Destination Path Too Long

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
1

I have been trying to copy a large number of videos over to my new MyBookLive. Most copied ok, but there were serveral that did not, and displayed this error:

path_too_long.png

I know what the problem is, and that is that the total filename length, including the complete path, cannot exceed 260 characters.  This is what is stopping my copy. I know this cause I initially had this problem just saving the files on my PC… I was saving them in MyDocuments, which has a long path name, and had to move them to a folder directly in the root directory of my C drive to shorten the overall path and file name.

So, now it appears the problem has surfaced again when copying to MyBookLive. I suspect the problem is caused by the long network path name… ie, Network\MYBOOKLIVE\Public\new_folder\long original path name\long original filename.

Yes, I can probably fix this by renaming the original files.  But the problem is that I do not know what files are affected. The warning dialog offers two option: SKIP and CANCEL - which, to me, mean exactly the same.  Furthermore, for me to work with the problem files, I need to know what they are… and this dialog truncates the names so it is difficult for me to know exactly which file(s) are at fault.

Also, note check box at the bottom of the dialog: “do this for all current items found (50!)”.  So, I can either waste all my time approving these one at a time, or click the check box.  Doing the latter, gives me no idea which files were skipped… unless there is some sort of file copy log showing the problem files during the copy - is there such a thing?

Is there any way to positively identify all the files that failed to copy?

What is the length of the network path name that is appended (prefixed) to the files I am copying? This will help me to rename my files appropriately.

2 Likes
2

Sure.  Open a CMD window and issue the dir /s > output.txt 

You can then open the text file and see all the file names.

3

Tony, thanks for the reply, but dir /s will just display all files, recursively through all sub directories.

It does not help me with the operation in progress…ie, copying all the files and getting the error dialog. This dialog is still open on my system, as I have not actioned it yet, nor any of the 50 other problem files.  I need a solution to this now while the dialog is still open, so I can see which 50 files have pathnames too long.  Thus, I need a log file to tell me which files did not copy.

4

You can try skipping the file and also checking the box to do the same for all the others with the same issue. They will stay on the source folder, then you can rename then. 

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That solution would work fine if I was moving the files… as I am copying them, ALL the files would still be in the source folder, including the skipped ones.

It is beginning to look like I am going to have to go though this for each of the 50 files, and try to ID them by their partial file names.  What a PITA!

6

Paul, mysuggestion would allow you to see the filenames and paths.  You could scan through quite quickly and see the longest ones.

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Thanks for the suggestion… the problem is I copied over a LOT of files - 67,159 files and 12,763 folders (204 GB).  It would be very time consuming to verify everything to see what copied over and what did not.  But in the end, that is what I ended up doing…  opened two windows - one for the network drive, and one for my computer.  Then started at the top level folders and compared file and folder counts… any that did not balance, I inspected further to see what files were missing… a very long process… took me several hours. But it is all straightened now.

Wish there was some better control and logging when copying files!  Would have saved me a lot.

Moral:  don’t copy large amounts of files at one time.

You can close this thread.

8

I had a similar problem last week. Thought that maybe it could have been a malware (correct me if I’m wrong) or programs that keep sticking to your computer after you’ve erased them. I googled for answers and I found one after 2 hours of searching. I tried Long Path Tool. It actually worked. I don’t know if I’m suppose to be posting links since I’m new but it’s from pathttoodeep(dot)com…

Hope that helped! Good luck!

9

Thanks very much for the info and the link… I will definitely look into it.

I also found a new file manager tool that is SO MUCH better than the MS Windows Explorer…  It is called XYplorer, and is totally configurable to your needs.  XYplorer dot com

it can also log all operations:

http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?p=75917

10

hi

        am having this problem from very long time but 

Long Path Tool helped me in this situation.
http://PathTooDeep.comall u guys must try to fix this problem