Docs - Long Paths

Desktop Connector includes features that will help make the user aware of path length restrictions.

Topics in this Section

Long Path Notes
Long Path Notifications
Long Path Supported Workflows
Long Path Unsupported Workflows

Long Path Notes

Important: Version 16.x changed the way that long paths are handled in the Autodesk Docs connector. The same path shortening behavior used in Microsoft Windows has been applied to the Autodesk Docs connector.

Note: enabling Windows long path support in Windows will not change Autodesk Docs behavior. Version 16.x will block operations that would result in exceeding the path limit on disk, and allow some limited operations on files/folders that exceed the path limits.

For files synced to the PC in Autodesk Docs, the length of the Autodesk Docs Root Folder (C:\Users\Username\DC\ACCDocs\) plus the relative path of the file (up to 400 chars) cannot be more than 520 characters.

For example:C:\Users\Username\DC\ACCDocs\26200 Town Center Drive\Project Files\Civil\My Project.dwg.The preceding path has 87 characters including the file name and extension.

Note: The long path limitation is due to Microsoft's file path length limit of 260 characters for files and 247 characters for folders.

Long Path Notifications

When adding a project or multiple projects to Desktop Connector, the following information will be provided to you when long paths are discovered:

Long Paths Identified

The Project name that contains long file/folder paths.
View list of impacted files and folders will provide the exact file/folder names and their location in the project.

Important:

To resolve the conflict consider shortening the folder hierarchy and file/folder names through the Autodesk Docs web interface.

When selecting View list of impacted files and folders, a text file listing all the offending files/folders will open up for you to view the locations. Alternatively, you can navigate to the folder containing the information on long paths as shown.

Tip:

Long path information can be found at any time by navigating to the Desktop Connector Logs location (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Desktop Connector\Logs) and viewing the text files as shown in the following image.

The startup_longpath.txt file provides you a refreshed list each time you start Desktop Connector for that project.
The subscription_longpath_231001-113430064.txt provides you information on when you have added more long paths to the system since you subscribed to the project.

Long Path Supported Workflows

Certain operations on files and folders with long paths can be completed in the cloud data source and these will not cause issues with Desktop Connector.

See Long Path Supported Workflows for additional information.

Long Path Unsupported Workflows

Operations exceeding disk path limits may be blocked with an error message, often a tray bubble message, or they might skip over files and folders beyond the limit, showing a warning.

The Desktop Connector can shorten folder paths (using Windows 8.3 formatting) to work with folders and files exceeding the 260-character limit. However, it's important to note that Microsoft may not support non-English characters (UTF-16) in folders and files beyond the 260-character limit.

Sometimes, you may encounter a situation where a file on disk displays a sync icon but does not get uploaded.
See Long Path Unsupported Workflows for additional information.

Related Concepts:

"Long Paths Not Supported" displays while syncing files in Desktop Connector version 16.x.
Refer to Long Paths Unsupported Workflows for additional information on unsupported workflows.