"Destination path too long" error when moving/copying a file (2023)

when you face the errorDestination path too longIf you're trying to copy or move a file to a folder in Windows, try the following quick trick. The reason you are getting the error is that File Explorer was unable to copy/delete/rename a path longer than 256 characters.

This is not the limitation of the NTFS file system, but the Win32 API library. In the Win32 API, the value of MAX_PATH is 260. Whenever you try to access file I/O on a specific path, the Windows API always checks if the path is greater than the MAX_PATH limit.

Most standard applications, including Windows Explorer (File Explorer), do not work correctly with files with long paths greater than 256 characters. Under the file name, Windows understands the full path, starting with the root of the drive, ending with the last subfolder and the name of the file itself.

When using Unicode API functions, you can use a path of up to 32767 characters. Thanks to this, many third-party programs (popular file managers, for example, FAR and Total Commander) easily process files/folders whose path length exceeds 256 characters.

To use🇧🇷 Some programs use the UNC file path format (preceded by "?") to get around Win32 API limitations. For example, the absolute file path might look like this:

\\?\C:\pasta1\subpasta1\toollongfilename

Due to the limitations of the maximum path length, the administrator may encounter the following issues:

• Users can create files and folders in a shared network folder that the administrator (or administration scripts) cannot access locally;
• Failed to sync roaming profiles;
• Failed to restore snapshot data;
• Incorrect calculation of directory size;
• Loss of files during migration and data transfer between servers, etc.

Fixed destination path too long

Complete error:

Destination path too long

The file names would be too long for the destination folder. You can shorten the filename and try again, or use a location with a shorter path.

Solution 1. Rename parent folder to shorten full path

The easiest way is to shorten the name of the parent folders by reducing the total path length simply by renaming them. This workaround is not always applicable.

Solution 2. Create a symbolic link

Another option is to create a symbolic link for part of the path, thus reducing the total length of the path. To create a symbolic link to a folder with a long path, you can use the following command:

mklink /d c:\homelink „C:\caminomuylargo……“

Now you can perform all file operations (move, rename) with the directory the symlink is assigned to (in our case c:\homelink). There are no path length limitations when performing file operations on the symbolic links directory.

Solution 3. Use the Subst utility

Another option is to map the problem folder to a virtual drive (Z: in our example) using the built-in utilitySubstance🇧🇷 Then you can also shorten the path length:

noun Z: „C:\very long way here……“

You can now work with data on the Z: drive where the path to the files does not exceed the Win32 API path limit. After the job is complete, you can delete the virtual disk using Subst with the /d option:

Deputy Z: /d

Solution 4. Hidden share path

Step 1

The quickest solution to this (especially if you simply need to migrate (move) a lot of folders from one place to another) is to assign the folder with a long path to a drive letter.

You need to navigate to the problem folder using the UNC path. This can be the path to an SMB share, the path to an administrative share available on any Windows machine (for example, \\servername\d$\users\your_long_path...) or the NT filename format ( \\ ?\d:\user\longpath). Copy the folder path to the clipboard.

To use🇧🇷 The path string prefix "\\?\" tells Windows to disable further parsing of the path string and send the path after the prefix directly to the file system driver. In that case, you can bypass and overcome Windows API limitationsMAX_PATHLimits.

What you need to do is find the hidden share path and copy it to your clipboard.

step 2

Then open File Explorer and select This PC. Click the Map Network Drive button and selectnetwork drive🇧🇷 Depending on your operating system, it may appear under the Tools menu.

step 3

Then just paste the long folder path, choose a drive letter you want to assign, and click Finish.

Step 4

Now you can copy the files/folders to that location without getting the error.

Solution 5. How to enable Win32 Long Path in Windows?

In recent builds of Windows 10 and 11 (since Windows 10 version 1607) and in Windows Server 2019/2022, it was possible to disable the MAX_PATH limit for manifested win32 and Windows Store apps at the Windows OS level without the \ prefix \ to use. ?\. By default, this resource is deactivated.

To enable built-in long path support on Windows 10/Windows Server 2016/2019, use theRegedit.exeEditor to configure theLongPathsEnabledREG_DWORD Parameters in Registry KeyHKLM\SISTEMA\CurrentControlSet\ControlFileSystemwith a value1.

You can change this registry parameter with the following PowerShell command:

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem -Name LongPathsEnabled -Valor 1

Or, you can enable long path support through the Local Group Policy Editor (Win + R > gpedit.msc > OK). In the Group Policy Editor, go to the following GPO section: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > File System. Open the policy parameter namedEnable Win32 Long Pathsand set it to Enabled.

Enabling long Win32 paths allows manifest Win32 apps and Windows Store apps to access paths beyond the normal limit of 260 characters per node on supported file systems. Enabling this setting makes long paths within the process accessible.

Save the changes andUpdate local group policy settings.

In both cases, the computer must be restarted for the changes to take effect. After a reboot, users and programs can work with files whose path length exceeds 256 characters without restrictions. Files are now only affected by the NTFS file path limit of 32,767 characters.

If you want to verify that NTFS long path support is enabled on this computer, run the following PowerShell command:

(Get-ItemProperty „HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem“).LongPathsEnabled

If the command returns a value of1, then the policy is enabled.

Note that to use the Win32 NTFS long path, the application must be developed with the parameter enabled. As usual, this option is enabled through the app's manifest file.

An app manifest is a small file that contains information about app compatibility, DPI support, etc.longPathAware-The parameter must be added to the manifest file. For example:

<Anwendung xmlns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3″><windowsSettings xmlns:ws2=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2016/WindowsSettings”><ws2:longPathAware>true</ ws2:longPathAware></Configuração do Windows></aplicativo>

In Visual Studio 2019 and MSBuild 16, this setting is enabled by default.

Once again, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that the LongPathsEnabled parameter allows you to bypass path length limitations only for Windows applications that do not specify the MAX_PATH variable in their programming code. This means that Windows Explorer will not work with a long file path, even after enabling the LongPathsEnabled registry setting or the Enable Win32 Long Paths policy setting. To manage files with a long path in File Explorer, you need to use one of the tricks described above (symlink, substitution or path format \\?\C:\).

Win32 Long Path GPO not working in Windows 10 File Explorer

There is bad news. File Explorer still doesn't support long NTFS paths even on newer versions of Windows 10 20H2 and Windows Server 2019. This means that when opening this file/folder you still get the error: "Destination path too long" .

Windows Explorer does not have a manifest declaration and you must use one of the tricks described in this article to access long paths in Windows.

We saw the following comment from a Microsoft employee:

This feature cannot be included in File Explorer. You'll have to wait for Microsoft to enable it in Explorer, or use a third-party file management tool that supports long paths.

However, in some applications, the MAX_PATH check is built into the code. See Solution 7 below for maximum file path limitations for .NET developers.

Solution 6. Using the Robocopy command line tool to copy and move files

You can use Robocopy, the Windows built-in console tool, to copy or move data. The utility allows you to correctly copy and synchronize files/directories with long paths.

For example, if you cannot remove the directory due to the path length limit, you can first move the directory data using robocopy:

ROBOCOPY c:\Ordner1\Ordner2\Ordner3\longpath\ c:\tmp\ /MOVER /E

After that you can delete the source directory:

Eliminar c:\carpeta1\carpeta2\carpeta3\longpath\ /q /f

Solution 7. Long file path for .Net developers

The Development Environment Core Class Library (BCL) for the .Net Framework has a built-in pre-check for long directories and file names. Therefore, .Net Framework developers may encounter System.IO.PathTooLongException error in their programs.

Verify that the path length has been removed from the BCL code in .Net Framework 4.6.2. Therefore, developers can use long paths in UNC path format (\\?\C:\Very_long_path) after upgrading the .NET Framework version. If the LongPathsEnabled parameter is enabled on Windows 10/Windows Server 2016, it is possible to work correctly with files that have paths of almost any length.

To do this, use Net Framework 4.6.2 (and newer) when building applications, or use the following application configuration file for earlier versions of the application (.Net 4.0):

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?><configuration><startup><supportedRuntime version=”v4.0″ sku=”.NETFramework,Version=v4.0″/></startup> <runtime><AppContextSwitchOverrides value=”Switch.System.IO.UseLegacyPathHandling=false;Switch.System.IO.BlockLongPaths=false” /></runtime></configuration>

Solution 8. Long file path in PowerShell .Net Developers

PowerShell is .Net based, and for Get-Item, Get-ChildItem, Remove-Item, and other cmdlets with long file paths to work correctly, you must update the .NET Framework to 4.5 or later and install Windows Management Framework 5.1.

tip🇧🇷 The current PowerShell version can be found in the $PSVersionTable variable.

Thereafter, when using file cmdlets, you must use LiteralPath parameter instead of Path. For example:

Get-ChildItem -literalpath \\?\C:\PS

Solution 9. Use 7-Zip to perform long file path archive operation

You can use the popular 7ZIP management tool to bypass the MAX_PATH limitation in Windows. Install 7-Zip, run the 7zFM.exe application and paste the path to the problem folder in the address bar.

You can now perform all archiving operations on files in this directory from the 7-Zip GUI. 7-Zip ignores Win32API restrictions on maximum path length.

Tip #1

There is also a great tool called the Long Path Tool that works really well to fix this. However, it's not free, the above methods are.

Tip #2

Thank you Colin Albright for the comment below. Yes, you can also use 7-Zip or any zip utility to fix destination path too long issue. For individual files this can sometimes be a better and faster solution. Just zip the folder and you're done.