Unable to locate files with long names on Windows with Python

Use the 8.3 fallback to avoid the long pathname, browsing in Win7 explorer this seems to be what windows itself does, ie every long paths has a shorter ‘true name’:

>>> long_unc="\\\\K53\\Users\\Tolan\\testing\\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdddddddddddddddddddddwgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\\esssssssssssssssssssssggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggeee"
>>> os.listdir(long_unc)
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 3]

but you can use win32api (pywin32) to ‘build’ up a shorter version, ie

short_unc=win32api.GetShortPathName(win32api.GetShortPathName(win32api.GetShortPathName("\\\\K53\\Users\\Tolan\\testing\\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx")+"\\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdddddddddddddddddddddwgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx") + "\\esssssssssssssssssssssggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggeee")
>>> print(short_unc)
\\K53\Users\Tolan\testing\XXXXXX~1\XXXXXX~1\ESSSSS~1
>>> import os
>>> os.listdir(short_unc)
['test.txt']

clearly you can just fold the win32api.GetShortPathName call into you dir exploration rather than nesting as in my example.
I’ve done it like this with 3 calls because if you’ve already got a ‘too long’ path then win32api.GetShortPathName wont cope with it either, but you can do it per dir and stay below the limit.