Some macOS users have encountered copyright infringement notices when trying to upload their own files to Google’s cloud storage service Drive. A disgruntled Reddit user recently reported that a ‘.DS_Store’ file on their Google Drive was flagged by the search giant for violating its copyright infringement policy. Also, this isn’t the first time this issue has been encountered, as some macOS users reported experiencing similar issues last month.
What is .DS_Store File?
.DS_Store is a metadata file that Apple users can see when transferring folders and archives from macOS to other operating systems such as Windows or Linux. MacOS’s Finder automatically creates such files to store metadata and special attributes, such as icon information and the location of background images. Finder then uses this information to create a layout based on the user’s preferences.
Most of the time, .DS_Store files are hidden in the Finder in the same way that desktop.ini and thumbs.db files are hidden in Windows 10 and Windows 11. But Microsoft’s Explorer has settings that allow users to see these ‘hidden’ files.
Currently, it is not clear why Google Drive flags DS_Store files for copyright infringement when uploaded to cloud storage.
While news outlet BleepingComputer was unable to reproduce the issue, it believes that Google’s reliance on checksums to track copyright content could lead to a potential hash-conflict. If a copyrighted file and a regular file share the same hash, this can trigger false violations.
A similar incident occurred recently when Google Drive mistakenly flagged nearly empty files containing only a few numbers for violating the company’s copyright infringement files. According to a Google spokesperson who spoke to the news source, the company discovered and fixed the issue in January that only affected a small number of Drive files.
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