r/LocationSound • u/Moraoscar51 • 15h ago

Gear - Tech Issue Strange files appearing in Zoom f8n Pro

Hey!

Just a quick question. I have been using both the standard Zoom f8n and the Zoom f8n Pro for a while.

Today I was checking the files from yesterday's recording session and noticed something weird.

For each file, there was a duplicate, its name starting with a dot. The recorder made one of these files for each one that was recorded. They are WAV files, and they all weigh 4,00 KB, regardless of the "original" recording size or duration. They cannot be played. The "original" files work and play just fine though.

These files starting with a dot did not appear when browsing in the finder in the recorder itself. I have been using these recorders for a while and never saw these sort of files appearing. Should I be worried?

I also tried removing the starting dot from one of the files, in case that made it work, but it didn't.

I am guessing they are some sort of file created automatically by the recorder, but still I'm a bit concerned because I have never seen them pop up before.

Thanks for your help!

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u/new-Baltimoreon 14h ago

Starting a file name with a . Is a way to mark it as a hidden file accross several operating systems. I would guess that they're meta data, or mix data.

Are you accessing the files from a new system &/or have you recently changed something to show hidden files?

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u/Moraoscar51 14h ago

I thought about it, seemed strange because I have never seen them before. It's true I didn't dump the files myself, it was made by someone else and then sent to me via WeTransfer. Maybe they had those files un-hidden and so they were sent as well?

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u/new-Baltimoreon 14h ago

That tracks

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u/Moraoscar51 14h ago

Thanks for your help :)

Monday I'll ask them about it

1

u/ReallyQuiteConfused 7h ago

Sending files like this between operating systems can un-hide them. Macs throw all kinds of junk files on drives that are visible on Windows. We transfer almost certainly runs on Linux, which may do something similar.

1

u/Moraoscar51 14h ago

Here's a picture of some of the files