Naming Dropbox files and folders

Updated Oct 14, 2025

To ensure the best experience with Dropbox across all platforms and operating systems, we recommend following these guidelines when naming files and folders in your Dropbox account. This includes Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, iPad, and Linux. Each operating system has its own file and folder name limitations, but the recommendations below cover all of them.

Learn how to rename a file or folder in Dropbox.

Even if you don’t get an error message when you name a file on your operating system, if you don’t follow the guidelines below, it could cause a problem when you try to open or sync the file on another operating system.

File and folder name recommendations

☑ Keep file and folder paths under 260 characters

A file path includes the full location of a file or folder. File paths must be fewer than 260 characters.

Example:

C:\Users\Panda\My Documents\Dropbox\Creative Nonfiction\My Autobiography\Favorite Things\Favorite Foods\Bamboo\Family Recipes\Fresh Leaves.doc

This path is 142 characters.

Note: Double-byte characters count as one character. Double-byte characters such as “箱” would only count as one character toward the 260-character limit. Some characters, such as most emojis, count as two characters because they’re encoded as 4 bytes in UTF-16.

☑ Don’t use restricted characters in file or folder names

Always disallowed

/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)

Not recommended
These characters may cause syncing or display issues, especially on Windows:

< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon)
" (double quote)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)
. (period) — see the notes below for exceptions

Notes:

You can use a period (.) in file and folder names, except at the end of the name on Windows.
On the Dropbox desktop app for Windows, files and folders with restricted characters will still sync. Those characters are automatically replaced with an “_” (underscore). Avoid them to prevent sync errors. Learn how to turn flexible file names on.

☑ Don’t add a space at the end of a file or folder name

For example, don’t name a file or folder Panda .png.

Emoji and Unicode Support

Dropbox also supports a wide range of characters in filenames—including emojis . This lets you use expressive, modern filenames across devices, and see them display consistently.