Windows has a default limitation of 260 characters for a full file path. This includes the drive letter, folder names, subfolders, and the file name itself. When a file’s path exceeds this limit, you may encounter an error preventing the file from being copied, moved, or extracted.

This can happen especially often when dealing with:

• Deeply nested folders
• Archives with long internal paths
• Files copied from or extracted to cloud storage folders like OneDrive or Google Drive

Solution 1: Extract or move to a shorter path

The simplest workaround is to reduce the destination path length:

Step-by-step:

1. Create a folder directly in the root of your drive, e.g., C:\Extract
2. Move the archive or files to this location
3. Perform the extraction or file operation again

This reduces the total path length and often avoids the error.

Solution 2: Enable long Path support in Windows 10/11 Pro

Windows 10 and 11 Pro editions support long paths, but the feature is not enabled by default.

To enable long paths:

1. Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and hit Enter
2. Navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem

3. Double-click Enable Win32 long paths

4. Set it to Enabled

5. Click OK and reboot.

3. Use a File Manager that ignores the limit

Tools like:

• WinRAR

• Teracopy

• Total Commander

can handle long paths better than Windows Explorer. So try extracting the archive using WinRAR, directly to a short path like C:\Extract.