Extended Attributes - What does the "@" symbol mean in macOS file attributes - MacOS X Software https://www.tweaking4all.com/forum/macos-x-software/extended-attributes-what-does-the-symbol-mean-in-macos-file-attributes/ Tweaking4All.com Discussion Board en-US Tue, 21 Jul 2026 01:07:05 +0000 wpForo 60 Extended Attributes - What does the "@" symbol mean in macOS file attributes https://www.tweaking4all.com/forum/macos-x-software/extended-attributes-what-does-the-symbol-mean-in-macos-file-attributes/#post-3900 Wed, 19 Jan 2022 12:41:09 +0000 Short version: it indicates that there are extended attributes for this file, which are not displayed by default.

You can make them visible with

ls -@l

 

or

xattr <filename>

 

The extended attributes can have several purposes, but for example can hold meta data like that the file was downloaded from a certain website, or that certain access rights are allowed or denied ... etc.

I wouldn't recommend doing so, but you can actually clear/remove all the extended attributes:

xattr -c <filename>

 

Or remove just one of them:

xattr -d <attribute> <filename>

 

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