Problem saving Office files => problem identified !!!

Plerry

Several post have been submitted meanwhile on not being able to store files
from MS Office directly in the BoxCryptor drive.
I now seem to have identified the problem.
One of the listed potential causes for the save action in Office applications
to fail is that the path + file-name is not allowed to exceed 218 characters.

I then opened a Command Prompt and did a "dir /b /s" of the directory that
includes the encrypted folder that is mounted as a BoxCryptor drive.
The dir command chokes, returning the message "The directory name XXX is too long.",
where XXX is a path-name that is already 275 characters long, including several very, very long encrypted directory names.
And this was possibly just the first of many excessively long names that "dir" choked on.

So it simply seems that when trying to save from Office, the maximum acceptable path + file-name for Office can be readily exceeded in the BoxCryptor drive.

Today's new beta (v1.3.9) does not solve the problem.
* The new limitation of 260 characters still exceeds the Office maximum of 218.
Besides that: obviously it does not help for an existing mount with encrypted filenames.
* I finally found the new option of disabling Filename encryption on existing BoxCryptor Folders in the Advanced Mode (via right mouse click), but did not dare to try it as that BoxCryptor drive is shared with others via GoogleDrive.
What will happen if I disable filename encryption and others don't ???
I sort of expect GoogleDrive to choke in its synchronisation.

Plerry

As an addition to the above (and possibly suggested before):

Do allow encryption of folder+file names, but make sure the
lenght of the encrypted names is equal to (or less than) the length
of the unencrypted names.

In that case, encrypted drives would only run into path + file-name
lenght limitations whenever an unencrypted system also would.
As such, the use of BoxCryptor would no longer be a limiting factor.

Plerry

MartinAB

Hi,

I have the same problem but I think that problem is not related to that limitation mainly.
In my case the file is stored directly in the root and together with the file length its not exceeding this limitation.

Beside that I tried it with both ways, encrypted file names and without. Both times the same problem.

Martin

Robert

Can we try to keep the discussions about this topic in the following thread?

https://forums.boxcryptor.com/topic/problems-saving-ms-office-files

@Plerry: You have to differentiate between the path length of the plaintext file in the BoxCryptor Drive and the path length of the encrypted file in the BoxCryptor Folder.

A plaintext file could have a path length of just 20 characters, but the encrypted file could have a path length of 270 characters if the path of the BoxCryptor Folder is already 250 characters long.

As others are experiencing the problem even when trying to save files in the root of the BoxCryptor Drive, I think the reason for the problem is something else.

If you disable filename encryption, Google Drive will sync the changes to all computers. Enabling/disabling of filename encryption basically bulk renames all files in the BoxCryptor Folder.

@MartinAB: Please see my reply in the other thread.