dot hidden files?

[msprygada]

I keep seeing . hidden files in iMatch viewer along side my images. They start with a dot and have an extension of jpg or arw (Sony RAW extension). Even though it is a jpg, you cannot view them. There is a matching named image file without the dot and that is a valid image file. I cannot see these dot files in File Explorer and when I delete them in iMatch, it says they are hidden files. 

What are these and where are they coming from? Should I be deleting them? If not, how do I hide them in the iMatch viewer.

Thanks in advance.

[Mario]

You mean files named like ".hidden.jpg" or ".jpg.hidden"?  It is not clear from your description.

Anyway, IMatch does not create such files.
What kind of software do you use to create or edit these files? Maybe this is some sort of sidecar or something?

[msprygada]

Here is a screen shot of one of the files, the real file on the left and the dot file on the right. Right file starts with a dot. Hopefully you can see it.

But if you say that iMatch does not create these, then I will just delete them and try to keep an eye to see if they get recreated.

Thanks for the reply.

[Mario]

IMatch does not create these files. The only files IMatch creates a .XMP sidecar files with metadata when needed.

[RobiWan]

Maybe I'm wrong, but typically dot files comes from unix-systems (Linux, Mac...)

Robert

[Mario]

Maybe I'm wrong, but typically dot files comes from unix-systems (Linux, Mac...)

Yes. But I have so far not encountered this type of file. Adding a second _ in front and then making the entire file name including the original extension an extension? Sounds like some sort of a setting file or similar created by an image editor of sorts?

[mopperle]

As Robert said, these are files from your Sony created on a Mac, see here:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4475813

[thrinn]

I keep seeing . hidden files in iMatch viewer along side my images.

Just to mention it: If you don't want to have these files in your IMatch database at all, there is also a global setting to exclude hidden and system files. Keep in mind that you have to rescan the respective folders after changing this setting to remove already indexed hidden files from your database. Also, this setting impacts all future scans and can not be restricted to specific folders or file name patterns, so you should make sure that there are really no files marked as "hidden" that you want to have in your database.

[Mario]

If these files are produced by a SONY application and are basically useless, I would delete them, unless the SONY software needs them for something.

Heck, I hate it when software pollutes the file system with proprietary files and uses misleading extensions like .jpg.
I assume these files are not JPEG files and thus should use a dedicated extension. SONY: Don't do that.

[msprygada]

I wonder if they are getting created by Capture One, my RAW editor? Hmmmmm

[Mario]

There are many C1 users in the IMatch user base. Nobody every reported these files.
If you have used the SONY software mentioned or moved your files from a Mac, that's a more likely source for these files.