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Character limit on filenames

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Reddwarf4ever

Active Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2022
Messages
250
Lightroom Version Number
11.4.1
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
I understand that Lightroom Classic imposes a character limit on file names, with W10 supporting long file names, thiught this wouldn’t now be an issue.
have a couple of group weeding photos, the keywords add up to around 500 characters,
I am using Jeffrey’s “Folder Publisher” Lightroom Plugin, so maybe the limitation is in the plug-in ???

the workaround is to make a publisher collection wi5iut these photos, and do them manually after.

thanks
 
Do you really expect someone to look through a 500 character filename to see if Uncle Jack is in the photo? Keywords should be in Exif.
 
Windows does not allow over somewhere around 260 characters in file names unless you turn it on in policy/registry. One note with instructions is here:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...um-limit/691ea463-2e15-452b-8426-8d372003504f

That's on the PATH not the file name. Once done, applications that are manifested to support long file names will automagically do so (they need a restart).

I have no idea about what the plugin does or lightroom, but wanted to make sure you know that by default long file names are OFF in windows even now.
 
Do you really expect someone to look through a 500 character filename to see if Uncle Jack is in the photo? Keywords should be in Exif.
Hello that’s down to personal choice, it’s just that my renaming template adds keywords to the file and gets stuck on 2 photo's only, be handy if it didn’t. My question wasn’t about the rights and wrongs of having long file names
 
Hello that’s down to personal choice, it’s just that my renaming template adds keywords to the file and gets stuck on 2 photo's only, be handy if it didn’t. My question wasn’t about the rights and wrongs of having long file names

I expect Jeffrey had to set a character limit on the field used for file manes in his plugin.

Both Windows and MacOS file systems have length limits on path names including the name of the file at the end. Using long file names is never a good practice because of the other issues that it brings to the file. Find another way to convey your information. Information contained in the file EXIF should never be carried in file of folder names as this is a duplication of the same information.


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I expect Jeffrey had to set a character limit on the field used for file manes in his plugin.

Both Windows and MacOS file systems have length limits on path names including the name of the file at the end. Using long file names is never a good practice because of the other issues that it brings to the file. Find another way to convey your information. Information contained in the file EXIF should never be carried in file of folder names as this is a duplication of the same information.

I did a bit of testing. First of all, all windows programs should use MAX_PATH as their path limit setting, that's just good programming, and indeed required by Windows standards.

I do not know if Jeffery does or not, but his plugin is probably driven in part by what Lightroom can do.

So I did some testing and Lightroom does not honor long paths. I created a deep folder on a windows system definitely permitting long paths. I went up about 370 characters. I put an image at each depth adding 10 characters each time. Lightroom started seeing them only under 260 characters.

So Lightroom is broken with respect to windows long path names as well. I use the word broken as an opinion, one could argue they just chose not to add that support as a feature, but really, isn't keeping up with windows part of why we pay for subscription?

So all aspects of philosophy of long file names aside, what the OP wants just isn't going to work.

My testing was on a current windows 10 system, I don't speak Mac.

PS. In the FWIW department, this originally came up with me from astrophotography images, where image context information is frequently embedded in file names so that batch processing can properly group files (by filter, exposure, temperature, date, gain, offset, etc.... lots of stuff). So I know my system is set for long paths and use it regularly. So I certainly see the OP's side of the long file name argument.
 
I do not know if Jeffery does or not, but his plugin is probably driven in part by what Lightroom can do.
It's very unlikely that the plugin per se imposes any limit on path lengths. Plugins are implemented in Lua, and Lua strings are limited in length only by the total amount of memory available. But the plugin uses the LR SDK API, which has the same limitations on path length that the rest of LR does.
 
I did a bit of testing. First of all, all windows programs should use MAX_PATH as their path limit setting, that's just good programming, and indeed required by Windows standards.

I do not know if Jeffery does or not, but his plugin is probably driven in part by what Lightroom can do.

So I did some testing and Lightroom does not honor long paths. I created a deep folder on a windows system definitely permitting long paths. I went up about 370 characters. I put an image at each depth adding 10 characters each time. Lightroom started seeing them only under 260 characters.

So Lightroom is broken with respect to windows long path names as well. I use the word broken as an opinion, one could argue they just chose not to add that support as a feature, but really, isn't keeping up with windows part of why we pay for subscription?

So all aspects of philosophy of long file names aside, what the OP wants just isn't going to work.

My testing was on a current windows 10 system, I don't speak Mac.

PS. In the FWIW department, this originally came up with me from astrophotography images, where image context information is frequently embedded in file names so that batch processing can properly group files (by filter, exposure, temperature, date, gain, offset, etc.... lots of stuff). So I know my system is set for long paths and use it regularly. So I certainly see the OP's side of the long file name argument.
Hello
thank you for your time and trouble investigations this. It’s not a big deal, the two photos that need a longer filename than Lightroom Classic allows, can be managed manually, but as you say, Lightroom Classic should follow the windows standards.

thanks again
 
It's very unlikely that the plugin per se imposes any limit on path lengths. Plugins are implemented in Lua, and Lua strings are limited in length only by the total amount of memory available. But the plugin uses the LR SDK API, which has the same limitations on path length that the rest of LR does.
Thank you, that makes sense
 
It's very unlikely that the plugin per se imposes any limit on path lengths. Plugins are implemented in Lua, and Lua strings are limited in length only by the total amount of memory available. But the plugin uses the LR SDK API, which has the same limitations on path length that the rest of LR does.

While the plug-in might not impose path limits, it might impose text field length limits for the field containing the file name.


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