C# GetDirectories() System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: 'Could not find a part of the path

Question

I'm working on a simple File Explorer exe which leads to this error and I tried a few methods and couldn't solve it.

MyCode:

private void GetDirectories(DirectoryInfo[] subDirs, TreeNode nodeToAddTo)
{
    TreeNode aNode;
    DirectoryInfo[] subSubDirs;
    foreach (DirectoryInfo subDir in subDirs)
    {
        aNode = new TreeNode(subDir.Name, 0, 0);
        aNode.Tag = subDir;
        aNode.ImageKey = "folder";

        subSubDirs = subDir.GetDirectories();
        if (subSubDirs.Length != 0)
        {
            GetDirectories(subSubDirs, aNode);
        }
        nodeToAddTo.Nodes.Add(aNode);
    }
}

But then I get this error:

System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException HResult=0x80070003
Message=Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\data\DAZ3D - G3 Superhero Pack\24205 - Super Bodysuit Casual Style Textures\IM00024205-01_SuperBodysuitCasualStyleTextures\Content\People\Genesis 3 Male\Clothing\Super Bodysuit\Materials\Casual Style\3Delight'.
Source=mscorlib

I have tried shorten the file path using:

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    public static extern int GetShortPathName(
        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)]
        string path,
        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)]
        StringBuilder shortPath,
        int shortPathLength
    );

But this just leads to another problem which is essentially the same.

Anyway to resolve this?

[Update 1] The program is supposed to look into every files and folders i have, and sometimes the names are long and they aren't created by me, but by the installer or some other user's zip file naming.

Here's some screenshot as requested.

Screenshot: The error coming from my IDE

Screenshot: The folder that exist when i open from my Explorer

Screenshot: The path that seems to be not found when I access from CMD

I'm running on:

Win 10 Pro (64 bit)
VS2017
.NET Framework 4.7.1

My App.config:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <startup> 
        <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.7.1"/>
    </startup>
  <runtime>
    <AppContextSwitchOverrides value="Switch.System.IO.UseLegacyPathHandling=false;Switch.System.IO.BlockLongPaths=false" />
  </runtime>
</configuration>

[Update 2] Okay,some of you might not get what I'm trying to show here. Basically here's the problem, the C# Desktop App i'm coding throws me an error suspect due to long file path.

But here's what's funny. In my c# code, the nested function to .GetDirectories() keeps going deeper and deeper into the subfolders. Hence it produced a long file path. But it throws and error shown above.

VS.NET 2017: "C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\data\DAZ3D - G3 Superhero Pack\24205 - Super Bodysuit Casual Style Textures\IM00024205-01_SuperBodysuitCasualStyleTextures\Content\People\Genesis 3 Male\Clothing\Super Bodysuit\Materials\Casual Style\3Delight"

But when I paste this path into Windows's Explorer in Win10Pro, it automatically changes the path into shorter version. Which works and it shows the folder and it's content.

Win10 Explorer: "C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ3D~1\Studio\MYLIBR~1\data\DAZ3D-~1\24205-~1\IM0002~1\Content\People\GENESI~1\Clothing\SUPERB~1\MATERI~1\CASUAL~1\3Delight"

Then I pasted the same path into CMD and it shows error as well by saying the path doesn't exist (As shown in the screenshot above).

[Update 3] I thought I should check again on the most simplest method to see if it was really it by doing:

DirectoryInfo da = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ3D~1\Studio\MYLIBR~1\data\DAZ3D-~1\24205-~1\IM0002~1\Content\People\GENESI~1\Clothing\SUPERB~1\MATERI~1\CASUAL~1\3Delight");
Console.WriteLine(@"C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ3D~1\Studio\MYLIBR~1\data\DAZ3D-~1\24205-~1\IM0002~1\Content\People\GENESI~1\Clothing\SUPERB~1\MATERI~1\CASUAL~1\3Delight");

DirectoryInfo db = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\data\DAZ3D - G3 Superhero Pack\24205 - Super Bodysuit Casual Style Textures\IM00024205-01_SuperBodysuitCasualStyleTextures\Content\People\Genesis 3 Male\Clothing\Super Bodysuit\Materials\Casual Style\3Delight");
Console.WriteLine(@"C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\data\DAZ3D - G3 Superhero Pack\24205 - Super Bodysuit Casual Style Textures\IM00024205-01_SuperBodysuitCasualStyleTextures\Content\People\Genesis 3 Male\Clothing\Super Bodysuit\Materials\Casual Style\3Delight");

It doesn't seems to be generating any errors in this case.

[Update 4] Apparently, if i do da.GetDirectories(); it will throw error instantly because any directories collected from that path will be added into the DirectoryInfo resulted super long path.

Is there anyway to resolve this even if it's long file path?

How are you calling your function? Are you giving it a raw string? Otherwise try '\\' instead of '\'. — doctorlove, Oct 30 '18 at 10:00
Please update your question to include a screenshot of a command prompt which has `cd`ed into that folder. In other words, please prove to us that that folder exists. — mjwills, Oct 30 '18 at 10:12
The path looks very long, which might be the cause of the issue. There are a couple of ways to handle this. Can you try some of the suggestions in [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/5188559/717088)? — Lars Kristensen, Oct 30 '18 at 10:15
That's one heck of a path string. It exceeds MAX_DIR, 254 characters in the winapi. And always MAX_PATH, 259 characters. when you try to access a file in that directory. Lots of ways you can make this string more practical by picking better names of course. — Hans Passant, Oct 30 '18 at 10:15
@doctorlove I'm just parsing the value directly from `Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments)` and it `.GetDirectories()` and then it keeps looping into each sub-directory. — Zero, Oct 31 '18 at 02:28
@Lars Kristensen seen that, done that, doesn't solve the problem, maybe im doing it wrong. — Zero, Oct 31 '18 at 02:30
@Hans Passant well some folder names are generated when i unzip some plugins or when i install some indi-software. but mainly this will be used by a few of my staff in the future and they will have long namings. I'm trying to find a solution to solve this other than renaming the folders to avoid it. — Zero, Oct 31 '18 at 02:31
None of those screenshots prove that folder **with that exact name** exists. — mjwills, Oct 31 '18 at 02:34
@mjwills hmm... okay. what i did was just copied the same path and pasted it into the File Explorer and also CMD. So i did not change anything though. — Zero, Oct 31 '18 at 06:11
@mjwills They are essentially the same path `C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ3D~1\Studio\MYLIBR~1\data\DAZ3D-~1\24205-~1\IM0002~1\Content\People\GENESI~1\Clothing\SUPERB~1\MATERI~1\CASUAL~1\3Delight` **Compare to** `C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\data\DAZ3D - G3 Superhero Pack\24205 - Super Bodysuit Casual Style Textures\IM00024205-01_SuperBodysuitCasualStyleTextures\Content\People\Genesis 3 Male\Clothing\Super Bodysuit\Materials\Casual Style\3Delight` It's just File Explorer managed to shrink it, and I don't. I don't know how either. — Zero, Oct 31 '18 at 06:22
@ZeroKhor have you come across this: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/jeremykuhne/2016/07/30/net-4-6-2-and-long-paths-on-windows-10/? — Nanhydrin, Oct 31 '18 at 08:26
@Nanhydrin yes i did. That's why i've set my framework to 4.7.1 (higher version) assuming it's better than 4.6.2. And I also set the App.config as well. But it doesn't work. Which leads me thinking I must also change the GroupPolicy in which I do not want to have this attempt because it doesn't make sense to force my user to alter their GroupPolicy so that they can use my app. — Zero, Nov 01 '18 at 03:04

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 31 '18 at 07:52

Ok. After I've tested out a bit. I noticed there are no straight answer to this because the whole issue is due to long file path.

I tested the path "C:\Users\zero_000\Documents\DAZ3D~1\Studio\MYLIBR~1\data\DAZ3D-~1\24205-~1\IM0002~1\Content\People\GENESI~1\Clothing\SUPERB~1\MATERI~1\CASUAL~1\3Delight" which is the shorter version generated by File Explorer.

If I navigate to this folder, it works. But if I tries to create a folder inside this folder, it will just throw an error to me somewhat similar to the errors shown in my C# App.

Which means, given by the default behavior of my staff or any users, they wouldn't even be able to reach this stage. (unless like me, this folder was extracted via 7zip).

My option is to just throw a warning message box to force user not to have long file path.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 23 '18 at 01:28

You can make those AppContext switch settings machine-wide by putting the change in the Windows registry. This way, you don't have to manually add the overrides to all of your App.config files.

This could be especially relevant if you need to set a switch to 'true' in .NET Framework 4.7, because it has a known issue where switch values are unilaterally reported as 'false' under certain poorly explained circumstances:

Cause
When the program reads the value of an AppContext switch in the registry, the data cannot be retrieved. In this case, it is assumed that something is wrong with the way the setting is specified in the registry, and a value of False is returned to the application.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4036977

C# GetDirectories() System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: 'Could not find a part of the path

2 Answers2

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