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How do I solve this??
"After Effects error: The file path to this PDF document exceeds 260 characters and cannot be used. Move the file to a location with a shorter path."
I am unable to do this move as these are source files from client...
I ended up finding it was two .ai files that were so far into the folder chain that the filename was over 260 characters... so as soon as I moved them up a folder all good. AE didn't make it easy to troubleshoot nor to let me know which files were the culprit...
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Impossible to know without exact file names and paths as well as the contents of the PDF. As a matter of fact it's more likely that this is some special character or excessively long object name inside the PDF itself or a cross-platform issue with special characters.
Mylenium
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The thing is... no PDF exists in the folders.
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I've had the same ordeal going on and I'm shocked that I can't save it within the folder I need it to be at. This has completely uprooted the file organization of the entire Design division of the company I work at which worked completely fine until now.
Adobe needs to specify that this isn't a PDF or that it's possible it isn't, because the same went for me as Todd. I work in the company OneDrive so it is practically impossible for the project path not to have a long directory. Please, please fix this.
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Please fix this, beacuse i can't find the file either.... I is very annoying! The weird thing is that this error only shows up at mij Windows and not at my Mac.
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Use long path tool it will be easy to handle to these issues
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This could be a PDF or even EPS file just as well or an embedded AI smart object in a PSD.
Mylenium
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I ended up finding it was two .ai files that were so far into the folder chain that the filename was over 260 characters... so as soon as I moved them up a folder all good. AE didn't make it easy to troubleshoot nor to let me know which files were the culprit...
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Could you please help me with that? I'm pretty confused how to exact fix this. Am I supposed to rename everything or am I supposed release them out of the folder that they already exist in? I already tried doing the second one but it still shows the erroe so I think I didn't do the right thing. Please help this project is very important to me.
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Hi. Try to collect the project into a folder as high as you can to the drive letter. If you have folder/folder/folder/folder/etc... that adds to the filename being accessed.
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There are two options, the first is to collect the entire file and place it on the desktop of the computer you use. File > Dependencies > Collect Files, this will open a window and you should select "All". The other option if you have the file in a folder, try to send it to the desktop since sometimes the access path is through several folders which causes the 260 character error to be thrown. In my case, I was working on a file directly on a hard drive and when I reached a certain number of compositions to preview, it gave me an error, I simply threw the file on the desktop and was able to continue working. It is not necessary to install software or plugins to solve the problem, since I also found some pages that recommend downloading these apps that in my opinion could be viruses. luck and success
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What worked for me:
The reason this works is because if you now look inside your "(Footage)" folder in the collected project folder, there are no subfolders anymore. Those subfolders lenghten the path too long for AE to use.
I mean it worked for me. Hope it does for you too.
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I have the exact same problem. My Hackintosh just died and I went to Windows 11. And Windows has this weird limitation of 260 character limit.
Renaming hundreds of files is not an option...
But you can remove the limit by going to RegEdit, and setting "LongPathsEnabled" variable, in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem, to 1.
Unfortunately, it was already set on my machine. So I guess this is an After Effect error. I tried the same long path on Illustrator, and it failed too.
But I tried the same long path in a text Editor and C4D, and that worked....
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That said, Windows doens't let me write file names that goes over the path length limit... Even if you change the registry
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I found a solution that worked for me on the windows in the next link(however I copied the solution the steps to take to solve the long path issue):
Check if your version of Windows 10 supports long path names. Long path names were added in Windows 10 version 1607 and later. You can check your version of Windows 10 by going to Settings > System > About.
Check if long path names are enabled in the registry. You can do this by opening the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and navigating to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem. Look for the value "LongPathsEnabled" and make sure it is set to 1.
Check if the group policy setting is configured to enable long path names. Open the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) and navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem. Look for the "Enable Win32 long paths" policy and make sure it is set to "Enabled".
Restart your computer after making any changes to the registry or group policy settings.
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Hey, has anyone used LongPath Tool?
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Hey Ana, yes I have. It is easy, Google it, you'll find the answers.
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After scrolling for solutions i end up using long path tool. This may help you too
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For long character limits and long paths i used long path tool. It worked for me as expected.
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I am having this same issue. Is long path tool worth trying?
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please enlighten me on this. is long path tool also works for force deletion?
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if you are having trouble with long path file error please tryout long path tool , I assure you can get rid from this type of errors