OneDrive sync and Windows File Path Limitation

Problem: File paths that are too long

In general, a Windows file name must include no more than 250 - 260 characters, including the file's path directory name.

If the file structure is really long, from the beginning of the hard drive name (C:\ Drive) all the way to the last character of the file name, you may encounter common errors including: 

• We can't sync this item because the path is too long.
• The path of this file is too long to sync. Move it to a different location, or rename to shorten the file path by N Characters.
• The file name(s) would be too long for the destination folder. You can shorten the file name and try again, or try a destination that has a shorter path.
• The source and destination file names are the same.

In general, it will say that the destination path is too long and you should shorten the file name.

Example:
Consider the name of a Word Document called:
"2025 Q4 Marketing and Execution Plan.docx" - This is about 36 characters long, however:

If the file is found deeply placed inside a file structure, here:

C:\Users\JohnSmith\OneDrive - St. Francis Xavier University\Documents\Projects with Company\Marketing Materials and Contents\Campaigns\2025 All information test and ideas\Q4\Presentations\Final Drafts\Reviewed\Internal Team Review\Archive\Version Control\October\Meetings\PreLaunch\Strategy Materials\Additional_Documents\2025 Q4 Marketing and Execution Plan.docx 

This is about 358 characters long.   The total character count exceeds 260.  OneDrive and some other underlying Windows file systems cannot handle it.
Deep folder structures and long names can easily exceed the limit.
 

Solution: Move the file higher up in the directory structure.

Example:
The file "2025 Q4 Marketing and Execution Plan.docx" will be moved from the end of the file structure into a folder closer to the "top" of the folder system. 

This file name now becomes:

C:\Users\JohnSmith\OneDrive - St. Francis Xavier University\Documents\Projects with Company\Marketing Materials and Contents\Campaigns\2025 Q4 Marketing and Execution Plan.docx - 

This is about 171 characters long. This shortens the full file address and length of the file name, keeping it less than the 260 character limit.

If this doesn't work to fix the error, other Fixes to try are to:

• Shorten folder names
• Use abbreviations
• Rename files to something shorter