# Avoiding filename length errors?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/avoiding-filename-length-errors/16717
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 19, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/avoiding-filename-length-errors/16717 "2015-03-19T22:59:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sigrun](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/sigrun)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/avoiding-filename-length-errors/16717/1 "2015-03-19T22:59:24Z")
When tagging classical music I often come up against errors which I believe are something to do with long filenames.
Often I'll run an action group that transplants the Track No. & Title to the file name.
Is there a way I can add a action to that action group to restrict the length of the filename by cutting off any excess & just adding a "..." to the end of the filename?
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2015, 5:06am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/avoiding-filename-length-errors/16717/2 "2015-03-20T05:06:13Z")
You may want to have a look at this thread on a similar problem:
[Help with smart truncating of long filenames](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/16455/1)
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### Author:  [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/avoiding-filename-length-errors/16717/3 "2015-03-20T05:48:15Z")
There is no restriction to the length of the filename but to the length of the whole path including the filename. (256 characters)
[https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247.aspx](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247.aspx)
So maybe you should have a look at your path to the location of the filename.
Since windows XP I avoided a very long pathlength in not storing my mp3s in the windows standard-folder for music (C:\Documents and Settings\Sigrun\My Documents\My Music). This would already waste about 60 characters till reaching your personal extension of the path i.e.
\Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich\If Music Be the Food of Love... Prepare for Indigestion\11 - Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beakym Mick & Tich - Hair on My Chinny-Chin-Chin (Huff 'N' Puff).mp3)
The example represents a personal folder structure and file-naming of "\%artist%\%album%\%track% - %artist% - %title%".
Would you really like to have cut the filename to maybe "11 - Dave, Dee, Beaky, Mick ..."
I think my example makes clear that such conflicts need to be avoided manually and not automatic in shortening only the filename. You need to have a close look on the length of your complete path.
To do this:
- Move your mp3s to a short path (i.e. E:\MP3s)
- define a column with the name of "Path-Length" and the value of $len(%\_filename\_ext%%\_folderpath%), so that you always have a problematic path-lenth in view.
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### Author:  [@Zerow](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Zerow)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/avoiding-filename-length-errors/16717/4 "2015-03-25T14:14:21Z")
> [@poster](#):
>
> There is no restriction to the length of the filename but to the length of the whole path including the filename. (256 characters)
But still, there can be and issuse when burning copies to discs?
Depending software / setings used for burning?
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### Author:  [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/avoiding-filename-length-errors/16717/5 "2015-03-25T14:33:44Z")
> [@zerow](#):
>
> But still, there can be and issuse when burning copies to discs?
>
> Depending software / setings used for burning?
There are a lot of filesystem in this world. So there are a lot of different limits and for optical mediums it depend which kind of optical medium and which file-system you choose. (ISO 9660, Joliet, UDF)
Look yourself:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison\_of...\_systems#Limits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems#Limits)
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/avoiding-filename-length-errors/16717/6 "2026-02-09T12:25:35Z")