"The path is too long. Try a shorter name." error trying to import

[defenestrate]

Hello, I've been impressed by MusicBee so far but have run into a difficulty importing some songs.  I get the error "The path is too long. Try a shorter name."

This happens with various tracks that do indeed have very long track names (mostly classical music); however, they were not a difficulty with iTunes.  Is there a way to tell MusicBee to simply use a truncated path for these tracks (while keeping the metadata intact)?  It would be a shame to have to remove metadata because of this issue.

(A contributing factor may be that the hard drive these files are on is exFAT and not NTFS.)

In the alternative, can someone recommend a bulk metadata editor for mp3s and m4a files for Windows where I could easily fix this issue?  It affects about 600 tracks so a one-by-one solution would not be ideal? 

[Alumni]

Hi. The trick is to get the songs imported, then MusicBee is able to automatically organize/rename the files, shortening them where required (but leaving the metadata intact). As long as your files are properly tagged, the filenames themselves are not important, so you could try bulk renaming them, trimming the excess characters, or you could try placing them (at least temporarily) in the shortest path possible, like under a root folder on your hard drive. Programs that may be helpful; mp3tag (for metadata) or Bulk Rename Utility (for filenames).

[defenestrate]

I should note that Windows Explorer doesn't display the metadata of these tracks.  And trying to even open them in VLC gives me the error, "The file name is too long."

If I share the hard drive to a Mac, VLC and iTunes on that Mac can open and play the files just fine and the correct metadata is intact.

I should also point out that iTunes for Windows created the music library whose files I am attempting to import into MusicBee.

[defenestrate]

Hi. The trick is to get the songs imported, then MusicBee is able to automatically organize/rename the files, shortening them where required (but leaving the metadata intact). As long as your files are properly tagged, the filenames themselves are not important, so you could try bulk renaming them, trimming the excess characters, or you could try placing them (at least temporarily) in the shortest path possible, like under a root folder on your hard drive. Programs that may be helpful; mp3tag (for metadata) or Bulk Rename Utility (for filenames).

Oh, great!  While I can't rename these files on Windows (I think you can get around this by renaming the individual folders first) I can on a Mac and after doing that MusicBee seems to be able to import and organize the files correctly.