Cannot Delete Thought After Unzipping Deep Folder Archive #100974

https://thebrain.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/100974

Hello Jim,

Thank you again for sending the log file.

We reviewed the behavior, and it appears to happen when an archive with deeply nested folders is unzipped inside a thought. Those nested folders can create internal paths that are longer than TheBrain’s path-length limit, which is kept for cross-device and Windows sync compatibility. When that happens, TheBrain may not be able to fully catalog those over-long entries, so they can keep getting re-detected after delete or restart. That is why the thought can appear to not delete or may come back.

The workaround is to avoid unzipping archives with very deep folder structures directly inside a thought folder.

If it happens again, the best workaround is:

• open the thought’s attachment/source folder
• delete the extracted folders directly from disk using Explorer or Finder
• restart TheBrain if needed
• then delete the thought again in TheBrain

That is effectively what resolved it in your case when you deleted the extracted files in Windows and restarted.

Best regards,

John