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How do I deal with "._*" files when I need to give a flash drive to a Windows user?

C

CrockAlley

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2011
12
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My client likes to receive his files on a flash drive. I have a Mac Pro (2020, Monterey). He has Windows. I remember that Mac adds those extra files that are visible on Windows (._*, .Trashes, etc.). I'd like to hand my client a "clean" set of files without having to explain the extra Mac files. It just seems more professional. Any solution to this?

Also, are there any flash drive formatting troubles that I need to know about between Mac/PC?

Thanks so much for any help
 
CrockAlley said:
My client likes to receive his files on a flash drive. I have a Mac Pro (2020, Monterey). He has Windows. I remember that Mac adds those extra files that are visible on Windows (._*, .Trashes, etc.). I'd like to hand my client a "clean" set of files without having to explain the extra Mac files. It just seems more professional. Any solution to this?

Also, are there any flash drive formatting troubles that I need to know about between Mac/PC?

Thanks so much for any help
Click to expand...
Some options:
https://superuser.com/questions/105243/prevent-macos-from-making-and-files
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1574764
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...isible-files-on-my-cfs-or-smb-network-storage
 
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Thanks for the reply. Those links are all 5-15 years old, which is a little stale for me. But I was able to use some keywords in those links to find this Reddit thread from a month ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/104puaf

But I'd certainly be happy to accept more suggestions if anyone cares to chime in. Very grateful for your response!
 
by the power of the AI , here are some helpful links:-

www.phy.ohio.edu

Mohammadreza Hadizadeh - Ohio University

Mohammadreza Hadizadeh - Home
www.phy.ohio.edu

dot_clean -- Merge ._* files with corresponding native files — Mac Lovin'

When you copy certain macOS files to a non-HFS+/APFS formatted disk (such as a file share), the metadata will be extracted from the files and put in invisible files starting with `._`. This can leads to issues or can look garbage when you send these files to Git. According to Apple:
maclovin.org maclovin.org
 
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You could check out CleanEject, it's free. Originally developed for use with Garmin GPS units, but should also work with flash drives (it is only for "removable" drives). This author has a whole suite of really useful free software for managing Garmin GPS units. Unfortunately, he suffered a stroke a few years ago and although he recovered, he was unable to continue his software development. So, it's possible that there could be some incompatibilities with newer versions of MacOS, but it's worth a try IMO.
 
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