Why won't Microsoft Fix File Explorer in Windows 10 to allow long file paths

Question

Why won't Microsoft Fix File Explorer in Windows 10 to allow long file paths

Clayton Tschirhart 25

OneDrive, CMD, Powershell can all create long file paths but you can't open them in File Explorer. Long File Paths seems to be enabled by default in Windows 10 now but not File Explorer. Really frustrating to be able to see the files in OneDrive with long laths but get random errors when trying to open them. The errors usually don't indicate it's a path length issue but it definitely is.

3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

My laptop is Win11 Home 22H2 with LongPathsEnabled set to 1.

I tested with this Powershell script.

cd \ 
$LongFolderPath = "c:\TEMP\" + ("A" * 50) + "\" +  ("B" * 50)  + "\" +  ("C" * 50)  + "\" +  ("D" * 50)  + "\" +  ("E" * 50) 
$LongFolderPath.Length
New-Item $LongFolderPath -ItemType Directory  
cd $LongFolderPath 
"This text file is in a long folder name." | out-file Long.txt
dir
notepad.exe  
cd ..
notepad.exe  
explorer "c:\TEMP\"

I see that PS is able to create the long folder name and the long.txt file. The folder name length is 262 characters.

Screenshot 2024-03-15 083829

Screenshot 2024-03-15 083915

But if I try to launch a program from the long directory, I get a "The directory name is invalid" error. If I "cd .." up to a shorter name, then it works.

Screenshot 2024-03-15 090613

I see that explorer is able to navigate the long folder name. And when it gets to the long name it switches from "C:" to the DOS device path syntax "\?\c:" on the tab.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/jeremykuhne/2016/04/21/path-format-overview/

Screenshot 2024-03-15 091022

Notepad is able to see the long folder names in the File/Open dialog.

Screenshot 2024-03-15 090509

As you experienced, I too get the "Destination Path Too Long" error when I try to use explorer to create a subfolder.

See the comment "Win32 Long Paths GPO Not Working on Windows 10 File Explorer" in this link.

https://theitbros.com/destination-path-too-long-error-when-movingcopying-a-file/

But I was able to create additional subfolders under 'EEEEEE' using Powershell. Explorer was able to see these folders and notepad was able to edit a text file in them.

Screenshot 2024-03-15 100749

It would appear that long file name support is still a "work in process" in Windows. Most likely to provide backward combability and not break anything. There are several requests on the Feedback Hub to fix it. Like this.

https://aka.ms/AAesa8r

If you don't want to use Powershell to create long folder names, you could try 3rd party explorer solutions.

https://superuser.com/questions/320801/alternative-to-windows-explorer-for-long-path-names

That's still not going to help you if the application (like Excel) that is used to process the file does not support long names.

The simplest solution appears to be to just use shorter folder names.

Clayton Tschirhart 25 Reputation points

2024-03-15T16:47:03.53+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply. Glad you were able to explain the issue so well. Yes, it appears it's partially enabled.

Unfortunately a 3rd party tool would just so inefficient for us.

We're trying to enable OneDrive for hundreds of users. The files and everything get moved to the OneDrive directory and we can see them and navigate to them but many of the test users are reporting issues when opening files with long paths because the New OneDrive directory adds dozens of characters to the total path length. File paths that worked in the old location suddenly don't and the errors that pop up aren't really informative about what the actual issue is.
MotoX80 36,406 Reputation points

2024-03-15T21:21:38.31+00:00

because the New OneDrive directory adds dozens of characters to the total path length

That stinks.

If you've got hundreds of users, does your organization have any kind of contract with MS Premier support? Or maybe a MS salesman who deals with your management team?

Explain to them how the folder length limitation is affecting your business and ask for an official statement on when they plan to fix it. You need both the OS and the Office suite fixed. I don't know if the MS planning teams monitor this forum.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/restrictions-and-limitations-in-onedrive-and-sharepoint-64883a5d-228e-48f5-b3d2-eb39e07630fa

I best that I can offer is help with Powershell scripts to try to identify/rename folders with long paths.
Clayton Tschirhart 25 Reputation points

2024-03-18T13:16:49.71+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! Premier support is a little complicated for our Organization. I just manage IT for our Division but most of the policies and provisioning is handled at the Organization Level. They have enabled access to OneDrive backup but haven't really done anything at the Organizational level. I'm trying to enable it for the 200 users in our Division but running into the issues I mentioned. Since it isn't really an organizational policy or feature they're pushing, they probably won't open a support ticket on our behalf. We're still mostly testing it and just wanted to provide feedback on the issues we're having.

Answer 2

MotoX80 36,406

Please see my answers in this post.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1496090/maximum-path-length-limitation

In my reply dated "Jan 16, 2024, 9:17 AM", I explain how to use Powershell to test to see that long paths have been enabled, and also check the required registry key.

You should not have any problem using the Windows explorer to view long file paths.

I do not know why certain applications like Excel do not support long paths.

Clayton Tschirhart 25 Reputation points

2024-03-14T15:16:12.54+00:00

Thanks for the Reply. I've verified that LongPathsEnabled is enabled in PowerShell. When I create really long folder/file paths in PowerShell, I can actually open the files from explorer and noticed that the file path is converted to ShortName format in Explorer. But when an application like OneDrive creates the Directories/Files, I can see them and navigate through them but the Files do not open and give errors. The other weird thing is I can create a New File in a path more than 260 characters created in PowerShell using "Right Click" > "New Word Document" and it opens fine but trying to add a new folder gives me a path length error.

Answer 3

Anonymous

Hi Clayton Tschirhart,

Thanks for your post. Please understand that by default, Windows uses a path length limitation (MAX_PATH) of 256 characters.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx

You can enable the long path behavior by following steps:

Go to Windows Start and type REGEDIT.
Choose the Registry Editor.
In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following location: at__HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem.__
Select the entry named: LongPathsEnabled.

Note: If the registry key does not exist, the entry can also be added by doing the following:

1. With the FileSystem folder selected, right-click in the empty space of the Name column where the registry keys are located.

2. Select New.

3. Choose the DWORD (32-bit) Value.

4. Right-click the newly added key and choose Rename.

5. Name the key LongPathsEnabled.

6. Press Enter.

Double-click on the LongPathsEnabled entry to open the key.
In the Value data field, enter a value of 1. This will enable the long paths option.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Clayton Tschirhart 25 Reputation points

2024-03-14T15:16:35.3433333+00:00

Thanks for the Reply. I've verified that LongPathsEnabled is enabled in PowerShell. When I create really long folder/file paths in PowerShell, I can actually open the files from explorer and noticed that the file path is converted to ShortName format in Explorer. But when an application like OneDrive creates the Directories/Files, I can see them and navigate through them but the Files do not open and give errors. The other weird thing is I can create a New File in a path more than 260 characters created in PowerShell using "Right Click" > "New Word Document" and it opens fine but trying to add a new folder gives me a path length error.
Clayton Tschirhart 25 Reputation points

2024-03-14T15:17:42.7766667+00:00

Reply wasn't showing after refresh so submitted again. Then Duplicate replies were showing. Can't figure out how to delete.
Anonymous

2024-04-02T06:45:51.91+00:00

Hi Clayton,

Thanks for your reply. The phenomenon is because these are the directory management functions that no longer have MAX_PATH restrictions if you opt-in to long path behavior: CreateDirectoryW, CreateDirectoryExW GetCurrentDirectoryW RemoveDirectoryW SetCurrentDirectoryW.

These are the file management functions that no longer have MAX_PATH restrictions if you opt-in to long path behavior: CopyFileW, CopyFile2, CopyFileExW, CreateFileW, CreateFile2, CreateHardLinkW, CreateSymbolicLinkW, DeleteFileW, FindFirstFileW, FindFirstFileExW, FindNextFileW, GetFileAttributesW, GetFileAttributesExW, SetFileAttributesW, GetFullPathNameW, GetLongPathNameW, MoveFileW, MoveFileExW, MoveFileWithProgressW, ReplaceFileW, SearchPathW, FindFirstFileNameW, FindNextFileNameW, FindFirstStreamW, FindNextStreamW, GetCompressedFileSizeW, GetFinalPathNameByHandleW.

Maximum Path Length Limitation - Win32 apps | Microsoft Learn

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Why won't Microsoft Fix File Explorer in Windows 10 to allow long file paths

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