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Kayla23844191kdnc
New Participant
July 26, 2022
Answered

Acrobat Not Allowing Longer File Names

  • July 26, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 26577 views

Recently, when exporting an InDesign document to a PDF or going to rename an Acrobat PDF File I keep getting "the file name or path is too long" 

 

This has not been an issue in the past, as I have current file names longer than what I was trying to do. It seems it won't let me go over 25 characters 

 

Is this new? Am I missing some setting? Why am I just experiencing this in the past two weeks? 

Correct answer jane-e

 

@Kayla23844191kdnc wrote:

"When I go to combine files and save them as a new PDF I get 'The file path is too long. Please specify a shorter file name or save to a location that has a shorter path.' "

 

@Test Screen Name is correct that it is the total length of the path. See this Microsoft help file for details:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file

 

Jane

 

4 replies

E
ewhizz
New Participant
July 30, 2024

If the operating system allows it, so should Acrobat. This issues crops up in several circustances and Adobe often blames microsoft for the issue. Other applications and Explorer handles the long files names okay, why can't Adobe products?

    jane-e
    jane-e
    Community Expert
    July 31, 2024

    @ewhizz 

     

    Please show your file name with the entire path so we can see how many characters (total) you are using. Start with C:\ which are the first three.

     

    Jane

     

    E
    ewhizz
    New Participant
    August 1, 2024

    This is irrelevent. If the operating system allows it, so should Adobe applications be able to handle it.

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Brainiac
      July 26, 2022

      Path name limits aren't on the name only, but the total length. You need to look at the parent directory, which may have been renamed, made longer, or moved into another folder.

      c:\This folder name\this too\and this very long folder name as well\plus this one long or\short\all add up to the limit of however many characters it is.pdf

        jane-e
        jane-eCorrect answer
        Community Expert
        July 29, 2022

         

        @Kayla23844191kdnc wrote:

        "When I go to combine files and save them as a new PDF I get 'The file path is too long. Please specify a shorter file name or save to a location that has a shorter path.' "

         

        @Test Screen Name is correct that it is the total length of the path. See this Microsoft help file for details:

        https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file

         

        Jane

         

          AkanchhaS8194121
          AkanchhaS8194121
          Brainiac
          July 26, 2022

          Hi Kayla,

           

          Thanks for reaching out.

           

          Recently, when exporting an InDesign document to a PDF or going to rename an Acrobat PDF File I keep getting "the file name or path is too long" 

           

          Are you getting this error with the files exported from Indesign only? How about opening a PDF file from within Acrobat? 

          Also, have you started experiencing this issue recently after installing a new patch for applications or Windows?

           

          Would you mind sharing the version of the Adobe Acrobat/Reader you are using? To check the version, go to Help > about Acrobat and ensure you have the recent version 22.001.20169  installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once (you must save all the work before restarting)

          https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotesDC/index.html 

           

          This has not been an issue in the past, as I have current file names longer than what I was trying to do. It seems it won't let me go over 25 characters 

           

           

          Can you share the exact error message, please? It might be 255, not 25 characters. 

           

           

          Thanks,

          Akanchha 

           

            K
            Kayla23844191kdncAuthor
            New Participant
            July 26, 2022

            When I go to combine files and save them as a new PDF I get "The file path is too long. Please specify a shorter file name or save to a location that has a shorter path." - I have not had a problem saving here in the past

             

            When I go to InDesign and try to export I get "The file name you have entered is too long - try something shorter"

             

            I am saving all my documents to a Microsoft Teams Group Folder with the following path (lots of folders for organization-took out actual name of path): C:\Users\xxxxx xxxxxx\teamxx namexx\xxxxx - xxxxxxxx (xxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxx, xxxx)\xxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx - xxxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxx, xxxxxxx xxxxxxx\xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx\xxxxxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxx\xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

             

            When I go to open current files with too long of a name I get an "There was an error opening this document. Access Denied" notification, if I shorten the file name it will open. 

             

            However, this has never been a problem and I have the current version of Acrobat 

             

            Is the path name too long? How long can a path name be?

            Dave__M
            Dave__M
            Community Expert
            July 26, 2022

            I'm guessing that this issue is one of your operating system, not Acrobat itself. Are you saving to a network location (which may have a lengthy path involved?  The more you can tell us, the better chance we have of figuring it out.

            My best,

            Dave

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