Why do I get error that filenames longer than 31 characters are unsupported?

Question

Why do I get error that filenames longer than 31 characters are unsupported?

I have read more than one post on this happening on Mavericks, yet I see nothing that indicates anything other than yep, it is an intermittent problem. To summarize:

When saving a file, or exporting to PDF, or printing to PDF, etc., the filesystem will sometimes throw an exception:

1. Error dialog presents: "Names longer than 31 characters are not supporred on the destination volumne."

2. If the filename is shortened, it is "accepted" yet no file is saved at the destination folder.

3. (In my observation) The previously used destination folder is not remembered for saving/exporting subsequent files. (This seems consistent with the files not actually being saved, despite shorter filenames.

This is very problematic, and it has occurred numerous times. Disk Utility shows no problems with the hard disk (using Verify). Rebooting seems to clear it up (sometimes), but it is pretty silly for a Mac to require a reboot like that (that sounds like Windows).

Any help / response would be appreciated.

Posted on Feb 2, 2014 11:05 AM

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Answer 1

4norbert

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2015 7:17 AM in response to Leslie Worley

Hi colleagues,

I recently faced the same problem with this unsupported length of filenames (particularly with Mail- and TextEdit-files). Searching the Internet I found a hint that led me to a solution (Apple Mail Fehler beim Speichern von Anhängen - Namen mit mehr als 31 ...)(sorry, german only).

According to that hint the problem is caused by the usage of an external Windows-(MS-DOS)-formatted drive (i.e. USB-stick or else) , where the Mac seems to take over this formatting-infos and „remembers“ them when you later want to save a file on your disk.

Recapitulating the steps I did before I was confronted with that annoying error message I suggest:

you better not open, edit, save and close a file while it’s still located on the MS-DOS-stick (SD-card…) but copy or move it to the Mac, edit and save it there, then copy or move it back to the external drive.

Simply transferring files from one drive to the other does not cause a problem but to open , edit , save and close a file directly on the ext. drive leads to the unwanted error-message (most probably you also get a message telling you, that „Versions“ is not supported when saving and closing the file on that drive).

So I did the following to get rid of the 31-character limitation:

1. go to ~/Library, search for the „Caches“-folder, delete it

2. search for the „Caches“-folder in Macintosh HD/Library and delete it (admin identification may be necessary)

3. go to Macintosh HD/System/Library and again delete the „Caches“-folder herein (admin-ID needed).

4. restart the Computer (the Cache-folders are rebuilt automatically).

Proofing file-saving in Mail and TextEdit brought up no more error messages.

For me it works and I hope it will for you.

All the best

Norbert

PS: I found this reply by Niel on the same issue which I think supports the theory of how the target drive is formatted.

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Answer 2

floyd42

Level 1

5 points

Jul 31, 2014 7:02 AM in response to Leslie Worley

I just had the very same problem using Safari - Print (Open PDF in Preview) - Saves As from Preview on Mavericks 10.9.4.

Initially selecting my target folder for the PDF in Preview resulted in

"Names longer than 31 characters are not supported on the destination volume."

I then selected the top-level Macintosh HD icon on the sidebar of the Save requester, navigated back to the very same folder and voila - save worked. Same filename (32 chars long, just letters, one underscore and .pdf as suffix), same location, but after 'resetting' the path in the Save requester...

I know this issue for quite some time, never posted about it; normally just save on Home or Root folder (which also means selecting an entry on the left sidebar in the save directory; never needed to reboot); also can't promise whether my approach is a permanent fix. Perhaps I simply took long enough while navigating in this save requester to trigger a timeout or whatever.

This bug is around for quite some time in Mavericks.... Typically it's transient.

PS: HDD is formated HFS+(Journaled) and is the standard boot device "Macintosh HD".

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Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,700 points

Aug 15, 2014 7:42 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Some examples. Mind you, this is in Photoshop CC 2014 in Mavericks. Not some outdated app in an older version of OS X. It allows me to use \ < > or | in a name, but attempting to use / produces this message:

It won't let me type a colon : for anything. You'd swear you're hitting the wrong key, because Photoshop keeps changing it to a dash - every time you press : . If I change a filename after the fact to include a /, Photoshop will open it with that name, but then refuse to save it by any name if it still contains the /, with the same message shown here. As with OS 9 and earlier, you cannot in any way use : in a name.

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Answer 4

Jan 21, 2015 12:02 PM in response to Leslie Worley

I am seeing thi problem too.

Originall I posted here to thread 6704033

Error when saving calendar exports-names longer than 31 characters not supported on the destination volume.

Details there.

I've ben using 10.10.1 and saving similar long files for a month, in the same directories that now throw intermittent errors. Something is buggy here.

Happened so far from Safari (8.0.2) accessing web-based Outlook 365 (MS ! Curses!) saving a file as PDF, like many of the other posts here.

I suspect it also caused a hang of VueScan software earlier while I was saving a file from that app, as well, VueScan hung (force-quit) right before I had the Outlook-save failure.

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Answer 5

Feb 2, 2014 2:08 PM in response to Csound1

Thanks. I was going to reboot, when I discovered it just magically fixed itself.

As I said in my original question:

"Rebooting seems to clear it up (sometimes), but it is pretty silly for a Mac to require a reboot like that (that sounds like Windows)."

Since upgrading to Mavericks, this behavior just starts happening sometimes. To me, rebooting is not a solution. It is a workaround. I'll do it if that is the only answer, of course, but this is what we expect from the Windows OS, not from OS X.

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Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Feb 2, 2014 2:11 PM in response to Leslie Worley

OK

Detail please

What application, and is it every file saved by this application or just some. If some are there any common factors involved.

I assume that you do have a backup of this drive in case this is a hard drive problem.?

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Answer 7

Feb 2, 2014 2:58 PM in response to Csound1

Most often, I see this when I am using "Print to PDF" or "Export to PDF". Notably but not always from Mail, and usually after having successfully saved a number of documents already. (I save stuff electronically in batches.)

Also, I've had it happen when I am scanning a batch of documents, either to PDF or to JPG, using the Scan Assistant. Again, after one or more has successfully been saved.

I won't say it has never happened from any other application, but once it starts, it seems stuck in this problem (reporting a > 32-character filename, or if shortened the file doesn't actually get saved).

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Answer 8

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,700 points

Feb 3, 2014 9:49 AM in response to Leslie Worley

It shows: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) .

Okay, that's not it. I was wondering if you were using a drive that had long ago been formatted Mac OS Standard and hadn't reformatted it as HFS+ (Extended).

The 31 character limit was an OS 9 and earlier thing. If this app is an old title that has been updated by the vendor over the years for OS X, it could be leftover code in the app that is incorrectly kicking in and cutting you off at the old limit.

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Answer 9

Feb 3, 2014 10:02 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Hi Kurt,

Unfortunately, the app is Mail, as well as Scan Assistant (general print drivers), in Mavericks. rather than an older app. More specifically (but I cannot claim exclusively) when I try use Print as PDF (Mail), Export as PDF (Mail), or just Save/Save As when scanning a document. I'll be humming along doing these things successfully, them suddenly "names longer than 31 charscters are not supported." And even when you shorten them, it appears to accept it but no file is created.

A reboot will "fix" it, and yesterday I left the computer for a while and came back and it had righted itself I guess we'll have to wait for Apple to think this is a big enough problem to fix!

Thanks!

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Answer 10

Feb 3, 2014 10:14 AM in response to Csound1

Hi, Csound1. When you open "Printers & Scanners" in system prefs, if your printer has scan capability there with be both a Print and a Scan tab. Selecting Scan tab, there will be an Open Scanner button. What opens may indeed be vendor specific.

That being said, this hasn't to do with using the printer or scanner. I added that as a second example. It is the system "Save As" function where this is happening. Using Mail (more often than scanning), I use" Print -> Save as PDF" or "Export as PDF" to make file copies of emails. These use the same system Save dialog.

Sorry if the scan assistant example made anything muddy. :-)

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Answer 11

Feb 4, 2014 8:35 AM in response to Leslie Worley

I too have found this intermittently, on OS X 10.9.1. The only correlation I've found so far is that when it has happened for me, it's been when saving to a folder that's shared using AFP. I can't be sure that's it, but I wonder if it's hitting an old code path related to really old AFP filename limitations.

I've had this issue come and go on the same shared folder (saving web archives from Safari) even without a reboot.

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Answer 12

Feb 6, 2014 8:32 AM in response to patrick206

Hi Patrick,

Jeff mentions he encounters this issue when using a network file share using AFP. For myself, this has never been the case; when it occurs, it have always been when saving to a folder within in my home folder. So, I don't think this is specific to network drives. Again, once it occurs, it seems any operation of this type fails. UNTIL and UNLESS it decides to resolve itself (as both Jeff and myself have sometimes observed).

At the moment, it seems to be functioning normally, so I cannot really try any suggestions to help diagnose. :-/ Though I really do appreciate everyone trying to help with this!

- Les

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Answer 13

Feb 17, 2014 2:28 AM in response to Csound1

Csound1 wrote:

Unless you post the filename how can we know what (if anything) is illegal about it.

Or should I just take an uninformed guess.

Start your own thread, then you can have your own attention.

If you shed a little of your arrogance, you'll realize that I wrote - "filename larger than 31 chars" are not being accepted. I did comm+P on the below web page and the filename was imported from the article title which is greater than 31 characters.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/19/world/meast/syria-geneva-talks

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Answer 14

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Feb 17, 2014 2:38 AM in response to BabaKaAshirwaad

So don't provide the information, it's your choice to solicit guesses. in the thread you are trying to hijack. And if it is not important enough for you to create your own thread it's not important enough for me to take a guess.

Good luck and goodbye.

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Answer 15

Feb 17, 2014 2:44 AM in response to Csound1

I did provide the link and explained the steps to see the error (i.e. to save the above article in my disk). The issue gets resolved when I restart my mac but reappears after some time.

P.S. I did not create a new thread on this since the issue was already listed. Just wanted to highlight that it is being faced by multiple users.

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