INTERACT FORUM
Windows => JRiver Media Center 34 for Windows => Topic started by: cthdt on May 17, 2025, 06:35:40 am
-
Dear JRiver,
There is no reason to reject filename lengths which are accepted in the operating system.
I don't want to rename thousand of songs that ROON and other software can access without problem.
Please consider this improvement at the earliest.
From Import log (example)
In-depth details:
Skipped (filename too long):
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1)\Jonathan Hay, Nappy Roots - Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1) - 04 One Of These Mornings feat. Buffalo Stille, GT Garza, Nyche, Atlas Jenkins, TrakkSounds.flac
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1)\Jonathan Hay, Nappy Roots - Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1) - 06 Election Day feat. Skinny Deville, Big V, Fish Scales, Roc Raida, Sean C, LV.flac
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1)\Jonathan Hay, Nappy Roots - Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1) - 07 The Soup Kitchen feat. Buffalo Stille, I-20, Nyche, Renzo Charles, Trakksounds.flac
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1)\Jonathan Hay, Nappy Roots - Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1) - 09 Whiskey feat. Russ Smith, DJ Revolution, Wordsworth, Mike Smith, Buffalo Stille, King Tech.flac
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1)\Jonathan Hay, Nappy Roots - Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1) - 10 Another Sofa Bed -Sh!ts Beautiful Remix- feat. Michael Barber, 1st Blood, Buffalo Stille.flac
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1)\Jonathan Hay, Nappy Roots - Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1) - 12 Red Plague -ESPN Premiere- feat. Buffalo Stille, Atlas Jenkins, Audio Stepchild.flac
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1)\Jonathan Hay, Nappy Roots - Nappy Roots & Jonathan Hay Collaborations (Vol.1) - 13 I Got 5 On It -Louisville Remix- feat. R Prophet, Big V, Pink Grenade, Renzo Charles.flac
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Wish You Were Brooklyn- The Electro Jazz House Invasion Soundtrack\#1 Album on Apple Music - Apple iTunes Chart in South Africa ! - Wish You Were Brooklyn- The Electro Jazz - 13 The Williamsburg Hotel (Queen Bed Mix) feat. 41x.flac
C:\Users\Fredr\Music\Jonathan Hay, Benny Reid\Wish You Were Brooklyn- The Electro Jazz House Invasion Soundtrack\#1 Album on Apple Music - Apple iTunes Chart in South Africa ! - Wish You Were Brooklyn- The Electro Jazz - House Invasion Wish You Were Brooklyn.jpg
-
MC's Options > General > Advanced > check the Support extra long filenames box. :)
-
You know, I have seen this question come up fairly often over the years. So it begs the question: why is this option not just checked by default? For that matter, why is it even an option? Is there a downside to simply supporting extra long filenames all the time?
Who knows how many MC trial users may have encountered this issue, didn't get on the forum to ask the question or research the wiki, and simply decided to go with a different media player as a result.
-
Likely because by default it's not enabled in Windows and is actually an experimental feature. You have to enable it via registry editor.
If I recall correctly even now File Explorer still doesn't work correctly with the experimental extra long filenames feature in Windows. It didn't when I last tried it.
Personally I don't enable it, it used to cause more issues (File Explorer) than it was worth.
-
Thanks for the great reply A.D. I was not aware of the experimental nature.
Like you, I don't use that setting either because all my music is organized in folders via artist/album/track, where the track (filename) is simply the track #/name and nothing else. Never having used the "support extra long filenames" setting, I did not realize that feature was buggy.
That said, if the OP encounters issues after toggling on the "extra long" setting, I recommend looking at the RMC (rename, move, copy) functionality where you can direct MC to automatically reorganize your entire library to the folder/name structure noted above, thus eliminating the extra long filenames.
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Rename,_Move,_and_Copy_Files
-
I agree that we should just turn it on and remove the option for v34. If anyone finds something still not working nicely, we'll fix it. Thanks.
-
I'm not so sure if that could cause problems if the feature isn't enabled in Windows. What would happen if long paths is auto-enabled in MC and not in Windows, would it try when using one of the RMCF tool to change paths, would it attempt to use long paths? Would it error out?
Maybe it would be easier to detect whether or not long paths is enabled in Windows by checking the registry key, and if it's enabled auto-enable it on MC and if it's not enabled don't enable it in MC?
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"LongPathsEnabled"=dword:00000001
That's the key and value used to enable it in Windows.
-
Media Center will encode paths using the \\?\ prefix which does not require the registry option to be enabled, at least for some of the functionality.
To lift the limit entirely on newer version of Windows, the registry setting can definitely help, but considering its not set by default and there is no clear UI option to set it (outside of group policies), I don't think we should rely on it.
-
I just checked, long paths still cause issues in File Explorer on Windows 11 24H2. It still doesn't properly support it, which is a shame.
-
I just checked, long paths still cause issues in File Explorer on Windows 11 24H2. It still doesn't properly support it, which is a shame.
There's something I've noticed that happened after installing a Windows 11 24H2 Update - As with MC my UserName on my Win NUC is EnglishTiger but since that update Explorer only shows my UserName as engli
I also seem to remember that the limit for long names was 256 characters, or is that the Limit of the Number of Files not inside Folders and/or Folders that can be present in the C: and DeskTop Folders. I certainly am aware that if the DeskTop Folder has more that 256 Entries it takes ages for Windows to draw the DeskTop and what entries it Displays appears to be Decided Randomly.