Xattrs are marvellous features of macOS, but unless a developer is aware of their lability and how to preserve them, they aren’t good places to store metadata of any importance.
metadata
Need to clean documents of metadata, remove versions, and zero their datestamps? Here’s the utility to help, when used wisely.
Updates to two utilities to create and edit metadata in extended attributes, which work better with Spotlight search. Now compatible with Catalina.
Is it worth entering author name, title, keywords and so on in a document’s Properties?
Does using xattr flags disrupt Spotlight indexing, and how are those flags respected using different methods of copying a file?
So how can apps and users preserve file metadata using these xattr flags? Part of the solution is straightforward, but there’s a major limitation.
For the last six years, extended attributes have had flags to determine how they’re handled when copied. Here are the details, and how this affects iCloud.
Seven updated apps covering iCloud, Spotlight searching, checking permissions, and more. Mostly for Mojave fixes, but worth it for other users too.
First full releases of two free tools to edit metadata which can greatly help Spotlight search. Complete with docs and Help books.
I claimed (from a guess) that there might be 0.8 GB of xattrs in my Home folder. I was wildly wrong: there are actually over 3.8 GB. Here’s how xattrs are distributed.
