For some reason, whenever I download a file on a Mac and then navigate to the file on a Windows PC, the file is always accompanied by a hidden file with exactly the same name as the downloaded file (right down to the file extension) except for an additional “._” tacked onto the beginning.
So, for instance, I download
- Teddy.png
on a Mac, and, when I go to the file’s location in Windows Exploder, I see
- Teddy.png
- ._Teddy.png [hidden file]
These extra hidden files are always exactly 4 KiB (4096 B) in size, no matter what the size of the original downloaded file.
This happens on Windows 8.1...
...on Windows 7...
...on Windows XP...
...and on Windows 2000.
(It probably happens on other Windows versions as well, but these are the ones I’ve specifically encountered it with.)
This never happens with files downloaded on a Windows PC, no matter what version of Windows said PC is running.
Deleting these phantom 4-KiB hidden files is a pain in the ass, especially if I’ve been downloading a lot of files recently (and thus ending up with a lot of these phantom files).
Why is Windows generating these extra useless files whenever it encounters a file downloaded on a Mac, and how do I stop it from doing so?
(The drive the files are being saved to is a 64-GB exFAT-formatted USB3 flashdrive, if that helps.)