💡 A file path is the total file name that consists of the local disk name, root folder name, names of folders/subfolders, file name, and file extension. A long path is the one that exceeds 260 characters.
The longer the names of the folders and subfolders are, and/or the more subfolders you have, the longer the file path will be.
Limitations in data room
The maximum allowed name length of folders and files is 255 characters.
ℹ️ Keep in mind that the file name length is counted along with its extension.
For example: FileName.doc - 12 characters, and FileName.xlsx - 13 characters.
The depth of a folder structure is not limited in the data room, so you can have as many subfolders with more subsequent subfolders as needed. Yet, when it comes to working with downloaded project archive, you should consider the limitations of operating systems.
Limitations of operating systems
Document names
Windows and macOS have the same limitation on name length of 255 characters. Yet, keep in mind that upon downloading a file from the project with enabled indexing, the file index will also be added to its name. Hence, it may result in exceeding the OS limitation. You need to rename such files locally to be able to open them.
Document paths
While there is no limitation on document paths in the data room, Windows OS and macOS have limitations on path length. Hence, when downloading the documents from a project with a deep structure or very long folder names, users may have difficulties opening them on their computers.
Max path length for OS:
Windows: 260 characters
macOS: 1024 characters
Examples of a complete file path on a local disk D:
160 characters long:
D:\VDR folder\My Project Documents\FolderName 1\SubfolderName 1\SubfolderName 2\SubfolderName 3\SubfolderName 4\SubfolderName 5\Important documents\FileName.doc
265 characters long:
D:\Data Room\A very long folder name-A very long folder name-A very long folder name-A very long folder name-A very long folder name-A very long folder name-A very long folder name-A very long folder name-A very long folder name-A very long folder name\FileName.doc
Working with downloaded deep structure
If the project contains long paths, you may encounter issues opening a downloaded ZIP archive. The errors may vary depending on the operating system and its version. For example, "Windows cannot open the folder. Compressed (zipped) folder is invalid" and similar.
An archive is created in the following cases:
Download of documents in bulk. Selected files and folders are downloaded in a ZIP archive.
Order of a USB drive archive. An encrypted ZIP archive with project contents is recorded on a USB drive.
Downloadable archive. A ZIP archive protected with a strong password that will be available for download to you and selected project participants for 30 days.
If you are downloading documents from a project, we recommend trying the following first:
Downloading particular subfolders or files separately, instead of the whole parent folder with these documents.
Downloading the documents to a shorter path on the PC.
For example, if you download the documents to your desktop, the first part of the path is at leastC:\Users\UserName\Desktop\My VDR folder, where the user and folder names are variable and can be even longer. Instead, choose the shortest directory for download, for example,D:\VDR
If you still face difficulties opening a downloaded archive, or you need to open a USB drive archive, use the recommended utility:
macOS: Archive Utility (default app) or The Unarchiver
Learn more about truncation logic when exporting documents to a USB drive archive.