Problems Caused by Naming of Files and Folders Incorrectly.

Modified on Thu, 12 Jan 2023 at 04:43 PM

Your machine or some part of it may not function properly if you name a file or folder incorrectly.

Use the list of rules below to see if you have made these errors and may want to correct them.

Folder names

  • Folder names shouldn't be longer than 100 characters including spaces.
  • You cannot use the following characters anywhere in a folder name or a server name: 
    • Tilde (~)
    • Number sign (#)
    • Percent (%)
    • Ampersand (&)
    • Asterisk (*)
    • Braces ({ })
    • Backslash (\)
    • Colon (:)
    • Angle brackets (< >)
    • Question mark (?)
    • Slash (/)
    • Pipe (|)
    • Quotation mark (")
  • You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a folder name.
  • You cannot use the period character at the end of a folder name.
  • You cannot start a folder name with a period character.
  • If you use an underscore character (_) at the beginning of a folder name, the folder will be a hidden folder.
  • Additionally, a folder that contains the string "_vti_" is reserved by SharePoint, and isn’t supported.

File names

  • File names shouldn't be longer than 100 characters including spaces.
  • File paths shouldn't be longer than 255 characters including spaces.
  • You cannot use the following characters anywhere in a file name: 
    • Tilde (~)
    • Number sign (#)
    • Percent (%)
    • Ampersand (&)
    • Asterisk (*)
    • Braces ({ })
    • Backslash (\)
    • Colon (:)
    • Angle brackets (< >)
    • Question mark (?)
    • Slash (/)
    • Pipe (|)
    • Quotation mark (")
  • You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a file name.
  • You cannot use the period character at the end of a file name.
  • You cannot start a file name by using the period character.
  • If you use an underscore character (_) at the beginning of a file name, the file will be a hidden file.
  • file names and folder names may not end with any of the following strings: 
    • .files
    • _files
    • -Dateien
    • _fichiers
    • _bestanden
    • _file
    • _archivos
    • -filer
    • _tiedostot
    • _pliki
    • _soubory
    • _elemei
    • _ficheiros
    • _arquivos
    • _dosyalar
    • _datoteke
    • _fitxers
    • _failid
    • _fails
    • _bylos
    • _fajlovi
    • _fitxategiak
  • In addition, file names and folder names cannot start with the “_vti_” string, such as the followings:
    • _vti_cnf
    • _vti_pvt
    • _vti_bin
    • _vti_txt

If you find yourself with a large number of files or folders which are badly named, then you can use this small application to fix the problem:

Was this article helpful?

That’s Great!

Thank you for your feedback

Sorry! We couldn't be helpful

Thank you for your feedback

Let us know how can we improve this article!

Select atleast one of the reasons
CAPTCHA verification is required.

Feedback sent

We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article