The VideoLAN Forums

OS: Windows 10 Home x64, 1809, build 17763,379
VLC: 3.0.6 Vetinari x64

I just created some files with names that are 261 characters long (not by choice, but that's what a tool spit out.) When I double-clicked the file, VLC displayed this message:



I tried having Windows share part of the path and when I access the same file through the share it plays just fine. So VLC or something it is using is not handling long file names correctly.

I'm not sure the proper way to report this. I tried searching the forum for "long file name" but that finds far too many messages and not a single one of the dozens I checked actually contained the string I search for (they all included the words, but not the string.)

Please share the full logs.

Hello, I have the same problem with long file names, but I noticed it didn't happen on some drives on my PC (Windows 10 17134.648)
Could it be related to the volume (disk) size ? I copied the same 'long filename' video file on several volumes, VLC works fine on volumes < 1TB, but never on larger ones : I get the same kind of error message as in the original post. On small volumes, curiously, VLC displays the filename in a dos8.3 style, "video ~1.avi" for example. But it works!
My 2 cents...
I have the 2 log files if you want (video file OK on drive C (small) but not on drive D (large) )

Hi @Spitfire Mk24, please upload your logfile somewhere if it's too large, like google drive or pastebin

Here they are :
https://1fichier.com/?5nbcj09d7e1c8nut5dt7
https://1fichier.com/?5ji1fxx5mk6i24jsrtcs

The files are small but I could not find how to attach them directly in my post

HI Unidan,
Any feedback ?

Hello, the problem is still there.
Any other player than VLC opens those files...
Have i done/said something wrong to get no response ?

The first log is paywalled and the second log just says that the file does not exist. I don't see any problem on VLC side there.

Hello, thanks for your reply.
Actually I think that is the problem, the file exists, but VLC says it doesn't. When I try to open it with Windows Media Player or any other player, it works fine. I have to shorten the file name to get it played by VLC otherwise I get the same message error as the one at the beginning of the post.
As I said the problem never happens on drives < 1TB, I tested that on several computers (Windows 7 & 10, all of them NTFS drives)

By the way I tried to re-upload the OK file, I don't know why the first one was paywalled : https://1fichier.com/?3xdgeqkxhl1sfzza5e85

Thanks for looking !

Hello, I'm also having issues with this, and have the debug logs ready,
Hope this issue can be easily fixed.

Logs: https://pastebin.com/cbSsitu5

Having this same problem as OP, with the same log output as the person who posted their logs above me. I know the file name/path is not be handled by windows correctly (unable to change file name unless it is moved out of the directory first.) The files play fine once moved out of their original directory.

I tried the latest 4.0 nightly just to see if it worked but it spits out the same error as my normal 3.0.8 install. Windows 10 Pro 1909. Any input?

Log: https://pastebin.com/tX9n4vhY

Error Message:
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'file://?/G%3A/Video/TV/The%20Office/The%20Office%20%28US%29%20%282005%29%20Season%201-9%20S01-S09%20%2B%20Extras%20%281080p%20Mixed%20x265%20HEVC%2010bit%20AAC%205.1%20LION%29/The%20Office%20%28US%29%20%282005%29%20Season%201%20S01%20%2B%20Extras%20%281080p%20AMZN%20WEB-DL%20x265%20HEVC%2010bit%20AAC%202.0%20LION%29/The%20Office%20%28US%29%20%282005%29%20-%20S01E01%20-%20Pilot%20%281080p%20AMZN%20WEB-DL%20x265%20LION%29.mkv'. Check the log for details.

This bug has existed for a very long time; I remember it existing mid last year. Has it been reproduced? Is there a bug tracker entry for it? What's stopping from fixing it?

Here's mention of this bug in Jan 2019: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=79041#p485871

Hey there, I know I'm years too late to reply to this but for anyone stumbling across this while searching for a solution, here ya go.

It might sound weird but the cause could just be that your filename is too long...
It probably has something to do with bits and stuff but apparently when the file name is longer than 259 characters a lot of programs are gonna have difficulty accessing it.
It sounded insane and stupid to me too but when i changed the filename i managed to open the files in VLC again and didn't get any errors.

Hope this helps!

There is no mention of this bug on trac.videolan.org. I have added a bug report: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/24246

I faced the same MRL error on 3.0.16. My path was long and on a network mapped drive. I changed some folder names and moved sub folders a level up. The files which had errors playing now played after ensuring shorter path length.

I have only tried this on Windows 11 build 22000.438

The log files only had and

Can we get some feedback on this issue as to whether or not VLC will ever be updated to support long path/file names? Nobody needs to share logs on this issue, it's easily reproduced. It's gotten to the point that I've made Win10 "Movies and TV" open MP4 files by default.

What version of windows do you have? What version of VLC are you running 32 bit or 64 bit?

32 Bit Windows natively has a character limit on filepaths of 256, this includes C:\ & folder names - you can increase this limit through group policy or registry editing, however not all 32 bit apps will work with this change.

So this issues isn't really VLC related; I'd recommend you follow this guide to help you reorganise your file structure:

https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to- ... n-windows/

What version of windows do you have? What version of VLC are you running 32 bit or 64 bit?

32 Bit Windows natively has a character limit on filepaths of 256, this includes C:\ & folder names - you can increase this limit through group policy or registry editing, however not all 32 bit apps will work with this change.

https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to- ... n-windows/

Win10 x64, over 260 (a limit since FAT16 I believe) as I indicated by saying "support long path/file names". NTFS will support 32,768 characters WIN32 API not so much.

The group policy change as indicated won't fix issues caused by software using OpenFile from Windows API, the software will need to use a different library as opposed to calling that method from Windows API.

So this issues isn't really VLC related; I'd recommend you follow this guide to help you reorganise your file structure:

It is an issue with VLC because the media files in this folder won't open in VLC but will open in other players. You could say there is a limit to what you can achieve using Windows APIs traditionally used for file handling, but there are other ways to make it work and it's up to VLC devs if they want to make that effort.

There are at least 3 options here:
1) User can chose to move all media to different path and refrain from downloading files to a path that will end up exceeding 260 characters when combined with the filename.
2) User can associate their media files to open with a different media player that supports >260 characters, like "Movies and TV" player built into Win10.
3) VLC devs can stop using the Windows APIs they're currently using which are limited to 260 characters and use something else. Assuming VLC is written in C++, maybe they can try a library that supports over 260 characters (docs for this library mention >260 character support https://docs.pocoproject.org/current/Poco.File.html).

I don't see why the developers wouldn't want to add support for long filenames, but it's certainly an issue with VLC and other older apps. It's ultimately up to VLC devs to determine if they want to make this change, but only they can fix VLC to work with long filenames.

Edit: I'll note that #1 is not always an option. One torrent I've downloaded would have resulted in a path+filename of 284 characters even if I had downloaded it to the root of a drive.

Stellar post Dan & Thanks for the education on the matter!! I happily stand corrected

VLC is not using the Win32 API to access files. It's using the CRT, as are most C applications.

VLC is not using the Win32 API to access files. It's using the CRT, as are more C applications.

Will VLC ever be updated to support long filenames or not?

VLC has always supported long file names. There never was a Win16 or DOS port. And Unicode support was over a decade ago.

The Windows port still a bunch of corner cases in Windows-specific code that assume a 259 characters limit though (no such problems on other platforms). If that's what you mean, then the answer is as always, bugs are fixed when somebody fixes them. This is a community project afterall.