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Cannot save files to Sharepoint. File name too long

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 10:07 am
by Intaver Support
If you are saving files to Sharepoint on some other portal, the following error can occur"Saving the file to the web folder failed. The file name may be too long. Try entering a shorter file name and saving the file again.È

This is due the the 256 character file name limitation on Internet Explorer and possibly other Windows software.

It seems that depending upon how a profile is set up, when you copy a file to sharepoint, Internet Explorer creates a temporary folder and saves the file name that includes the complete path. e.g c:users/user/.../test.alm. So it is not the file name per se/ but the file location path that is behind this.

See this explanation and possible solution below from the Microsoft Forums:
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We occasionally see this with locked profiles. When a profile is locked, Windows copies the original profile directory (often c:\users\user.orig) to a temporary location (often c:\users\user). During the user's session, changes the user makes are written to this temporary location. When the user logs off, Windows deletes the temporary profile, thus cleaning up his changes.


When you see the warning about filenames being too long when the locked user logs in, the problem is usually that temporary internet files created by Internet Explorer exceed the default 260 character path length limit, so Windows encounters an error when it tries to copy these files to the temporary location. It's possible that other applications could create long filenames/paths that cause similar problems.


I've been able to solve the problem by unlocking the profile, logging in as the restricted user, then emptying the user's temporary internet files in Internet Explorer. Then log off, log on as the Administrator again, and re-lock the user's profile.
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