IMPORTANT: Windows Users & Cleaning USB AppleDouble Files

If you bought a USB, and you use a Windows machine, there may appear some AppleDouble files of the content. These are hidden on Mac, but they appear on the USB on a Windows machine and are usually around 4 KB in size. An example may be the following:

REAL FILE NAME: Venerable_Day_of_the_Sun_#19

APPLEDOUBLE: ._Venerable_Day_of_the_Sun_#19

AppleDouble files, often appearing as hidden ._ prefixed files, are 4KB metadata files created by macOS when moving files to non-native, non-HFS+/APFS formats like FAT32, ExFAT, or network drives. They store extended attributes, resource forks, and Finder info. These 4KB files are benign, though they cause clutter on Windows/Linux. The reason they exist is because I work on a Mac and it does this automatically. On my end, Mac hides them by default — so I never see them. But Windows users may see them, especially if you have the “view hidden items” option enabled in your File Explorer.

So, how do we get rid of these annoying useless copycats??

The solution to this is very simple — just delete them! But make sure you are deleting ONLY the AppleDouble files (prefix ._) and NOT the actual file. The problem is that manual deletion can be tedious, so below are all the options to troubleshoot this and solve it:

SOLUTION #1: Hide the Files

• Open File Explorer and go to the View tab.

• Uncheck Hidden items in the “Show/hide” group to hide these files.

SOLUTION #2: Run a CleanMyUSB.bat File

This involves copying the below text and pasting it unformatted into a plain text editor, then saving the file as a .bat file (you can name it ‘CleanMyUSB.bat’) and then running that file by double clicking on it. This targets all files in all folders and does a quick scan to delete ONLY them. Text to copy is below:

@echo off

echo Cleaning Mac metadata remnants (._ files)...

:: Targets all files starting with ._ in all folders

del /s /q /f /a:h “._*”

echo.

echo Done! All phantom files have been removed.

pause

SOLUTION #3: Manual Command Prompt Method

This is for users who don’t want to run a .bat file. Plug in the USB and open it in File Explorer. Click the Address Bar at the top of the window, type cmd, and press Enter. In the black window that appears, type the following exactly and press Enter:

del /s /q /f /a:h ._*

Once the command finishes, you can close the window.

SOLUTION #4: PowerShell Method

This is the most powerful method and is less likely to be blocked by Windows “SmartScreen” security. Right-click the Start button and select Terminal or PowerShell. Type the following command, replacing D: with the actual drive letter of the USB:

Get-ChildItem -Path D:\ -Recurse -Force -Filter “._*” | Remove-Item -Force

Press Enter.

Final Thoughts

Overall any of these solutions shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. If you plug the USB into a Mac again, it may re-create these files — so just FYI. Otherwise they are harmless and more of a visual nuisance than anything.