How to prevent the creation of .DS_Store files on network volumes

August 19th, 2005

This KnowledgeBase article explains how to prevent OS X from creating new .DS_Store files when opening folders on remote volumes mounted using SMB/CIFS, AFP, NFS, and WebDAV. The creation of .DS_Store files (and more so, ._AppleDouble files which are not covered in this hint) is frequently the source of complaints against Mac users, who often leave a trail of these files scattered throughout the filesystem when “visiting” a Windows computer. Even with this hint in place, the .DS_Store files will continue to be created on local volumes (which is a good thing).

To prevent the creation of these files, open the Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

It may be necessary to log out and back in, or even to restart the computer (which is what the article states), for the change to take effect.

Note: Most of the settings controlled by data in .DS_Store files are “cosmetic” in nature — for example, Finder window position, view style, icon position, etc. However, .DS_Store files in OS X also store Finder “comments” so in this sense, disabling .DS_Store files may result in loss of data.

Posted in Apple, Filesystem, Mac OS X | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “How to prevent the creation of .DS_Store files on network volumes”

  1. Alison Keeler Says:
    August 21st, 2007 at 10:03 PM

    One’s first step in wisdom is to kuesteon everything – and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.
    G00gle

  2. Chadwick Astorino Says:
    December 23rd, 2009 at 2:31 AM

    Thanks for posting this article. I’m unquestionably frustrated with struggling to search out germane and brilliant commentary on this topic. Everybody now goes to the very far extremes to either drive home their viewpoint that either: everyone else in the planet is wrong, or two that everyone but them does not really understand the situation. Many thanks for your succinct, relevant insight.

  3. Beryl Leishman Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 12:54 PM

    I love Prezi! It is so nice to have a new option for visual presentations. Just a couple suggestions:
    1. have an option to print sections so that this can be done if necessary.
    2. when you want to delete a presentation it asks if you are sure but ther is no “Yes” button, only “No.” So not able to delete presentations.

  4. Bennett Melland Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 4:25 PM

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