[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnkBYpLu_NOj7Uq0-acvLgWhxF8AUEIJbo"
 nickname="Chris"
 subject="comment 2"
 date="2013-05-10T04:01:38Z"
 content="""
After reading [this](http://git-annex.branchable.com/internals/):

> Also in direct mode, some additional data is stored in these directories. .cache files contain cached file stats used in detecting when a file has changed, and .map files contain a list of file(s) in the work directory that contain the key.

I decided that indeed, deleting the `.map` and `.cache` files should do the trick, so I deleted them and direct mode works again.

Still not sure what went wrong with the original sync, but at least I got things back on track.
"""]]
