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: