Duplicate files on USB stick

Question

Duplicate files on USB stick

Hello, I've encountered a strange problem putting some mp3 files onto a USB stick. They need to play back on Windows and Mac so I've formatted the stick MS-DOS FAT. If I drag some files onto it, they transfer OK and the Finder confirms they are on the stick. But when I put the stick into a playback device (so far have tried 2 TVs and a radio with USB playback) - the files all show as doubles - e.g, if the file is called Track 1 I will see one file name called Track 1 which plays OK, but another one called '_Track 1 (with the underscore) which doesn't play. So a whole album will show as 12 unplayable tracks followed by the 12 "good" ones. Any info appreciated, thenks.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jan 25, 2017 6:18 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Limnos

Level 10

411,223 points

Jan 25, 2017 9:08 AM in response to lesparapluies

2009 Applescript for removing certain hidden files on external drives - Pixelchimp.net/blog/pixel-chimp/clean-invisible-mac-files

.DS_Store

._ (dot-underscore)

.FBC

Blueharvest - commercial software to delete .DS_Store and ._ AppleDouble files - http://www.zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest4/

2013 post on using Terminal to remove certain hidden files - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5605118?answerId=23929804022#23929804022

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Answer 2

Jan 25, 2017 6:49 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks - but how do I see them to discard them? Something in Terminal perhaps? Since posting the question I've done a bit of trawling and apparently they can be deleted but they will just reappear as soon as the device is ejected. Just about to try it.

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Answer 3

Jan 25, 2017 9:06 AM in response to turingtest2

Yes, unfortunately I don't have one! The playback devices will only read the files if formatted in MS-DOS format, they don't allow modification of the USB device. such as erasing files. OK, thanks for the info. Looks as if I've reached the end of the line. I'm assuming there's absolutely no way to do this from the Mac itself?

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Answer 4

Feb 22, 2017 3:11 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for the replies. The solution was quite bizarre. I plugged the stick into a Windows laptop, and the "phantom" files didn't show. But when I removed it from the Windows laptop and re-plugged it into another device, they had all gone, so it would seem that the Windows device "removed" them. I don't begin to understand how but all is fine

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,767 points

Jan 25, 2017 6:44 AM in response to lesparapluies

The extra files capture what would go into a hidden resource fork on a Mac's HFS+ formatted disk. You can discard them to avoid confusion when using the stick with other devices.

tt2

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