We occasionally receive requests from customers regarding the management of .DS_Store files. The primary reason for this is that by default, macOS computers do not request these files have the hidden attribute set, since on macOS the default setting is that files that begin with a . (dot) are not visible when browsing.

However, this is not the case on Windows, so Windows computers accessing the same directories on the server will see the .DS_Store files when browsing. You can read about what these files do at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.DS_Store

If one were to use the Windows Server File Server Resource Manager File Screening feature to block the creation of .DS_Store files, copies of folders containing a .DS_Store file would fail.

The reason for this is when an macOS computer starts to copy a folder that contains a .DS_Store file, the .DS_Store file is usually the first file that the Finder will try to copy and when that file copy is blocked and that failure returned to the macOS computer, the Finder will halt the entire copy job.

Apple has published a knowledge base article about how to configure macOS to not request the creation of .DS_Store files on a network share. This article is at

https://support.apple.com/HT208209

It's important to keep in mind this macOS command only applies to network shares, macOS will continue to create .DS_Store files in local directories. If such a directory is copied to a server, the preexisting .DS_Store file will be copied to the server as well.