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"You can't copy the item because its name is too" when copying a folder on my Mac.

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 "IMG_4474.JPG"? I have copied folders with these type of filenames before and it worked perfectly. I am on a Macbook Pro with OS Mojave

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Jane

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:

<SPAN class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90za3z66zsz65z7gz85zz86zz70zz79zz80z3z85z6z87ziz78zz83zigfz86zz80z5z80zblcz70zz86z">C:\Users\YourName\My Documents\Dropbox\test.txt</SPAN>

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!

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Mark

Your folder structure must be too long on the device you are copying it to.

So, shorten the directory names and it should work (note that error isnt a Dropbox one its one from OS Majave)

DeepFilip

Hi,

Thank you for your answer. I do not really understand what you mean, my folder names are very short. I tried to rename the folders and files but nothing seemed to help.

What did help, it seems, is to copy the folder from my external harddrive to my laptop first. And then from my laptop to my Dropbox folder. Very odd, especially given the error message that I was getting, which was not explanatory to the problem I seem to be having.

Could you note this and find out what exactly is going wrong here, so other users will not be facing this problem?

Thank you

Jane

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:

<SPAN class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90za3z66zsz65z7gz85zz86zz70zz79zz80z3z85z6z87ziz78zz83zigfz86zz80z5z80zblcz70zz86z">C:\Users\YourName\My Documents\Dropbox\test.txt</SPAN>

This file would have a path that is 47 characters long.

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!

AngelinaD

Hi all,

I am experiencing the same issue. I am unable to open files with "long" names - which is ridiculous because I used to be able to. The file names on the files I have are typically less than 20 characters, but it won't save the file unless it is under 10-11 characters. I am working with work files which can sometimes consist of 20-50 character long file names and don't have the time to consistently save things to my physical hard drive, then drag and drop every time into DB. Another issue is that I am unable to open the long named files from the DB folder. I have to copy and paste it onto my Desktop in order to open these "long name" PDFs. Otherwise, it sends me an error message.

Please help sort of this issue and provide me with a solution.

-Lina

Jane

Hey @AngelinaD, the filepath should count from your C:\ drive onwards. As you mentioned that you’ve been able to open these files normally at a certain point, it makes me wonder if you’ve moved these files across directories.

From what I gather from your description, I’d suspect an underlying syncing issue Lina; if it’s not too much trouble for you, can you confirm that this isn’t attributed to a missing desktop app update? Have you by any chance tried unlinking & relinking your account on your desktop once as a quick fix, since it recreates the local database? If you haven’t done so alreday, please do so whenever you find some spare time. Once you relink, you can refer to your overlay icons on your device to determine whether your files are syncing correctly :arrows_counterclockwise:/:white_check_mark:. From there, you can quickly upload a test file from you desktop & see if it's updating on our website?

Please do let us know how you get on with these steps on this discussion & we’ll do our best to check back with you. Thanks!

ldundercover

I had this problem, it happened after I upgraded to my OS to mojave and realized I needed to reinstalled the desktop app/ update dropbox. I had to copy files from my back up that didnt get synced that were recently added to local on my desktop dropbox. The files wouldnt copy becuase of the name character error (some which were very short actually) and already existed on my dropbox- I was needing to replace large folders

The work around was that I copied the files local then uploaded the folder via online rather then drag onto the desktop, but not super ideal for folders with very large files depending on internet connection.

DermotPower

Thank you thank you thank you. This was driving me crazy. Your advice to copy the file to local drive worked v well.

Canon4me

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

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

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

mev9313

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 Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 2.47.07 PM.png

Hannah

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.

mev9313

Ticket #15994964

Assigned to: John

Honestly, I've about given up on this. All support has done is wait 48 hours and then give me another task to do. In the meantime, I'm trying to get my files backed up and get back to work. Dropbox has been great for many years, but I'm looking for other solutions since this has been such a pain and taken so much time up.

Walter

Hey @mev9313, thanks for the ticket ID - much appreciated!

I was able to locate on our system and passed your comments there in order to have all the relevant information in one place.

If you'd like further assistance on this, I'd recommend getting back to the expert handling your case.

Let us know if you have anything else to add or ask in the meantime.

PS: I'm not sure if you've tried this, but does the issue persist after renaming the problematic files or shortening their file-paths?

mev9313

My latest workaround is to copy the items one at a time into dropbox, then move them into a folder.

This example shows the inconsistencies in the dropbox errors.

I moved the folder SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER VERSIONS and it copied with no problem. Inside it is a folder called TH21-Derm-Excision Referrals.

I had a second, later version of TH21-Derm-Excision Referrals that I moved to the same folder as SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER (but not in SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER). It came back with the "too long/incompatible character" error a couple of files. I selected each file in error and moved it individually. No problem. I then created a new folder with the same name and moved them into the folder. Again, no problem.

I'll share this latest revelation with my expert, but he's really been no help at all to this point.

kylestauffer

I've been battling this for a month now. I'm attempting to move our file archive of 64TB(!) onto DB and keep getting these stupid errors. They're random. Sometimes it's one folder, the next it's one inside it. They're all short file names, and no special characters. It's a bug, despite what support says. I don't even know that I can trust DB to have all the files and not corrupt at this point.

I'm on MacOS High Sierra on that machine.

Walter

Hey @kylestauffer, sorry to hear about this.

Can you send us a screenshot of the exact error you're getting so that we can have a visual too?

Also, have you tried doing this in smaller batches of files or through a web browser instead? Do you also get an error there?