diff --git a/owlplug-client/src/main/java/com/owlplug/core/tasks/plugins/discovery/PluginFileCollector.java b/owlplug-client/src/main/java/com/owlplug/core/tasks/plugins/discovery/PluginFileCollector.java
index f3ffd90e..7448ae08 100644
--- a/owlplug-client/src/main/java/com/owlplug/core/tasks/plugins/discovery/PluginFileCollector.java
+++ b/owlplug-client/src/main/java/com/owlplug/core/tasks/plugins/discovery/PluginFileCollector.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Comparator;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
@@ -59,7 +60,12 @@ public List<PluginFile> collect(String directoryPath, PluginFormat pluginFormat)
       PluginFileFormatResolver pluginFileResolver = new PluginFileFormatResolver(runtimePlatform, pluginFormat);
       baseFiles.sort(Comparator.comparing(File::getAbsolutePath));
 
-      for (File file : baseFiles) {
+      List<File> filteredFiles = baseFiles.stream()
+                                     // Filter out HFS metadata files starting with "._"
+                                     .filter(file -> !file.getName().startsWith("._"))
+                                     .toList();
+
+      for (File file : filteredFiles) {
         /*
          *  Lookup for nested plugins in bundles and prevent them from being referenced multiple times.
          *  For example a VST3 bundle file can contain a .vst3 file for windows, but we
diff --git a/owlplug-client/src/main/java/com/owlplug/project/tasks/ProjectSyncTask.java b/owlplug-client/src/main/java/com/owlplug/project/tasks/ProjectSyncTask.java
index c7950af4..1142c099 100644
--- a/owlplug-client/src/main/java/com/owlplug/project/tasks/ProjectSyncTask.java
+++ b/owlplug-client/src/main/java/com/owlplug/project/tasks/ProjectSyncTask.java
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ protected TaskResult call() throws Exception {
 
     projectDAO.deleteAll();
 
-
+    // Collect files from all project directories
     List<File> baseFiles = new ArrayList<>();
     for (String directory : projectDirectories) {
       File dir = new File(directory);
@@ -64,9 +64,15 @@ protected TaskResult call() throws Exception {
       }
     }
 
-    this.setMaxProgress(baseFiles.size());
+    // Filter collected files
+    List<File> filteredFiles = baseFiles.stream()
+                                   // Filter out HFS metadata files starting with "._"
+                                   .filter(file -> !file.getName().startsWith("._"))
+                                   .toList();
+
+    this.setMaxProgress(filteredFiles.size());
 
-    for (File file : baseFiles) {
+    for (File file : filteredFiles) {
       this.commitProgress(1);
       AbletonProjectExplorer abletonExplorer = new AbletonProjectExplorer();
       ReaperProjectExplorer reaperExplorer = new ReaperProjectExplorer();