I am definitely with RJM here. I am constantly manually changing the filenames MC has truncated and this is having a real toll on my workflow.
I understand the logic behind limiting to the windows length restriction so as not to create files that windows itself can't handle, but I do not understand the execution.
From
MSDN:
"Individual components of a filename (i.e. each subdirectory along the path, and the final filename) are limited to 255 characters, and the total path length is limited to approximately 32,000 characters."So it's the individual elements in a file path (ie C:\__A__\__B__\__c__.* ) that the windows limit applies to, not the total file path length itself?
If this is the case, why is MC so restrictive? (ie in many cases will restrict a
single field to 60?)
MC will no longer let me have filename/paths like:
O:\Film\Dr. Strangelove or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
O:\Film\[Movie] ([Year])
O:\Music\Soundtrack\50 First Dates, Love Songs from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
O:\Music\Soundtrack\[Album]
The examples above are very simple and common examples of where MC will unnecessarily truncate the filepaths
- No individual path elements break the windows length limit
- Only one or two fields are used in each of the above examples, why limit them to 60 characters?
- The paths cause no problem in windows.
And while this is meant to be avoiding a problem as Jim points out, it also introduces new ones too...
Consider numbered series (Part 1, Part 2) etc ... where the differentiator is at the end of the field string
[A Field] = _____ Part 1
[A Field] = _____ Part 2
If these fields are used in the
- filename, the two files will end up with identical filenames as the "part 1" part has been truncated, and it will be left to windows to append (1), (2) to the files randomly, confusion abounds
- folder element of the file path, then paths which would have been different will now be the same (as the "part 1" etc part has been truncated), and files would unexpectedly end up in the same folder. Coverart gets rewritten etc etc. And worst of all, the user is told nothing of this