Copying and synchronizing files and folders with Iperius Backup or any other backup software, sometimes it might happen the destination path of the files becomes too long to be handled by Windows (in fact, the maximum path length allowed by Windows Explorer is 255/260 characters). When a folder contains files with a path that exceeds the maximum path allowed by Windows, there could be errors in copying or deleting those files. Practically, that folder cannot be deleted anymore.

Long Path Eraser (LPE) is a free tool that allows deleting files and folders with too long paths, that you cannot delete manually. Long Path Eraser automatically deletes the folder you selected, including all its files and subfolders, regardless of their path length (even if they are in a network folder).

Download Long Path Eraser Free 1.2 (updated 14/06/2016)

 

As said above, it can happen that a copy operation creates paths longer than the maximum value you can handle manually by the Windows Explorer (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320081/it). When this thing occurs, the folder containing files with long paths cannot be deleted anymore, consuming disk space and generating errors if you try to move or copy it manually.

Windows might show the following errors:

  • “Error cannot delete file: cannot read from source file or disk”
  • “Path too long”
  • “Cannot delete file or folder The file name you specified is not valid or too long. Specify a different file name.”
  • “Cannot remove folder <folder_name> – the filename or extension is too long”
  • “File name too long”

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Long Path Eraser allows you to select the root folder from which start to delete all its content in a recursive mode, recovering the disk space, and finally solve the problem.

Long Path Eraser is a free software developed by Enter Srl (www.entersrl.net). It can be used by companies and freely distributed. Long Path Eraser is portable, so no installation is required, You simply need to start the executable file.

Download Long Path Eraser Free

 

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How to delete a file or folder with too long path – LPE Free
Iperius Backup Team
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Comments

  1. Brian Lowrance

    Are there any command-line options to perform the deletes from there so that it can be scriptable?

    Such as
    lpe \\path\to\root\of\long\folder

    1. Barness

      Use Long Path Tool, Long Path Tool can simplify and probably end your problems in unlocking, managing and renaming files that appear to have a long filename.

  2. yugesh

    Good, Easy to delete
    Error occurred while deleting the folder: “Source path too long”
    its works for me…
    Thank You,

  3. Roksolana

    Long Path Tool help me a lot when i have an issue like file deleting or renaming the file. Also good to use if file name and file extension is too long

  4. dhammadeep

    First check the folder name. If it is having very long name then just rename it with short name. and here you go. you can now delete the file.

  5. hulu

    hiwe have a client who has a network shared folder which we are unable to delete because of a long file name.Hope it will work :)

  6. Walkabout Tigger

    I found this tool today. Unlike what previous posters indicate, renaming a series of nested folders whose cumulative names are too long even when the folders’ names are all a single letter does not work. We had a situation wherein folder nesting exceeded 500 folders.
    This tool, however, worked like a charm and did so remarkably quickly.
    Thank you so much for this free tool!

  7. Samantha Chloe

    “Long Path Tool” is very helpful for this error !
    You can use to solve this problem

    Long Path Tool help me a lot when i have an issue like file deleting

    or renaming the file. Also good to use if file name and file extension

    is too long.

    I used to have similar problems too, but after using “long path tool”

    everything was solved. Try this software and you would be glad you

    did.

  8. fransdaniel

    Do you feel problem to delete, copy or moving long path file! you can solve this problem by using “Long path Tool”. This tool is very helpful for solve this kind problem.

  9. alan wright

    Downloaded this tool in about 4 seconds. Removed the annoying ‘immovable’ folder and all
    files in about two seconds. fabulous free tool.Thank you so much.

  10. Rhin

    I have spent all morning searching the web and trying different things which never worked and then I discovered you free tool – BRILLIANT, worked for me first time, thanks very much.

    Diolch yn Fawr [Thank you very much] – Rhin

  11. Oh bear3

    Greetings, I use this program heavily for deleting Citrix profiles dating back to 2012 – so there is a lot of data. I am using Long Path Eraser ver. 1.2. Every so often the program will just stop and say the deleting is complete with the number of files and amount of space it cleared. But if you go to the file path (on a network share), it didn’t clean up everything, and files and folders still exist. The program works, but it just seems to stop after an undetermined amount of time. Was wondering if there is anything I’m doing wrong or if there is a hard stop, coded somewhere within the program. Typically, I can get anywhere from 16-23gig before the program stops, at which point I have to click “delete folder” to continue the deleting from where it left off. Other than that, great program and thanks.

    1. Iperius Backup Team Article Author

      Hi, thank yo ufor using our software. There is no limit in the size/number of files you can delete. That’s quite strange. Perhaps the network path disconnects on heavy network traffic.

  12. CCK

    Thank you so much.
    I was struggling with a file with a very long file name
    that was impossible to be deleted for ten hours..
    Finally, I was able to delete the folder and a file.

  13. Jen S

    This was the first time I experienced having trouble deleting a file due to a long path file name, and came across Long Path Tool, however with their recent 5.1.6 version release, I was required to purchase the serial key, which I didn’t want to do.

    Thankfully, I came across this page, and wanted to thank you for providing a free software that took care of the issue.

    I’m on Windows 8.1, 64bit and this tool worked perfectly.
    Easy install.
    Select the file to delete, confirm and it’s done.

    A++

    Thank you!!!

  14. Marina

    I solved my problem. After so many attempts with different ways, I failed to delete the folder with sub folders due to long name. Until I found your LPE tools, I deleted the folder successfully in one attempt. Thanks for your technical support

  15. Mark Lee

    You can use the long path tool for this issue.

    In using the long path tool you just have to click on the long path tool application icon and the tool will provide you a window that contains all your files. You have now the capability to move, delete rename and modify your files without getting error messages. It is a user friendly tool and it is a quick fix for this issue.

  16. Juan Miller

    Hi, for problems concerning path too long issues, I suggest you try the new long path tool. This can help you with all kinds of path too long cases

  17. Adrian

    During backup of my resources I got error “The file path is longer than the maximum path length allowed for this operation”, but I would like to backup these paths. What I can do that these resources backuping correctly?

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PLEASE NOTE: if you need technical support or have any sales or technical question, don't use comments. Instead open a TICKET here: https://www.iperiusbackup.com/contact.aspx

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