Unable to edit files uploaded to document library where url length is more than 260 characters
As we all know there is a limitation in URL length as 260 characters for many reason and there are many articles from different specialties talks about it.
Recently I have come across a scenario where users are able to upload documents to the document library and sub folders, if we calculate the total URL length of the uploaded document, it is more than 260 characters, SharePoint didn’t throw any error or warning message while uploading documents to the folders.
When users are trying to edit the same document by clicking on document link or edit using Microsoft Office Word in dropdown menu, we get below warning messages.
"The URL for this file is too long for the application. A temporary copy of this file will be opened on
your computer. You must save this copy as a new file"
The document will be opened in Read Only mode and when we try to save the document back to same location we get
"This file is read-only."
"The document could not be opened for editing. A Windows SharePoint Services compatible
application could not be found to edit the document."
Q1. Does SharePoint has 260 characters limit?
Answer: Yes, it has the limit.
Q2. If SharePoint has 260 characters limit then does it throw any error/warning while uploading documents?
Answer: Yes, it does throw warning message and terminate the upload process.
Q3. As mentioned SharePoint has 260 limit and it does not allow users to upload, then in what situation we get into the above issue (able to upload but not able to edit).
Answer: As I have mentioned SharePoint has 260 characters restriction for both operations upload and edit. Sometimes users are experiencing issue only edit not while uploading.
Here is the explanation how restriction applied while uploading and editing.
For example my
