• Luci@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      31
      ·
      3 days ago

      It’s a folder that macOS will leave on usb sticks with meta data and stuff I think

      Idk I delete it on sight.

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        On any non Mac native filesystem I think. Anything that MacOS can read but isn’t the original filesystem (it used to be HFS, a long time ago, I have no idea what it is nowadays) will be peppered with those metadata files, disk, floppy, thumb drive, whatever.

      • Ging@anarchist.nexus
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        3 days ago

        Very cool, I’m still kinda confused why .DS_Store is the identifier for such a folder but still cool Thanks

        • vodka@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          edit-2
          3 days ago

          It’s a file that is never visible on Mac systems, it stands for Desktop Service. It just saves stuff like your zoom settings for the specific folder, metadata for the files in the folder etc

          It is automatically generated in every single folder you access on a Mac system that isn’t a native Apple file system. So for example a Windows formatted USB stick, or a network share.

          It is however visible on non-mac systems as a file called “.DS_Store”

        • bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          On Unix and Unix-like systems when a file or directory name starts with a . its hidden by default.

          This convention is maintained in the UI for MacOS so you don’t see the .DS_Store directory unless you ask to show hidden files.

          • luciferofastora@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            2 days ago

            Apparently not even then, in the case of .DS_Store. Another comment quoted from Wikipedia:

            Starting at macOS 10.12 16A238m, Finder will not display .DS_Store files (even if you ran defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES in Terminal to show hidden system files).

            Wikipedia