They’re invisible in the Finder, even when it’s showing hidden files. They’re present in many of the folders in your Home folder. And they can do bad things like break your backups.
.DS_Store
How to prefix a file or folder name with a . to hide it, how to use chflags, and how they differ. And what are all those .DS_Store and ._ files doing?
Introduced in the Finder in Mac OS X, these hidden and invisible files have been quietly causing havoc with backups, revision control systems, and more.
Finder Comments are accessible, easy to use, and unreliable because they rely primarily on data stored in a hidden file. Regular Comment extended attributes are more reliable.
Which of the cluster of hidden files and folders at the top level of an APFS volume should be preserved or copied to a copy of that volume?
Many folders have them. They’re so invisible that you can’t even see them when you show hidden files. And the only way you know they’re there is when they cause problems.
Useful metadata shown in two places, and available as columns in List views. But some things don’t match up, and information changes in front of your eyes.
So convenient to use – edit them in the Comments: section of Finder’s Get Info dialog. But as reliable as loose scraps of paper, and as easily lost.
The Eclectic Light Company 