I’m seeing “file name too long” errors when transferring files to external drives using Finder. I do tend to give my files very long names.
What is a good rule of thumb for the maximin number of characters in a file name?
iPad Pro (5th generation)
Although the filename character limit is 255, the entire path including the filename cannot exceed 1024 characters.
Although the filename character limit is 255, the entire path including the filename cannot exceed 1024 characters.
Niel provides a handy reference for this. I note from it that unless your storage device is using a pretty ancient format, that most formats are around the 255 character limit.
I'm old-school about this, and newer systems are more tolerant, but it used to be some characters had special meaning. I tend to avoid using characters like : ? / \ in file names.
255 characters.
I definitely have had issues with special characters when saving data to external drives. Some have been quite serious. I am a digital artist and lavishly named my .procreate files to remind me what they were. Now that I can get Finder-esque information in the Files app, I don’t need to do that anymore.
Thank you much for your help.
Thank you for answering. I’m afraid the table didn’t make any sense to me. How might I use it?
Find the particular system in the column on the left and look at the one next to it.
(238224)
I appreciate the additional information. Perhaps I need to learn more before I can grasp what the column contents mean—I get the OS part, so that’s something.
File name character limit
