Getting file name too long to save message

An update: this time I am getting a totally different error message, again when saving a message to text in Mail.

The message (in French) says "Impossible to save to path [...]. Pick up another path". The problem is, this is not at all the path that I had chosen in the Save As dialog; and this erroneous path (in the error message) corresponds to a folder which I had just deleted a couple of hours ago.

Quitting then reopening Mail solved the issue: I was then able to save this message to the right folder.

Something seems to be seriously broken in Mail right now (Mavericks, 10.9.1).

I had the same Mail problem inexplicably occur and remain persistent: "Names longer than 31 characters are not supported on the destination volume." After much frustration and the unsuccessful efforts of three Apple Help Desk Associates (AHDAs), the fourth AHDA zeroed in on the problem and solved it for me: the mailbox had to be repaired by reindexing the messages. Just in case this is still a problem for any of you, here's a link to the solution that worked for me: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14876?viewlocale=en_US

AndyT!,

when you say that it happens on “one particular folder on your main hard drive”, is that “main” hard drive the internal drive of your iMac, or a directly-connected external drive, or a network-connected external drive?

AndyT!,

in whichever parent folder the troublesome folder is, try creating another folder with a name that has the same length as the troublesome folder. Does the same message appear when you try to save a Pages document as PDF in the new folder?

If you select the folder in the Finder, and then do Get Info

Finder -> File -> Get Info... (Or Command-I)

What does the "Where:" line say?

It is strange that Pages would not allow you to Export to PDF with a file name that is longer than 31 characters.

31 characters is more typical of older file systems that restricted name length to 31 characters. The Mac OS X file system has allowed long file names for at least a decade. This is why Melophage was wondering if the folder was on an external drive or a network attached file system, where other rules could apply.

The only other wild theory I can come up with is that maybe the full path was very long, and the Pages Export to PDF code was working with the long path and with all the folders and the file name, it exceeded some internal buffer length. If this were the case, it would be a less than robust bit of coding in Pages. Anyway, is the target folder deeply nested inside other folders, as in your_home_folder -> next_folder -> then_another -> and_another -> yet_another -> etc -> etc -> etc -> target_folder, such that this total lenght of folder names is very long? NOTE: I do not think this is a good theory, just the only thing I could think of that might possibily cause Pages to say your file name was too long, when it was happy with the long file name in your Desktop.

I am now getting this same message trying to save to PDF in Preview. And, when I shorten the name enough to get Preview to save the file, Preview acts as if it is saving the file, but the file disappears instead. This is in 10.9.1.

Same behaviour here on a 2010 MacBook Pro when saving messages as text from Mail, but this also happens with other apps. This first appeared after installing Mavericks, and has reappeared intermittently ever since.

My drive is a 4-year old 500 GB Apple SSD (built-in), partitioned in two: Mac OS extended (journalled) for Mac, and NTFS for Boot Camp. This is of course when writing to the Mac partition.

I hope that's not connected, not an indication that SSD sectors are gradually reaching their limit number of rewrites, that it's not a manifestation of OS X attempting to write to a sector that can no longer be written to. Hopefully unrrelated, but a scary thought nonetheless.

Verifying the drive in Disk Utility reports everything's fine with it.

Also having the same issue when I try to save pdf attachments from Mail onto my hard drive. I have a 2010 Macbook air running Mavericks. This problem started a couple days ago. The directory name where I am saving the file isn't long, and I've never had this issue before.

I'm having the same problem when I try to save a gmail as a pdf, which I have always done before. I get exactly the same message - "Names longer than 31 characters are not supported on the destination volume." I am running Maveriicks and everything is up to date, but I can't seem to get by this problem.

Greetings!

I spent some time with Applie today and ran through some exercises to isolate the problem. I was using Chrome as my browser to access gmail - I would be interested to know if everyone else who had this problem is using Chrome. Gmail was using Preview to create the PDF to save. The last thing we tried was to save the email using Safari instead of Chrome... and it worked. I had switched to Chrome a few years ago due to some problems I was having at the time, but I will likely start using Safari now.

This would lead me to believe that there may be a slight compatability problem with Chrome and Mavericks...

Anyone else find a different solution? From some of the posts it sounds like the problem may also exist within Applie mail, which of course, would mean that the problem is still within Applie and not with Chrome. If we work together we can run this one down!

Thanks to everybody for their reports and suggestions. In my case neither gmail nor Chrome are involved (no gmail account, very occasional use of Chrome and never to check mail).

One idea I had, but that's a very long shot and probably irrelevant, was that the problem happened with SSD drives only and pointed to an incompatibility between some OS X libraries (used by Mail) and the controllers in Apple's SSDs; namely, Mail trying to write to a cell that has reached the end of its life and the message about file names over 31 characters being a manifestation that it can't.

As I said, a very long shot. Did some people experience the problem with traditional hard drives, or are all using SSDs?

Update on my problem I am not using Chrome but Firefox Alos I am not using Firefox for email I am just ldownloading it from my Mail provider using Aplle Mail on to my Macbook Pro (circ unibody 2010) Alos I am NOT using an SSD. I have changed no Hardware or system applications etc what Apple have upgraded and it started imedially after upgrading to Maverick

Hi,

I am having a similar issue. However, mail and the internet are not involved! I keep getting the same error everyone is describing but it happens when I'm trying to save a file in "Pages". I have never had this problem previously and it is very frustrating.

Anyone else having this problem outside of messaging systems and the internet?

I am using a MacBook Air 6 (2013) and I am running OSX 10.9.1 and using Pages 5.0.

Thanks!

I'm crossposting this from a separate thread:

- I intermittently experience this error when manipulating PDFs. I frequently cannot save PDF attachments from Mail, and instead have to browse to the folder and manually copy the attachment through the file system.

- I have had trouble exporting PDFs from Pages (newest version).

- Files are being saved within my home directory. I have encountered this error only through Mail and Pages, and never on file system copy or move operations, even when dealing with the same folders.

- My SSD is not showing errors and is HFS+ Journaled and Encrypted.

- Never had this problem before Mavericks.

So to summarize my experience, this is not a SSD integrity issue (though this does not address the question further up about 10.9 and SSD controllers); it is a problem in Mail and Pages, if not other programs; it is limited to Mavericks; it only affects PDFs; and it is not a network volume error.

I have this problem ("names longer than 31 characters are not supported on the destination volume") saving files (of any type) from inside Mail.app. Shortening the file name has no effect (that is to say, the file does not get saved). I use a Solid State Drive. I can drag the files from the mail message to which they are attached to anywhere on the hard disk without problems. The problem started in Maverick. A possibly related but intermittent problem is that I can also no longer create a new folder from Mail.app to download to. The error message is "This location is read-only" (no matter what location I choose).

Adriaanh