diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/materialized-xattrs.md b/changelog/unreleased/materialized-xattrs.md
index 1412b4e7f5..c42b475d06 100644
--- a/changelog/unreleased/materialized-xattrs.md
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/materialized-xattrs.md
@@ -2,4 +2,5 @@ Enhancement: Introduce ini file based metadata backend
 
 We added a new metadata backend for the decomposed storage driver that uses an additional `.ini` file to store file metadata. This allows scaling beyond some filesystem specific xattr limitations.
 
-https://github.com/cs3org/reva/pull/3649
\ No newline at end of file
+https://github.com/cs3org/reva/pull/3674
+https://github.com/cs3org/reva/pull/3649
diff --git a/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/backend/backend_suite_test.go b/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/backend/backend_suite_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9c0695a325
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/backend/backend_suite_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+package backend_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+func TestBackend(t *testing.T) {
+	RegisterFailHandler(Fail)
+	RunSpecs(t, "Backend Suite")
+}
diff --git a/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/backend/backend_test.go b/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/backend/backend_test.go
index dfa6ccf3a7..b2717143a2 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/backend/backend_test.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/backend/backend_test.go
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ var _ = Describe("Backend", func() {
 
 	Describe("IniBackend", func() {
 		BeforeEach(func() {
-			backend = xattrsBackend.IniBackend{}
+			backend = xattrsBackend.NewIniBackend()
 		})
 
 		Describe("Set", func() {
@@ -81,6 +81,15 @@ var _ = Describe("Backend", func() {
 				Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
 				Expect(string(content)).To(Equal("foo = baz\n"))
 			})
+
+			It("encodes where needed", func() {
+				err := backend.Set(file, "user.ocis.cs.foo", "bar")
+				Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+
+				content, err := os.ReadFile(metafile)
+				Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+				Expect(string(content)).To(Equal("user.ocis.cs.foo = YmFy\n"))
+			})
 		})
 
 		Describe("SetMultiple", func() {
@@ -105,6 +114,20 @@ var _ = Describe("Backend", func() {
 				lines := strings.Split(strings.Trim(string(content), "\n"), "\n")
 				Expect(lines).To(ConsistOf("foo = bar", "baz = qux"))
 			})
+
+			It("encodes where needed", func() {
+				err := backend.SetMultiple(file, map[string]string{
+					"user.ocis.something.foo": "bar",
+					"user.ocis.cs.foo":        "bar",
+					"user.ocis.md.foo":        "bar",
+					"user.ocis.grant.foo":     "bar",
+				})
+				Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+
+				content, err := os.ReadFile(metafile)
+				Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+				Expect(strings.ReplaceAll(string(content), " ", "")).To(Equal("user.ocis.something.foo=bar\nuser.ocis.cs.foo=YmFy\nuser.ocis.md.foo=YmFy\nuser.ocis.grant.foo=YmFy\n"))
+			})
 		})
 
 		Describe("All", func() {
@@ -191,5 +214,21 @@ var _ = Describe("Backend", func() {
 				Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
 			})
 		})
+
+		Describe("UsesExternalMetadataFile", func() {
+			It("returns true", func() {
+				Expect(backend.UsesExternalMetadataFile()).To(BeTrue())
+			})
+		})
+
+		Describe("IsMetaFile", func() {
+			It("returns true", func() {
+				Expect(backend.IsMetaFile("foo.ini")).To(BeTrue())
+			})
+
+			It("returns false", func() {
+				Expect(backend.IsMetaFile("foo.txt")).To(BeFalse())
+			})
+		})
 	})
 })