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This is an iTunes for Windows specific issue. Truncation was a design choice to avoid running into a Windows OS limit on the combined path and file name of 255 characters.
The level of truncation indirectly depends on your Music Library location setting. I changed mine to drive-letter:\Music so iTunes is more gracious about not chopping file names since the total length of the file name
F:\Music\artist\album\song.mp3
is much shorter than the default location of
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\artist\album\song.mp3
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The problem only occurs in WINDOWS .
There's some good news though, future versions may come with a solution as APPLE has taken note of the problem as it has been widely reported in many forums.
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M$4
January 01, 2009 07:44 PM
Why does iTunes truncate my filenames & how can I prevent this annoying phenomenon?
Truncation is of the filename in explorer, not the filename shown within Itunes. I have seen this on Vista and XP on various versions of iTunes. This applies to podcasts, vidcasts, imported Amazon DRM free MP3s... It seems that nothing is immune.
First person to offer a valid solution (other than to dump iTunes) wins the tip.
First person to offer a valid solution (other than to dump iTunes) wins the tip.
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Other Answers (2)
January 04, 2009 08:03 AM
Sorry, file names that iTunes uses are limited to 40 characters (36 + 4 for extension). This is an iTunes for Windows specific issue. Truncation was a design choice to avoid running into a Windows OS limit on the combined path and file name of 255 characters.
The level of truncation indirectly depends on your Music Library location setting. I changed mine to drive-letter:\Music so iTunes is more gracious about not chopping file names since the total length of the file name
F:\Music\artist\album\song.mp3
is much shorter than the default location of
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\artist\album\song.mp3
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January 06, 2009 03:18 AM
Well shucks... Its a shame there isnt a solution but thanks for the info!
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January 06, 2009 03:47 AM
Well... there is a solution, sort of.
Like I said earlier, the Windows OS limit for the combined path and file name is 255 characters.
To bypass truncation, change your default music library location.
The default is:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\artist\album\song.mp3
Change your setting to:
C:\Music\artist\album\song.mp3
I have four hard drives, which is why mine is:
F:\Music\artist\album\song.mp3
Create a new folder on your C: drive
Name it "Music"
Open iTunes: Click Edit, Preferences.
Click the Advanced tab.
Click the Change button (beside iTunes Music Folder Location)
Choose location C:\Music
Click OK
This will give you at least 67 more characters.
;)
Report
Like I said earlier, the Windows OS limit for the combined path and file name is 255 characters.
To bypass truncation, change your default music library location.
The default is:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\artist\album\song.mp3
Change your setting to:
C:\Music\artist\album\song.mp3
I have four hard drives, which is why mine is:
F:\Music\artist\album\song.mp3
Create a new folder on your C: drive
Name it "Music"
Open iTunes: Click Edit, Preferences.
Click the Advanced tab.
Click the Change button (beside iTunes Music Folder Location)
Choose location C:\Music
Click OK
This will give you at least 67 more characters.
;)
January 04, 2009 04:07 PM
I'm sorry to say that there's no solution to the problem, the itunes software is designed for maximum efficiency. a shorter filename helps in that. The problem only occurs in WINDOWS .
There's some good news though, future versions may come with a solution as APPLE has taken note of the problem as it has been widely reported in many forums.
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January 06, 2009 03:21 AM
Ha ha, if apple made a decently priced mid range desktop id be the first one in line. Till then I'm stuck with crappy vista. Maybe windows 7 will be nice and mr jobs will get the itunes folks to address this annoying "feature" :-)
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On the other hand, unless you're the kind of person who constantly moves stuff around in folders, as soon as you add something to your iTunes library it's put into the correct folder, so it doesn't make any difference once everything is in your library.