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Suddenly can't name a document longer than 20 characters

Anonymous
2020-12-08T19:47:47+00:00

Tried to save a new Word document with a longish name but got a character limit notice. Was unable to do so.

Very weird behavior. Then I opened an existing document with a longer name and tried to resave it with the longer name but was unable to do that, either . . . nothing happened. 

Seems like a virus but Malwarebytes says I don't have any problems.

[Moderator note: updated with the correct operating system]

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-09T03:05:43+00:00

    By default the length of the entire path is limited to 260 characters, so if your folder is nested quite deep, and/or if the folder names are long, the names of files in the folder might be limited. You can change this; see https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-10/enable-long-file-name-support-windows-10 or see https://www.howtogeek.com/266621/how-to-make-windows-10-accept-file-paths-over-260-characters/ for step-by-step instructions.

    40+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2020-12-08T20:25:59+00:00

    New wrinkle. I seem to be able to save using a longer name in a different location but not the folder I want to save it to.

    I have multiple versions of Word on my computer and I prefer working in 2003 (I know, I know) so I tried in 2007 and had the same problem.

    Then, when I opened the crippled document in version 365 and tried to save to that same location I did NOT get the "file name too long" message but rather the "file cannot be saved to this location" message. Once I got that message, I was able to save the file with a longer name in a different folder.

    Very strange...

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2020-12-08T23:25:21+00:00

    No illegal characters. To a folder I had just created on my local drive.

    I discovered that I was able to save to another folder and no longer had the problem with the character limit so it seems there is something fishy with that folder. But that seems particularly odd to me. Like maybe some glitch on the disk?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2020-12-08T20:15:29+00:00

    Windows 10 Home

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  5. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-08T19:57:14+00:00

    Which operating system are you running?

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