Files with "._00_" prefix

[TimWright]

When I do a batch process to resize files some of them are saved with a prefix "._00_" before the original file name.  This seems to happen more when the output files are small (in this case 100 x 100 pixels).  Out of a batch of 100 files sometimes 30 suffer this problem, but other times it will be only one or two.  And it is always different files even if I run the batch again.

I can manually rename the output files by removing the "._00_" prefix one at a time and the JPG files are not corrupt, so it only seems to be a problem with the renaming of the files.

I have had this problem for a considerable time - ever since TP9 was released.  I have just migrated to a new computer and I hoped that the issue would go away, but sadly it is exactly the same.  Both my old and new computers run Windows 8.1 64 bit.

Is there a workaround to this problem?

[Daan van Rooijen]

Hi Tim,

I've never seen or heard about this problem and I run resize batches regularly.

What type of files are you resizing and what are some typical filenames?
What other batch steps do you apply?

What are your settings on the Output Details page of the batch dialog? (you may want to turn off 'use wizard dialogs' in Options | General, so you get a tabbed dialog).

If any network drives are involved, see what happens if you use local drives only.
If you are using any security software (antivirus, backup) that may interfere with intermediate files written by TP, disable that to see if that helps.

[TimWright]

Daan, thanks for the reply.  The files I am resizing are jpegs 1000x667 pixels.  The only batch step is the resize to 100x100 pixels - nothing else.  The original file names are, for example, arc14-0001.jpg.  When the problem occurs the output file will be ._00_arc14-0001.jpg.  My original files are in a folder called 'Images' and I am sending the output files to a folder called 'Thumbs'.

In the output dialog the output format is .jpg:JPEG Compressed.  Everything else is blank except 'Specific folder' for the output, and the saved set name.  The JPEG options are set to:

Quality: 71  (Use original quality is off)
Smoothing: 0
Sub-sampling 2:2(default)
Progressive JPEG: off
Remove file information: off
Suppress JFIF header: off

Just for fun I did a test batch of 100 images numbered arc14-0001.jpg to arc14-00100.jpg.  Seven images suffered the problem on the first run: ._00_arc14-0008.jpg, and also 0012, 0014, 0057, 0060, 0072, 0099.

I ran the same batch to a new folder immediately after and this time there were eight failures: 0024, 0040, 0050, 0058, 0060, 0075, 0090, 0100

I am not using a network drive.  The laptop I am using now is brand new (this is day 2) so it is pretty clean, but I had exactly the same problem with my old one.  

I have McAfee antivirus installed by the computer vendor (Dell).  Same for my old computer too.  I disabled McAfee and - YES!!!  All thumbnails were present and correct.  Same for a second batch.  Then I re-enabled McAfee and ran it again and had fourteen failures.  So it seems that McAfee is causing the problem.  And I guess I have answered my own question regarding a work-around solution.  Do you, however, have any idea if there might be a more elegant solution (ie. not involving disabling the intivirus every time I run a batch)?

[Daan van Rooijen]

Well, I'm not too familiar with McAfee's, but if it has any advanced settings that you can tweak, I'd try to disable monitoring of thumbs9.exe, and/or the monitoring of files in your photo folders (JPG and any other formats that you may use there).

I'm glad that you found the cause so quickly! Weird errors like this are often caused by a rare combination of circumstances and are hard to figure out.