"attempting to copy to the disk C:\ failed. the file name was invalid or...

"attempting to copy to the disk C:\ failed. the file name was invalid or too long." This was the message that I keep getting after trying to "add folder to library" of multiple tracks from an external hard drive. it only happens after a certain period of time.. i get about half of my tracks added before this message pops up. when i first got my i pod it worked fine. but after i hooked up my i pod several times without having that external drive on... the i pod took over that drive letter that my external drive used to use. so.. when i turned on my external drive, it was given a new letter.. then i tunes would not recognize those 1500 tracks that came from my external drive (explanation points listed next to tracks). so.. I deleted all of those files manually, then tried to add folder to library again from the new letter coordinating to my external hd. I kept getting that message above. after that i deleted all files associated with i tunes.. and uninstalled i tunes.. then did a reinstall.. did i tunes update from site... and tried to just add the set of tracks from that external hd... still same **** error. only now.. after i say ok to error... i tunes continues for like 2 seconds.. then has to shut down... ****!!! can anyone help me with this... anyone?

just to update my problem... I finally figured out that i had to disable the "copy to my itunes folder from my library option. just so you know. apparently i tunes cant handle the large transfer to itunes and also at the same time copy it to your itunes folder... APPLE fix this!!!!!! this suxxxxx....

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Itunes for WIN7: attempting to copy to disk "..." failed. The file name was invalid or too long

itunes for WIN7: attempting to copy to disk "..." failed. The file name was invalid or too long
help!!

Max. path length is 255 characters, or perhaps there are some non-displaying characters hidden there. Try dropping a song you want to add to iTunes into the Automatically to iTunes folder to see if that works any better.
tt2

ITunes v10.6.1.7 "Copying files failed. The File name was invalid or too long."

I'm trying to organize my music files using iTunes 10.6.1.7 and I keep getting the error message "Copying files failed. The File name was invalid or too long."
I've got music folders by artist in both the iTunes Music folder and the iTunes Media/Music folder. When I add certain files by drag/drop they sometimes get lost and I don't want that to happen anymore. I used to just consolidate my music files using the File/Library/Organize Library option and that worked, however now when I do that, I get the error message.
I'm a novice and the only online stuff I see is both confusing and refers to earlier versions of iTunes.
My concern is that I have heard that people lose entire libraries of their music when they trry to fix things like this and I don't want that. If this is of any importance, I have several files called iTunes library and temp library. I have no idea what that all means but I'm scared to death of it.
Also, I can't get to the "re-organize library" link at all. It won't let me.
One thing that be of some interest is that when I pull up the properties of the music and media/music files they are marked "read only" I'm also afraid to touch that!
Please help and please know that I am a dummy. Be kind and be clear. Step by step would be great, with images even better. Thanks.

Perhaps nobody knows the answer? We're fellow users here answering questions in our free time when we think we've something useful to contribute.
You can choose to *Consolidate selected tracks* with a right-click menu. Perhaps if you can identify a specific track that won't consolidate and examine the full path to the file & the path that iTunes would create when it consolidates the problem might become apparent. For example iTunes may not be able to move files if the source or destination path length exceeds 255 characters.
tt2

Consolidate Problem. Copying files failed. The File name was invalid.

Hi to everyone,
My system is 10.5.8, iTunes 9.2.1 (4)
I tried to consolidate my iTunes library to an external HD. After about 100GB of copied music, I got the message : Copying files failed. The File name was invalid.
Now everytime I try again to consolidate, I get immediately this message. I am looking everywhere for a solution, and I only find the same problem for Windows iTunes users.
Actually I found very useful this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1708372,
which talks about with which order iTunes consolidates the media, so by digging a little in the folders to find which track has the problem and make the fix. It says that consolidate start copy the files by the date added order. So I can go in my new iTunes media folder and find the latest added track, then go back in iTunes, sort by date added the songs and locate the next song, to make the fix. However in my case, all previous and next songs (by date added), have been copied in the new locations.
I am stuck. I have a remaining 300GB of music to consolidate and dont know how to proceed.
Any help would be much appreciated..

Finaly, I managed to solve it by myself...,
following the help I found from the post of the thread I mentioned on my question...
What was the problem that made things more difficult in my case, is that a big amount of songs have been added at the same time, with just a few seconds time distance. So it was tougher to locate what was the last imported song, and where iTunes consolidation had stopped. Actually I had groups of about 100 songs with the same timestamp of date added and the consolidation was following the rule of the "date added" but not exactly with the order the songs was showing in the iTuned library. So I started checking all the songs very close to the last added in the media folder one by one with the "show in finder" command, and then I managed to found what was the one with the problem.
Regarding the problematic file, that was a midi file that had been imported in my iTunes.
I hope this will help anyone else that might have the same problem as me in the future.

Copying music failed. The file name was invalid or too long.

I went to consolidate my music, but when it got about 2/3 of the way through, it stopped with the error message, "Copying music failed. The file name was invalid or too long." I don't know which file it is referring to. How do I find this out?
I needed to cosolidate so I could backup the entire library to DVD. Now I'm left with two partially complete libraries with many duplicates.

To find out which file it was, look at where you were
copying them too and see which was the last file
copied - and then go back to your source, and go to
the next one - it should be that one.
I just wanted to add that I had the same issue (failure to finish copying and "invalid or too long" error msg) and at first didn't see how looking for the last file copied would work since iTunes is copying into folders.
Duh.
Reverse sort by date modified (newest folder at the top of the list) then drill down to the folder containing the files being copied. Voila. There was the (missing) culprit, and I knew which file to rename in the source folder.
Thanks for the kick in the brain pan.
Sony VAIO PCG-V505ACP Windows XP Pro

HT1751 I did all of the above and at the "Consolidate files" screen I clicked "ok" then it sayd "copying files failed. the file name was invalid or too long" and I had to click "OK" I cannot consolidate the files to transport to my external harddrive -h

I would like to backup my itunes to my external hard drive
I did all the steps up to "organize Liberary" which at this point I checked the box and the clicked"ok"
it then said "copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long" "OK"
It will not let me consolidate the files so I can transfer to my external hard drive
what am I doing wrong - any suggestions?
thanks,

Are you using consolidate files to bring in stray files to your main iTunes Media folder before backing up, or to copy the media folder to the external drive as part of backing up? If it is the latter then you are taking the wrong approach. See this user tip.
Run my script Unconsolidated on the library. It will show you the remaining unconsolidated files which might give a clue as to which files iTunes is having a problem with. You can consolidate selected files in batches (select, right-click) as opposed to trying to do everything in one go. Alternatively you could try moving the remaining unconsolidated files with ConsolidateByMoving as long as this step is a precursor to a backup..
tt2

I am using itunes 10 and trying to consolidate my files. I keep getting the error "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long". How can I indentify what file is causing this problem or resolve this issue?

I am using itunes 10 and trying to consolidate my files. I keep getting the error "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long". How can I indentify what file is causing this problem or resolve this issue?

BUMP
Yes, I just get that message. I don't see how I could investigate this problem.
I didn't mention that this happened when I was consolidating my library, not copying files to another computer.
In other words, I'm using a "normal" itunes procedure, itunes won't complete it, and won't tell me exactly why or how to figure out how to fix it...
Is there at least some easy way to tell which files were successfully copied to my itunes music folder so I can work on moving the uncopied files?
Can anybody help me?

HT1751 Consolidating ITunes Library Failed - message received: "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long" . Please help - how to i fix this issue?

I consulted your website for details on how to back up my ITunes Library on my PC-found the article very helpful-I reached step 7 - clicked ok and the following message came up: "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long." Please can you help and advise what I should do or how to fix this issue. My pc operating system is Windows 7 Home Basic

You can select a group of tracks and consolidate from the right-click context menu. You coud try consolidating in batches, say all songs by artists beginning with A, then B, etc, then the other media types, until you can isolate a problem track and then try moving that by hand and fixing the broken link.
I also have two scripts that could help you, Unconsolidated and ConsolidateByMoving. The first can make a playlist of all unconsolidated tracks, the second can consolidate a selection of tracks by moving them instead of copying.
tt2

HT1751 it says copying files failed. the file name was invalid or to long....anyone else have this problem?

i am trying to move my songs to an external hard drive. after it copies for awhile it will pop up a screen that says....the file name was invalid or to long.....anyone else had this problem?

What are you copying with? See this backup tip for a suggested method. If SyncToy can't copy a file it will carry on with the others and display a failure report at the end. Ideally you'll be copying the iTunes folder to the root of your external drive.
tt2

HT1751 Consolidating files failed. The file name was invalid or too long. How to trouble shoot this?

I am trying to move my iTunes library from old XP PC to Windows 7 PC, using an external hard drive. Using tutorial and signed in as administrator. Trying to consolidate my library and receive error message " Copying files fail. The file name was invalid or too long". Don't know what to do as next step. The library is sitting on the hard drive under the Administrator ID (My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music).
Any thoughts?

You can select a group of tracks and consolidate from the right-click context menu. You coud try consolidating in batches, say all songs by artists beginning with A, then B, etc, then the other media types, until you can isolate a problem track and then try moving that by hand and fixing the broken link.
I also have two scripts that could help you, Unconsolidated and ConsolidateByMoving. The first can make a playlist of all unconsolidated tracks, the second can consolidate a selection of tracks by moving them instead of copying.
tt2

"The file name was invalid or too long" appears when I try to copy music form a CD to my computer using Windoww XP

"The file name was invalid or too long" appears when I try to copy music from a CD to my compu
ter using Windows XP

Go to the songs view sorted as Album by Artist. Select, for example, the songs of artists whose names begin A-E. Right-click and click consolidate files. Assuming this group consolidate without error move on to another group, say F-J. If there is an error divide the original group into smaller chunks until you can isolate which tracks are causing a problem.
tt2

The itunes application could not be opened. The file name was invalid or..

...too long.
No idea when this started but cannot launch iTunes at all. To reiterate, when I try to launch iTunes I get the following error message: The itunes application could not be opened. The file name was invalid or too long.
I actually uninstalled it and reinstalled on my external drive and it came back with the same error. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot what caused this? I am at my wits ends with this!

I can't get mine to open at all. I even try clicking on a song to see if that will open it, nope. I have hooked up my iphone and ipods, nope. Click the icon, nope still nothing. It keeps erroring, but won't let me copy the error to put in here. I looked at the report it wants to send out, but there is nothing that says why it is erroring. Anyone else having this problem. Please email me at [email protected] to let me know what you did to solve it, or who I have to talk to to get it fixed... Thank you

The iphone .... cannot be synced.The file name was invalid or too long.

the iphone .... cannot be synced.The file name was invalid or too long.
wat can i do to sync my iphone

Hi there rohitnitin,
It looks like the article below addresses the error message you are describing.
iTunes: Unable to sync photos
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3697
-Griff W.

Attempting to copy to the disk Ipod failed. the disk could not be read from

Keep getting error message Attempting to copy to the disk.....Ipod failed. The disk could not be read from or written to. I can copy to Ipod from my laptop however, can not sync with my G-4 tower. I keep my library on an external HD Lacie d2. I've tried all the possibilities from the support page to no avail.. Need help... When error refers to disk is it referring to my external HD

Hi c2xist,
And you did follow all of the suggestions from this article?:
"Disk cannot be read from or written to" when syncing iPod
Also, you could go through these iPod troubleshooting steps, and see if they are of any help:
The Five Rs
-Kylene

Copying Files Failed. The file name was invalid or too long.

Hey,
Whenever I try to consolidate my library, I get the message in my subject line.
What is making the names invalid, and is there anyway to fix it in bulk instead of one by one?
Thanks for your help.

Perhaps nobody knows the answer? We're fellow users here answering questions in our free time when we think we've something useful to contribute.
You can choose to *Consolidate selected tracks* with a right-click menu. Perhaps if you can identify a specific track that won't consolidate and examine the full path to the file & the path that iTunes would create when it consolidates the problem might become apparent. For example iTunes may not be able to move files if the source or destination path length exceeds 255 characters.
tt2

"attempting to copy to the disk C:\ failed. the file name was invalid or...

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