Dealing with “Too Long” Names in Windows
Windows uses a naming convention called “Long Filenames (LFN)”. The LFN system supports file names up to 255 characters. Other operating systems, however, do not have similar restrictions. So if some Mac or Linux user were to archive a bunch of files with longer names and send you the archive, extracting that archive would leave you with files that exceed Windows’ character length. If you try to delete one of them, Windows will report that the name of the file is too long and it cannot delete it.
- Go to the last/bottom level File/Folder, and give a very short name
- Now, select the top/root level Folder/File and try to Delete/Copy/Move. If unsuccessful repeat the Step-1 with one level up from the previous level
Finally, after successful Copy/Move the Folder/File can be renamed as needed without exceeding 255 characters