delantis.kext.tcpblocknke (4.0.0 - SDK 10.8) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) [Click for support]


/Users/[redacted]/Library/Services/ToastIt.service/Contents/MacOS

[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) [Click for support]


Launch Agents: ℹ️

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.divx.dms.agent.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.divx.update.agent.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist [Click for support]


Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.disc-soft.DAEMONTools.PrivilegedHelper.plist [Click for support]

[running] com.iobit.AMCDaemon.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.kerio.kvpncsvc.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.lsreset.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.rockysandstudio.WUHelper.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist [Click for support]


User Launch Agents: ℹ️

[not loaded] com.bittorrent.uTorrent.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist [Click for support]

[running] com.spigot.SearchProtection.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.user.UninstallAD.plist [Click for support]


User Login Items: ℹ️

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

SpeechSynthesisServer Application (/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks /SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/SpeechSynthesisServer.app)

Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

KVpnClientAgent Application (/usr/local/kerio/vpnclient/KVpnClientAgent.app)

CleanMyDrive Application (/Applications/CleanMyDrive.app)

Alfred 2 Application (/Applications/Alfred 2.app)

Caffeine Application (/Applications/Caffeine.app)

Wondershare SafeEraser Helper Application (/Users/[redacted]/Library/Application Support/com.wondershare.SafeEraser/Wondershare SafeEraser Helper.app)

uTorrent Application (/Applications/uTorrent.app)


Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.188 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

OVSHelper: Version: 1.1 [Click for support]

DivX Web Player: Version: 3.2.4.1250 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.188 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 15.0.0 - SDK 10.10 Check version


User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

Picasa: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

RealPlayer Plugin: Version: Unknown [Click for support]


Safari Extensions: ℹ️

AllMyTube

Facebook Photo Zoom

FastestTube

Cleaner Facebook

eBay Shopping Assistant Adware! [Click to remove]

Vidx

AdBlock

Searchme Adware! [Click to remove]


3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player [Click for support]

TCPBlock [Click for support]


Time Machine: ℹ️

Time Machine not configured!


Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

17% cloudd

5% Viber(2)

4% WindowServer

2% fontd

2% cloudphotosd


Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

885 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(5)

780 MB kernel_task

688 MB Safari

164 MB Viber(2)

156 MB Finder


Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

160 MB Free RAM

7.84 GB Used RAM

242 MB Swap Used


Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

Jun 4, 2015, 06:05:34 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent_2015-06-04-180534_[ redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Click for details]

Jun 4, 2015, 03:30:28 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2015-06-04-153028_[redacted].crash


Thanks again for the help

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User profile for user: cdhw
cdhw
User level: Level 4
3,594 points

Jun 2, 2015 4:59 PM in response to h_md

Use


Finder > File > Find


and search 'This Mac' for


Name contains ?


to find such files. You should try to understand how these names were created in the first place. If you have no rational explanation use Disk Utility to check and repair the disk drive.

A '?' is a valid, and not uncommon, character in OS X file names so be very careful if you decide to unleash on a mass-renaming script on the problem.


C.

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User profile for user: h_md
h_md Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Jun 4, 2015 2:55 AM in response to cdhw

Thanks for your help. But when I use this method to search "?" Finder doesn't find anything as if "?" are invisible or something.

I used disk utility but the problem still persists.

I'm absolutely sure I never added any "?" to any of my files. Though they've appeared all of a sudden. I have no idea about their origin.

They actually seem more like system tags or something like that which could be shown/hidden. Thats just my theory though.

Do you have any other idea?!

thanks for your help in advance btw

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User profile for user: cdhw
cdhw
User level: Level 4
3,594 points

Jun 4, 2015 4:01 AM in response to h_md

Okay, let's look a bit deeper. Start Utilities > Terminal.app. Type the three characters 'cd ' as the start of a command and then drag the icon of the 'U2' folder you are showing above to complete it and use the 'return' key to enter it. This will change the 'working directory' to the U2 folder, which we know has a couple of examples of the problem in it and not too much else, with any luck. Now enter the following three commands:


pwd

ls -la

ls | hexdump -c


by copying and pasting them, and copy-and paste the results here. Also, run EtreCheck:


http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck


and post the results here.


C.

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User profile for user: cdhw
cdhw
User level: Level 4
3,594 points

Jun 5, 2015 2:51 PM in response to h_md

Okay, several issues here.

.

1. Your hard drive is full to the point that OS X will be struggling to function. You need to install a larger hard drive, or possibly get an external drive to shift some of your files onto.


2. You have installed a lot of adware/malware including 'Clean My Mac', CleanMyDrive, eBay Shopping Assistant, Searchme. You can get detailed cleanup instructions from this forum, but a good starting point is:


http://www.adwaremedic.com/


3. If you use torrents you are asking for trouble.


These issues could be responsible for the corrupt file names you are experiencing, which I'll discuss in a separate reply.


C.

Reply
User profile for user: cdhw
cdhw
User level: Level 4
3,594 points

Jun 5, 2015 4:25 PM in response to h_md

Your filenames with '?' in them have been wrongly, or possibly double, encoded. This usually happens when they have been extracted from an archive that was created on an alien file system. The only tool I'm aware of that will help you fix the problem is 'convmv'


http://linux.die.net/man/1/convmv


, which you can download from here:


https://www.j3e.de/linux/convmv/


This is a command line utility in Perl so it works fine on OS X. The catch is that you need to know what encoding your mangled names are in, which may involve some experimentation if you don't know.


I suggest you wait 24 hours before starting work with convmv in case someone else can give you a more straightforward solution.


C.

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Question marks appeared in files names

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