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I am trying to copy a large number of files from one directory to another directory on the same Windows 10 p.c. At the point when the files are almost finished copying (and using up lots of time), I get the error message

can't copy file or files, path or file name too long

(or the gist thereof) I have tried lots of things to fix this, all from doing web searches. Nothing is working. Would any forum member have a solution that works? Thank you for any feedback.

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  • 2
    What did you try? Can you specify some?
    – user871532
    May 3, 2020 at 4:03
  • Well, I tried changing the registry--that didn't seem to work (where "you tell" windows to "accept" "extra-long" file names and/or file paths. I downloaded free software that tells you if your file name is too long--not helping either. Is there some straight forward fix for this situation? May 5, 2020 at 21:54
  • Did you copy it using explorer? Don't do that. Copy from the console instead
    – phuclv
    May 6, 2020 at 6:27
  • What is the difference between copying from explorer and copying from the console? Second stupid question; how would I copy from the console instead of explorer? Thank you very much for your help. May 7, 2020 at 17:58
  • Does this answer your question? File name too long when copying to a directory with shorter file path
    – karel
    May 8, 2020 at 2:36

1 Answer 1

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So, seems like you've tried almost all the fixes available on the web. This is the last thing you need to give a try and I am hopeful that it will work for you.

Download and install 7zip using this link: Download 7zip.

Now, Go to the folder where those files are. Select all of them using Ctrl+A. After selection, they will look like this:

selected files

(see, everything turned light blue.)

While they are selected, right click on the selection and a menu will appear. In that menu, go to 7-zip>Add to "[filename].zip" and click on it:

enter image description here

(here the filename in my case is 'scanned.zip', it can be anything else in your case depending on the folder name)

After that, you will see a screen like this:

enter image description here

After completion of this process, you will see that a new file has been added to that particular folder where your files are, you can see here:

enter image description here

(notice the icon of that particular file, it seems like it's been zipped; right?)

Now copy that [filename].zip (in my case; in your case: .zip at the end might not appear) file to that folder where you wanted those files to copy but couldn't due to the error. Once you are there, right click on that file (here, scanned.zip). A menu will appear. On that menu go to 7-zip>Extract here:

enter image description here

That's it. It will extract all the files right inside the folder where you have stored the scanned.zip file.

I hope this works for you. This is the most straight forward solution I can think of for you.

Have a good day. Tell me how it does :)

P.S.: This might take some extra time (not much).

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  • Sorry, but I don't understand how these programs work. Their interfaces are not user friendly, I find. Are there any instructions anywhere for these (besides the unhelpful notes they come with)? Thank you. May 7, 2020 at 19:06

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