How to get out of a situation with a large number of subfolders on a file server?

Question

Windows

Hello everyone
There is a file server on WinSrv12r2
An employee has created a structure of 8 levels (subfolders) in his folder.
Accordingly, the Win limit of 256 characters in the file path is triggered and nothing works.
What are the ways out of the situation, except to prohibit such a structure (assuming that he really needs it)?

Answer 1

Migrate file storage from NTFS to the new ReFS. There this problem is solved.

Answer 2

I will believe in this only if he is a biologist there, such as detachment-suborder-subsuborder-family-blablabla. In other cases, the structure is simply crooked and everything can be organized at a sane level of nesting.
At the same time, judging by the dock, there really is a limit of 260 characters. Those. ntfs allows you to fence long paths, but the software that uses win api cannot work correctly with this. In later versions of win10 (well, win server is expected) this restriction is absent.

Answer 3

Let it share the end folder and the path will be ipadress/endfolder

Answer 4

Perhaps it is easier to talk to the user than to forbid. And so, you can try to remove the restriction on long paths:
https://www.howtogeek.com/266621/how-to-make-windo...

Answer 5

The only working solution is to switch to Linux. But I have a suspicion that this option is not suitable for you. Therefore, it remains only to conduct a conversation with the user that this is not necessary. I am not aware of any other universal solution at the moment. Even if you have the latest Windows 10 and have removed the restriction through the registry or group policies, it still won't work properly. Yes, Explorer will allow you to manipulate files and folders, but even the latest Excel won't be able to open a spreadsheet, and Acrobat Reader will give you an error when opening a PDF file.

spoiler

Можно использовать костыли. Например, подбирать ПО, которое корректно переваривает длинные пути. Или уменьшать вложенность с помощью команды subst. Или подключать папки как сетевые диски. Или научить пользователя использовать UNC-формат \\?\Диск:[\Каталог][\Файл]. Или изменить способ хранения файлов. Или…

Answer 6

What are the ways out of the situation, except to prohibit such a structure (assuming that he really needs it)?

• Share the underlying folders - the path will be shorter.
  
• Use shorter names.
  
• Explain to the user that there are other ways to group files.