.TRA Files in Root of Card. What Are They?

[The Arsonist]

Running the latest Magic Lantern on a 50D with a Sandisk Extreme Card. My computer is a Macbook Pro running 10.8 Mountain Lion. My card is building up quite a few strange files in the root after a few days of installing the latest Magic Lantern. I don't believe I got these files on the older Magic Lantern versions. They are:

APDIS~1
~1.TRA
~1.TEM
~1.APD
~~2.TRA
~~~3.TRA
~~~~4.TRA
~~~~~5.TRA

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling ML, and the files were gone, but soon built up again. I don't believe I've seen a 6.TRA yet.

I opened the files in a code editor, and they all seem to have some sort of OS X association. The APD and TEM files mention iPhoto files (com.apple.quarantine0006;50f8a1c7;iPhoto;) and all of the files mention "Mac OS X" and "This resource fork intentionally left blank".

The APDIS~1 file seems to be an apple identifier for the physical disk, so I will probably not delete that one.

I am wondering if it is safe to delete these files, and if there is a way to keep them from appearing, or if it is just better to leave them be. I'm going to experiment and see if they are created when iPhoto or Lightroom access the card.

Thanks for looking at my question!

[scrax]

What do you use to import your picture?
I suspect 10.8 is the problem, I have 10.7 and never seen that thing
Some other user reported problems when importing with 10.8 and iphoto

[The Arsonist]

I generally copy the files off with finder to their respective folder on my mac, then sync that folder in Lightroom. However, if Lightroom is open when I put the card in, the import dialog pops up in Lightroom. I will try turning that off.

[The Arsonist]

I've done a clean install of ML on my card and turned off auto import in Lightroom. I have done about 10 imports and so far no .TRA files. I also suspect they may have been generated when I remove the card from the camera before ML finishes with it, but haven't done that yet.

[scrax]

I suspect it's iphoto, since you found that iPhoto string. With Lightroom never had them too, but on 10.6 or 10.7 not yet updated to 10.8.