Question File Naming in Windows 7 ?

[Dart77]

Hi - I have recently run into a problem on my Win 7 machine where I have made some filenames too long. And now in Windows Explorer I can't do anything with them. I now have two files (mp4 files) like this and probably more as well that I haven't discovered. I can't play them or select the text and there is no option in the dropdown box to rename the file. I also can't move it to another location in the drive where there would be no extra file name length added such as with folders. Win Exe box tells me the filename is too long.

They now seem to be dead. I get a dialog box come up when I try to move it saying to try and rename it or move it higher up the chain but that can't be done. Also there is no File Length given in Explorer, whereas all other mp4 files have the minutes and seconds given.

Unless there is some way to make the name shorter, I can't seem to do anything with them.

What is usually done in situations like this? Thanks for any help.

 

[35below0]

Try suggestions mentioned here: https://superuser.com/questions/638123/how-to-rename-a-too-long-file-name

I tried the CMD dir /x method but there were no short names available.
I tried cheating by using ren, typing in first 6 characters of the name and appending ~1 but was told the file cannot be found.
What i havent tried but suspect will work is zipping them using 7zip, renaming inside the archive, unzipping. Try that!

 

[Dart77]

Try suggestions mentioned here: https://superuser.com/questions/638123/how-to-rename-a-too-long-file-name

I tried the CMD dir /x method but there were no short names available.
I tried cheating by using ren, typing in first 6 characters of the name and appending ~1 but was told the file cannot be found.
What i havent tried but suspect will work is zipping them using 7zip, renaming inside the archive, unzipping. Try that!

Thanks for the good suggestions! I will try them when I have a bit of free time and let you know how it goes.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Unless there is some way to make the name shorter, I can't seem to do anything with them.
What is usually done in situations like this?

Shorten names of folders containing those files.
Or move entire folder to a different location with shorter full path.

 

[Dart77]

Shorten names of folders containing those files.
Or move entire folder to a different location with shorter full path.

That did it So simple! - Thanks very much!

 

[35below0]

That did it So simple! - Thanks very much!

So it wasn't the file name that was too long, it was the full path name! Windows has had this limit since XP, iirc.

 

[Dart77]

So it wasn't the file name that was too long, it was the full path name! Windows has had this limit since XP, iirc.

Yeah, it's a bit of a silly bug where if you try to create filename that's too long it will tell you, however if you rename dir and folders in the path that then create a too-long file name, it won't tell you and you possibly end up in the situation I was in.