What is .DS_Store and why am I suspecting it has broken my web project?

Question

I am working on a college assignment and am having a huge problem. Everything was fine until I noticed a strange '.DS_Store' file in the main folder containing all my images, html, css and .js files.

Now my webpages look like this:

An old screen grab - I had just finished adding a custom sprite and tweaking a flexslider before this all happened:

I was trying to find some more information about this '.DS_Store' file. I can't find much online. Nor can I find any postings about similar problems. I did find this though but am hesitant to start deleting files from terminal.

However, I strongly suspect it has something to do with this '.DS_Store' file.

I have tried to solve this problem by:

• Importing all images back into photoshop and saving to a new folder.
• Importing all code and script to a pain-text editor and then back into Coda, Wrangler, Dreamweaver on Mac and Notepad++ on a Windows machine).

I am still getting the same effect when I try to view the pages in Chrome, IE, Mozilla - broken images and no formatting. Not compiling.

Does anyone know anything about this? I would HUGELY appreciate some information on how I can fix this.

Answer 1

.DS_store is just a hidden file with info about the system. If you haven't touched it, there is probably another problem. Maybe you moved a folder? Made a typo? Added or removed code?

Answer 2

.DS_STORE would not have broken your web project at all.

From wikipedia:

DS_Store files are automatically created by Mac OSX Finder in browsed directories. These files contain information about system configuration.

System configuration files would not affect your web project at all.