Stop .DS_Store Files on Network Shares and USB Drives

01Command

$ defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool true && defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores -bool true

02What it does

Finder writes .DS_Store to remember folder view settings, icon positions and window geometry; on shared NAS folders these invisible files show up for Windows users and pollute sync tools. The com.apple.desktopservices keys tell Finder to skip local .DS_Store creation on network and USB volumes while keeping the behavior on your internal disk. Existing .DS_Store files are not deleted — clean them separately (e.g. find … -name .DS_Store -delete).

03Risk

04Undo

$ defaults delete com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores && defaults delete com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores

05Sources

• macOS setup dotfiles (.macos)
  mathiasbynens/dotfiles (GitHub) · community · 2026-09-17
  Evidence: Contains 'defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool true' and DSDontWriteUSBStores with comments about avoiding .DS_Store litter on network and USB volumes.
• macOS defaults - read, write and delete macOS user defaults
  SS64 · technical · 2026-09-17
  Evidence: Shows `defaults write domain key -bool value` for per-domain preference keys such as com.apple.desktopservices, with `defaults delete` to revert.

Last verified: 2026-09-19 · Category: Files & Folders

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