TDS error: The specified path, file name, or both are too long.

Versions:

TDS 5.1.0.3

Team Development for Sitecore ((TDS) from Hedgehog Development

Visual Studio 2013

Sitecore 6.6 (rev 131211)

Issue:

TDS issue with long file names  or paths:

An exception occurred while updating the sitecore item …

The specified path, file name, or both are too long.  The fully qualified file name must be laess than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters.

Resolution

A recommended work-around for this issue is File System Aliasing.  In my case, even with aliases the names were still too long even with aliasing all folders above.  In addition, TDS would hang after I set the File System Alias and it moving the files which resulted in getting part of the alias done, but not all of it, so it created a corrupted TDS project.  To fix the TDS project, see (TDS Issue: Value cannot be null).

In the end, it’s safest to avoid long file names (including the paths – avoid deep nesting).

The File System Aliasing option is described well here:

http://sitecorejourney.nileshthakkar.in/2014/02/are-you-facing-pathtoolongexception.html

File System Aliasing with Team Development for Sitecore

With the newest version of Team Development for Sitecore you no longer are limited to the file systems path length. File System Aliasing in TDS 3.0 allows you to rename long file path names to something shorter and easier to manage without affecting how the name appears in Sitecore or Visual Studio.

From <http://www.hhogdev.com/products/team-development-for-sitecore/videos.aspx>

TDSLongFileNames2

 TDSLongFileNames1