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rob_nicholson_helios's avatar
rob_nicholson_helios
Brass Contributor
Nov 27, 2019

Why are we still hit by MAXPATH limitations in OneDrive in 2019??

According to this article, MAXPATH was increased to 400 characters (wow thanks) in SharePoint and OneDrive.   https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/New-MAXPATH-limits-in-...
limits
OneDrive for Business
ChrisWebbTech's avatar
ChrisWebbTech
MVP
Nov 28, 2019
The 250 limit is a Windows OS restriction. You will have the same issue with Dropbox and google drive as well. The difference being it will rename the files shorter which can have some bad side effects too.

https://www.aurelp.com/tag/maximum-file-name-google-drive/


What I suggest is having your users sync at a lower folder level to the files they need.

If you go into like five folders or so down the chain which I assuming is the case here you can click sync at that folder and it will sync starting at that folder essentially shortening the paths.

  • rob_nicholson_helios's avatar
    rob_nicholson_helios
    Brass Contributor
    Nov 28, 2019

    >The 250 limit is a Windows OS restriction. 

     

    It's a limitation in some of the ancient functions in the old Win32 API. Alternatives not limited by MAXPATH have been available for a long time so the question of why are we still effected by them is valid. 

     

    Microsoft controls Windows, File Explorer (just an app really) and OneDrive so am at loss why it can't be resolved. It's not an NTFS nor a Word issue as both can obviously handle long paths.

     

    I might need to be restrained if I ever come across the programmer who first typed #define MAX_PATH 260 🙂 And yes, I know the reasons it existed 30 years ago.

     

    File Explorer can obviously handle long paths as it can navigate down through very deep structures. Just can't pass the path to applications correctly. I assume it's the application launch mechanism that has the restriction. So why hasn't a new alternative launch application mechanism been implemented? Even if 3rd party app developers have to make changes, I'm assuming the changes wouldn't be too drastic.

    • ChrisWebbTech's avatar
      ChrisWebbTech
      MVP
      Nov 28, 2019
      Totally agree with you ;). You would think there has to be a reason it’s still that way thou and it’s not an easy fix but I man I guess we’ll never really know 😉
      • rob_nicholson_helios's avatar
        rob_nicholson_helios
        Brass Contributor
        Dec 02, 2019

        It's very annoying as I'm having to defend my recommendation my client switches from DropBox Business to OneDrive. Okay, so Dropbox (et al) when working with File Explorer all have the same problem but OneDrive amplifies the problem with using a very long HTTP header.


        Dropbox: C:\Users\123456790123\Dropbox

        OneDrive: https://tenantnamehere-my.sharepoint.com/personal/onedrive_tenantnamehere_onmicrosoft_com/Documents 

         

        So 30 character pre-amble for Dropbox (12% of MAXPATH) but OneDrive 99 character pre-amble (40% of MAXPATH).

         

        I tried to be clever and used a junction to reduce the path length and whilst it opens, it opens read-only and without autosave 😞

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