Unsupported Characters and File Types

In this article, you'll find information about different unsupported characters, file types, attributes, and more.  

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File and Folder Names

File Attributes

Path Limits

File Types

User Names and Groups

File and Folder Names

To maintain compatibility with Windows' file naming conventions, we do not support file and folder names which include the following characters or have any of the specified naming patterns:

 \  /  "   :  < >  |  *  ?  

• end with period(s)
• begin or end with spaces
• have control characters
• have Unicode characters with 4 or more bytes 

File or Folder Names That: 

• match one of the following exactly: .ds_store, .metadata_never_index, .thumbs.db, powerpoint temp, desktop.ini, icon\r
• end with: ., ~, ._attribs_, ._rights_, ._egn_, _egnmeta, .tmp, -spotlight, .ac$, .sv$, *.~vsdx
• start with: ._, .~, word work file, _egn_., .smbdelete
• start with: ~ and end with .idlk, .xlsx, .xlsx (deleted), .pptx, .pptx (deleted)
• start with: ~$ and end with .doc, .docx, .docx (deleted), .rtf, .ppt, .pptx, .pptx (deleted), .xlsm, .xlsm (deleted), .sldlfp, .slddrw, .sldprt, .sldasm
• are AutoCAD temp files starting with atmp and ending with four numbers, e.g. atm3829
• are SAS temp files ending in .sas.b follwed by two numbers, e.g. myFile.sas.b73
• are PDF temp files starting with aa followed by a single letter followed by five numbers, e.g. aau38221
• end with .$$$, e.g. myFile.$$$, and are uploaded from the Desktop App 

Folders Names That:

• match one of the following exactly: .data, .tmp
• start with: .spotlight-

Files and folders containing these characters will not upload or sync, and may encounter other restrictions.

File Attributes

Temporary Files

Files that have the 'T' (temporary) attribute set in Windows, with the exception of pdf files, will not be uploaded or synced.

Files with Future or Ancient Timestamp

Files with an ancient (ex: July 1, 1601) or future timestamp cannot be uploaded, synced or migrated to Egnyte. If you encounter this, you can do an Internet search for "script to change future timestamps in my files" which should provide guidance on how to resolve it. Once you have resolved the timestamps, you will be able to upload files as usual.

Path Limits 

Egnyte Cloud File Service

The limit is 245 bytes (or characters) per component (e.g., a file or folder name) and 5000 bytes (or characters) for the entire path (including the filename). Microsoft Office imposes a 215 character limit on Office files.

Egnyte Desktop App (Egnyte Drive) for Mac/Windows

When opening files from the Desktop App, Microsoft Excel is still subject to the maximum folder path limit of 218 characters despite the drive being able to handle longer paths.

File Types

Database Files

Uploading active database files is NOT supported, e.g. Exchange, QuickBooks, SQL, Oracle, or MS Access. "Active" means the file is currently open or being modified by an application or system process. Syncing active database files may result in corruption of the database file, because the file can be uploaded while third-party software is updating it at a high frequency. 'At rest' database files (not being accessed or modified by any application or system process) are supported.

The behavior below applies to files with the following extensions:

• pst
• eml
• ost
• mdb
• qbb

How the Desktop App Handles Database Files

• File is open: The Desktop App does not upload the file and skips it with the reason Active database files. The file may be open because of an application, but also because Windows Explorer or antivirus software has it open, for example right after you copy it into the drive.
• File is no longer open: The Desktop App checks whether the file was uploaded in the last 15 minutes. If it was, the upload is delayed until 15 minutes have passed.
• Retry all: Selecting Retry all overrides the delay and uploads the skipped files right away.
  

Package Files

The Mac file system includes support for Package Files. Packages look like a file in Finder, but are actually a folder with files inside them. When uploaded to Egnyte (and other services) these are uploaded as a folder with files inside them.

Older versions on iWork formats (e.g. Pages) saved their data in Package formats whereas newer versions default to normal files. If you have older iWorks documents you can convert them to the single file format for greater compatibility with Egnyte and other applications.

Executable Files (.EXE)

Executable files can be stored in the cloud and managed(move, copy, rename, etc.) through the Desktop App but they cannot be executed through the Desktop App. 

Resource Forks and Alternative Data Streams

The Mac file system has support for Resource Forks and Windows has support for Alternative Data Streams. Both of these provide a mechanism to capture additional data associated with the file that is separate from the regular file contents and not included as part of the file size.

Some forms of older Mac Postscript font files capture the entire font data as a resource fork with a zero size file. These fonts can be converted to TTF fonts for greater compatibility with Egnyte and other applications.

Relative Links

Egnyte supports relative links, but when migrating to Egnyte, things can get tricky. Talk to our PS team to find the best solution for migration.

Other Unsupported Applications

• OneNote - due to the way OneNote writes information to files, it is possible for data corruption when using the Egnyte Desktop App to open and edit such files. This is because OneNote does not wait for the file to be downloaded in its entirety before writing to it. For this reason, editing OneNote files is not supported in the Desktop App.

User Names and Groups

There are few restrictions when creating a username in Egnyte. 

• Must start with an alphanumeric character
• Can only contain alphanumeric, a hyphen, underscore, and period characters
• Cannot end with a period
• Cannot contain spaces

For groups, the same restrictions apply except group names can contain spaces in between but cannot lead or end with a space.