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[Donmc]

I occasionally get the "file name too long" warning.  How can I shorten the name of a single file?  The file name change function under "Library Tools" wants to change the file naming rule for all 15,000 of my files.  That's scary.

How can I shorten the names for just one CD?

[JimH]

A shorter path would help:

C:\M\Artist\...
instead of
C:\My Music\Artist\...

[Donmc]

Yes, but how do I do that? 

The warning window says "These file pathnames are too long and will be truncated: ...
To avoid this truncation, click No and go to the file naming and location settings page and choose a shorter file naming rule.
It does not give me the option of simply shortening the name of the file.

I seem to have the option of truncating the file or changing the naming rule and not of just shortening a single file name.

When I allow the file name to be truncated sometimes the file is corrupt.

How can I get direct access to the file name prior to ripping a CD?

[Antognini]

I too ran into the long filename issue, because MC decided to create a new high-level directory (with a shorter name than the usual high-level directory) for the offending files.

I have been reviewing the prospective filenames by causing MC to ask me what I want to do when a CD appears in my computer; I now always say "take no action," but in fact MC does some work (sometimes saying "analyzing optical disk"). I go to the rip window and see what MC has gathered about the CD; the track names are given, and they will be the basis of the associated files. If a name looks too long, I can click on Edit Disc Information and edit the prospective track names.

But this is tedious (unless, like me, you want to correct mangled German track information in German-language material). Now I've adopted this custom rule in Tools - Options - File Location - Audio - Filename rule: [Track #] - [Artist] - [Album] - Left([Name], 100) .  This -- truncating the track name to 100 characters -- should work for me in almost all cases. (Of course, a really long artist and/or album name can still blow the OS filename limit.)