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DeepFilip's avatar
DeepFilip
New member | Level 2
7 years ago
Solved

You can't copy the item because its name is too long er includes characters that are invalid on the.

Hi, I have a Dropbox account with 2TB of which 6% is full right now. I am trying to copy a folder that only has a couple of GBs and I am getting this error message. What is wrong with the filename "...
desktop
Error Messages
Mac
sync
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    7 years ago
    Hey there (DeepFilip), thanks for keeping the thread updated with the progress & apologies for getting back in touch with you with a slight delay. While this has been discussed here previously, I’d happily explain in a bit more depth under this conversation for posterity.
     
    It would be worth noting that there are files that your applications can't process correctly because they have file paths that are too long.
     
    This behavior is present if there are more than 255 characters in the entire file path. This means from the C:\ all the way to the extension of a file.
     
    As an example if you had a test.txt file in your Dropbox that had the following path:
     
    C:\Users\YourName\My Documents\Dropbox\test.txt
     
    This file would have a path that is 47 characters long.
     
    The Dropbox desktop application can read and write to locations that are longer than 255 characters, which means that files will sync to and from those locations, however, the applications used to open or save said files (e.g. Word, Notepad, Excel, &c.) might not support reading from or writing to these locations with long file paths and may show error messages when trying to open, save or edit them.
     
    Hopefully my message addresses your initial inquiry, however please feel free to check back with us here if you have any additional questions or thoughts! 
Canon4me's avatar
Canon4me
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago

The problem for me is my hard drive on my laptop is only 250 gigabytes and what I'm trying to copy from my external drive to dropbox is about 700 gigabytes, so I can't do what you recommended.  Also, the I tried to copy the suspected long files to iCloud Drive and it copied just fine.  The problem with the error message from Dropbox is it brings the copying to halt, it won't bypass the suspected files and continue.

mev9313's avatar
mev9313
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago

Same problem here. Dropbox support has truly been no help. And I've spent hours now documenting and experimenting with them.... until today when they sent me to this string. This explanation is not very helpful. I've been using Dropbox for years and years without this issue. Of course, it might be Apple's fault, which support suggested as well.

 

One reason I question this "your file name is too long" answer is that longer names in the same folder will copy. Why does one copy and one does not? Sometimes if I wait a couple of days and try again, it will copy. On a few, I went to dropbox.com and the file was there, despite getting the error message and a grayed out folder on my desktop. Unless I'm missing something, the long filename explanation just doesn't hold. 

 

 

 

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    4 years ago

    Hi mev9313, in order to understand what you're experiencing, could you attach a screenshot of what you're seeing on your machine?

    • mev9313's avatar
      mev9313
      Explorer | Level 4
      4 years ago

      I have spent hours documenting this problem for Dropbox Support. Here's one example, where the error message says the file can't be uploaded due to incompatible characters. On the right, you see the dropbox menu where it did actually upload not once, but twice. 

       

      d

      • Hannah's avatar
        Hannah
        Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
        4 years ago

        Thanks for the screenshot, mev9313 and sorry to jump in here. 

         

        Can you also send us the ticket number from your communication with our support team, so we can take a look into that as well?

         

        Thanks.

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