How do I find files with a path length greater than 260 characters in Windows

Question

I m using a xcopy in an XP windows script to recursively copy a directory   I keep getting an  Insufficient Memory  error  which I understand is because a file I m trying to copy has too long a path   I can easily reduce the path length  but unfortunately I can t work out which files are violating the path length restriction   The files that are copied are printed to the standard output  which I m redirecting to a log file   but the error message is printed to the terminal  so I can t even work out approximately which directory the error is being given for

User · Answer

I created the Path Length Checker tool for this purpose, which is a nice, free GUI app that you can use to see the path lengths of all files and directories in a given directory.

I've also written and blogged about a simple PowerShell script for getting file and directory lengths. It will output the length and path to a file, and optionally write it to the console as well. It doesn't limit to displaying files that are only over a certain length (an easy modification to make), but displays them descending by length, so it's still super easy to see which paths are over your threshold. Here it is:

$pathToScan = "C:\Some Folder"  # The path to scan and the the lengths for (sub-directories will be scanned as well).
$outputFilePath = "C:\temp\PathLengths.txt" # This must be a file in a directory that exists and does not require admin rights to write to.
$writeToConsoleAsWell = $true   # Writing to the console will be much slower.

# Open a new file stream (nice and fast) and write all the paths and their lengths to it.
$outputFileDirectory = Split-Path $outputFilePath -Parent
if (!(Test-Path $outputFileDirectory)) { New-Item $outputFileDirectory -ItemType Directory }
$stream = New-Object System.IO.StreamWriter($outputFilePath, $false)
Get-ChildItem -Path $pathToScan -Recurse -Force | Select-Object -Property FullName, @{Name="FullNameLength";Expression={($_.FullName.Length)}} | Sort-Object -Property FullNameLength -Descending | ForEach-Object {
    $filePath = $_.FullName
    $length = $_.FullNameLength
    $string = "$length : $filePath"

    # Write to the Console.
    if ($writeToConsoleAsWell) { Write-Host $string }

    #Write to the file.
    $stream.WriteLine($string)
}
$stream.Close()

User · Answer

From http   www powershellmagazine com 2012 07 24 jaap-brassers-favorite-powershell-tips-and-tricks    Get-ChildItem    Force    Recurse    ErrorAction SilentlyContinue    ErrorVariable AccessDenied   the first part just iterates through this and sub-folders  using -ErrorVariable AccessDenied means push the offending items into the powershell variable AccessDenied   You can then scan through the variable like so   AccessDenied   Where-Object      Exception -match  must be less than 260 characters      ForEach-Object      TargetObject     If you don t care about these files  may be applicable in some cases   simply drop the -ErrorVariable AccessDenied part

User · Answer

For paths greater than 260  you can use     Get-ChildItem   Where-Object     FullName Length -gt 260    Example on 14 chars  To view the paths lengths    Get-ChildItem   Select-Object -Property FullName    Name  FullNameLength  Expression      FullName Length     Get paths greater than 14     Get-ChildItem   Where-Object     FullName Length -gt 14      Screenshot    For filenames greater than 10   Get-ChildItem   Where-Object     PSChildName Length -gt 10    Screenshot

User · Answer

I ve made an alternative to the other good answers on here that uses PowerShell  but mine also saves the list to a file  Will share it here in case anyone else needs wants something like that   Warning  Code overwrites  longfilepath txt  in the current working directory  I know it s unlikely you d have one already  but just in case   Purposely wanted it in a single line   Out-File longfilepath txt   cmd  c  dir  b  s  a    ForEach-Object   if     length -gt 250        Out-File -append longfilepath txt     Detailed instructions    Run PowerShell Traverse to the directory you want to check for filepath lengths  C  works  Copy and paste the code  Right click to paste in PowerShell  or Alt   Space   E   P  Wait until it s done and then view the file  cat longfilepath txt   sort   Explanation   Out-File longfilepath txt       Create  or overwrite  a blank file titled  longfilepath txt   Semi-colon to separate commands   cmd  c  dir  b  s  a        Run dir command on PowerShell   a to show all files including hidden files    to pipe   ForEach-Object   if     length -gt 250        Out-File -append longfilepath txt       For each line  denoted as      if the length is greater than 250  append that line to the file

User · Answer

TLPD   too long path directory   is the program that saved me  Very easy to use   https   sourceforge net projects tlpd

User · Answer

do a dir  s  b  gt  out txt and then add a guide at position 260   In powershell cmd  c dir  s  b        length -gt 260

User · Answer

As a refinement of simplest solution  and if you can   t or don   t want to install Powershell  just run   dir  s  b   sort  r   261  gt  out txt   or  faster    dir  s  b   sort  r   261  o out txt   And lines longer than 260 will get to the top of listing  Note that you must add 1 to SORT column parameter    n

User · Answer

you can redirect stderr   more explanation here  but having a command like   MyCommand  gt log txt 2 gt errors txt   should grab the data you are looking for   Also  as a trick  Windows bypasses that limitation if the path is prefixed with       msdn   Another trick if you have a root or destination that starts with a long path  perhaps SUBST will help   SUBST Q   C  Documents and Settings MyLoginName My Documents MyStuffToBeCopied  Xcopy Q    d  Where it needs to go   s  e SUBST Q   D

[windows] How do I find files with a path length greater than 260 characters in Windows?

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