Cleverfiles. Huh? How do I get things out of there. And why are they there?

[TuckerdogAVL]

I just found clever files because I used the "About this Mac" > Storage > Reduce Clutter> Manage ... I did that because my Big Sur TM incremental backups are painfully slow and was trying to learn something about possible fixes.

I would like to access some of the mp4 that have strings out about 25 letters and numbers. I have no idea why they are in my system>etc etc. I cannot see them using the Finder. I'm assuming they are hidden, but I don't recall the secret in seeing hidden files. Can someone help me figure this out?

I dragged a couple to my desktop. I see them, but when I click nothing happens. I'm now using BigSur where apparently Apple has decided that APPLETV is the only way to view your own files (like they screwed up iTunes). These aren't full length movies, tv shows, purchased, rented, shared... they are things I have created using iMovie (And can't WAIT to use iMovie now in Big Sur and see where that takes me.

Then, there are these: Quicktime, .mov, m4a that give me these messages.
Are these all saved someplace else (on my Externals, in iMovie, in projects) and these are just garbage that can be deleted? Or, is this one of those *See Footnote, exception, hurdle, hoop whoops if deleted.


So, what's going on here? There is quite a chunk of storage space being used and I can't apparently do anything that Big Sur suggest I do. Delete causes spins. Rename isn't allowed. Get info just tells me the info. And there are documents, remnants. I really would rather not spend months trying to see these and remove them.

 

[Atomic.Fusion]

I don’t personally see these files as movie or video files. Just because somewhere in the middle there is a .mov, doesn’t tell me it is a media file. Rather they look like files created by iMovie for databasing/cataloguing purposes.

The file to be concerned with, for instance, would be img_0195.mov, . If you no longer have that file then I think it would be OK to clean up any other that looks like what you posted.

 

[TuckerdogAVL]

I don’t personally see these files as movie or video files. Just because somewhere in the middle there is a .mov, doesn’t tell me it is a media file. Rather they look like files created by iMovie for databasing/cataloguing purposes.

The file to be concerned with, for instance, would be img_0195.mov, . If you no longer have that file then I think it would be OK to clean up any other that looks like what you posted.

Yes I have the actual movie files. I think one was a YouTube video, so it may have been something that was created for that. So, any idea as to whether some of the other doc files that are long strings or in these long-string folders could be deleted? Would open up about 50 gb.

Another thing I don't understand is why the files/folders that are saved in dropbox show up as taking up space on my HD. I thought that was the whole point of putting them in the dropbox (they are sync'd by the way).

 

[AHB]

If you know that you aren't personally using the files associated with these string files, I would not see any reason you could not clean them out. With a broadband connection it wouldn't take long to recache them if you stumble on them again, whatever is using them online and/or if you aren't working with them in a document scenario. It would be disappointing if one in the batch actually was part of a project you have been working on.

As for the Dropbox folder, I don't believe that is associated with the online site and app Dropbox. This link will give you a better idea:

Access a Mac user’s Public folder and Drop Box

On your Mac, use Public folders or Drop Box folders to share files with other Mac users.

support.apple.com

 

[TuckerdogAVL]

Here I am, 2 years later about to transfer files from a 1TB Fusion to the new 512GB M2. And I just ran into hundreds of these files. Can I delete them? I'd rather delete them now then for them to show up clogging the system.