How to find files whose paths are too long

When I am backing up my computer's files to another drive, I get a message stating that some of my files' paths are too long to copy. But it doesn't tell me where the files are, or I would fix the issue. I heard about a utility called TLPD (Too Long Paths Detector). I have a few questions:

--Has anyone used TLPD successfully?
--Is it safe?
--If so, where is the best site from which to download it?
--If TLPD is not good, do you have any other (simple, non-registry-modifying) suggestions?

Thanks.

dalchina said:

Another - reviewed:
Path Length Checker

Thanks. I'll check it out. Have you used it?

Why not just use PowerShell? It's built-in so no third-party utilities needed:

Code:

# Change $dump_path from example "C:\Users\user\Documents" below to wherever you want and the length up to the full filepath max. of 256 characters
$dump_path = "C:\Users\user\Documents"
Get-ChildItem $dump_path -Recurse | Where-Object  {$_.Name.Length -gt 100}

For example, here's a recursive check for all filepaths longer than 100 characters in my Documents folders and subfolders:


Hope this helps...

Just to tweak @RickC's answer, you can change the last line to report the full pathname (making it easier to locate).

Code:

# Change $dump_path from example "C:\Users\user\Documents" below to wherever you want and the length up to the full filepath max. of 256 characters
$dump_path = "C:\Users\user\Documents"
Get-ChildItem $dump_path -Recurse | Where-Object  {$_.Name.Length -gt 100} | select FullName

garlin said:

Just to tweak @RickC's answer, you can change the last line to report the full pathname (making it easier to locate).

Code:

# Change $dump_path from example "C:\Users\user\Documents" below to wherever you want and the length up to the full filepath max. of 256 characters
$dump_path = "C:\Users\user\Documents"
Get-ChildItem $dump_path -Recurse | Where-Object  {$_.Name.Length -gt 100} | select FullName

That definitely looks better. Thanks, @garlin.

Hello

Duplicate Windows update files tend to add a (1) at the end of the file name and take it over the allowed amount.
See if you have any duplicate Windows update downloads lurking around in your file system

Try3 said:

Just to tweak @garlin's tweak to @RickC's answer, you can output the file straight to CSV if you want.

How do I specify the output filename?