How to unzip zip archives that have more than 260 symbols in their name?

Solution 1:

Alternatively, try using 7zip to pack (and unpack) your path-length sensitive files. I've used it to transport several IDE installations (those Eclipse plugin paths, yikes!) and piles of autogenerated documentation and haven't had a single problem so far.

Not really sure how it evades the 260 char limitation set by Windows (from a technical PoV), but hey, it works!

More details on their SourceForge page here:

"NTFS can actually support pathnames up to 32,000 characters in length."

7-zip also support such long names.

But it's disabled in SFX code. Some users don't like long paths, since they don't understand how to work with them. That is why I have disabled it in SFX code.

and release notes:

9.32 alpha 2013-12-01

  • Improved support for file pathnames longer than 260 characters.

4.44 beta 2007-01-20

  • 7-Zip now supports file pathnames longer than 260 characters.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For this to work properly, you'll need to specify the destination path in the 7zip "Extract" dialog directly, rather than dragging & dropping the files into the intended folder. Otherwise the "Temp" folder will be used as an interim cache and you'll bounce into the same 260 char limitation once Windows Explorer starts moving the files to their "final resting place". See the replies to this question for more information.

Solution 2:

  1. Create a copy of the archive.
  2. Browse the archive until you have located the subfolder which contains the items which are causing problems. Delete that set of files/folders from the archive.
  3. Extract the archive using the method you have started to use, putting it in your C: folder.
  4. Open the other copy of the archive and extract the subfolder which has the items which are causing problems, extracting it into C:.