Acrobat Not Allowing Longer File Names

[Kayla23844191kdnc]

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? 

[Dave__M]

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

[AkanchhaS]

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 

[Kayla23844191kdnc]

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?

[Test Screen Name]

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 · Accepted solution]

@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

[ewhizz]

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]

@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

[ewhizz]

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

[S. S]

Hi @ewhizz,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for your experience with Acrobat!

Would you mind saving a file on your desktop, to test if the saving works fine there? If yes, this could be a permissions issue when saving a file to that folder. 

You can check the section 2 tab in the given link: "Access Denied" or other errors when you access or work with files and folders in Windows.

If this does not help, please share a screen recording video of the entire event for better understanding and assistance, along with the application version number.

-Souvik

[enqu!re]

Notwithstanding anything else, it appears clear that there is something buried deep in the code of Acrobat that imposes a hard limit on the path+filename length quite apart from any limitations in Windows itself. The issue that Adobe should address is to investigate why Acrobat cannot open (or save) PDF files with a path+filename length longer than, say, 256 characters — while Windows File Explorer and, most importantly, other (competing) PDF applications can.

In terms of "graceful degredation" an application should be fault tolerant and avoid being the cause of failure, per:

• Failing with Dignity: A Deep Dive into Graceful Degradation
  https://www.codereliant.io/failing-with-dignity/ 
• Graceful Degradation
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/graceful-degradation 
• What is graceful degradation?
  https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/graceful-degradation 

Or, put another way, there should not be a single point of failure. Why is it then that Acrobat is unable to handle long path+filename PDF files — when competing PDF applications and the OS itself can?!?

Respectfully, I would suggest that it would be in Adobe's best interest to investigate what internal code limits the path+filename length that Acrobat can handle.  A good way to investigate this would be to set-up a test Windows desktop and create a file hierarchy with path+filename length greater than (say) 200 characters and check what PDF applications (Acrobat + 3rd party apps) can save and/or open files.  Then, incrementally increase the file length — untill a point is reached when Acrobat can no longer open or save PDF files.  I anticipate that when such point is reached, Windows File Manager and other, 3rd party PDF apps, can still handle such longer filename+path length files.  When that point is reached, it should be possible to determine what tipping point in terms of filename+path length renders Acrobat no longer able to handle opening or saving PDF files — when Windows File Manager and other, 3rd party, PDF apps still can.

At that point, Adobe can debug Acrobat to determine what, in the Acrobat code base, is the limiting factor.

~~