# FindFirstFile error
**URL:** https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 12, 2018, 9:35am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140 "2018-09-12T09:35:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jgomila](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/jgomila)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2018, 9:35am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/1 "2018-09-12T09:35:09Z")
For the following folders an error occurred while starting to watch for changes. It will be retried every minute, so the errors might go away soon. If they persist, try to fix the underlying issue and ask for help if you can’t. [Forum](https://forum.syncthing.net/)
Menorca FindFirstFile \?\c:: El nombre de archivo, directorio o etiqueta del volumen no es válido.
with the update to 14.50 now both windows remaining in the sync servers are throwing these error, there wasn’t any change in the servers. I tried to change the C to c, but the error persist.
any workarround ? i looked at the forum and the message found is from 2015.
---
### Author:  [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2018, 9:50am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/2 "2018-09-12T09:50:11Z")
Google translate (well, you actually don’t need to translate to understand 😛 ): `The file name, directory, or label of the volume is not valid.`
What’s the folder root path of the affected folder?
---
### Author:  [@jgomila](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/jgomila)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2018, 9:54am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/3 "2018-09-12T09:54:33Z")
from the error message Menorca FindFirstFile \?\C:: El nombre de archivo, directorio o etiqueta del volumen no es válido.
syncthing config folder C:\documentos compartidos\NewSync\Menorca
windows explorer folder C:\documentos compartidos\NewSync\Menorca
msdoc folder C:\documentos compartidos\NewSync\Menorca\>
---
### Author:  [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2018, 10:01am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/4 "2018-09-12T10:01:34Z")
Weird, everything looks quite normal. Seems like some weird windows quirk - google doesn’t help me. Maybe someone with windows experience recognises the message.
---
### Author:  [@Nintendo](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/Nintendo)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2018, 10:05am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/5 "2018-09-12T10:05:45Z")
I am having the exact same issue. I just downgraded back to v0.14.49 and the problem goes away.
I wasn’t able to resolve the issue on 0.14.50 even with changing the folder name or re-adding folders. It happened to all three windows machines that I have using SyncThing which were all set to auto-upgrade (which I’ve now disabled.)
---
### Author:  [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2018, 10:10am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/6 "2018-09-12T10:10:24Z")
How did this not happen to a single RC user?!
Can any of you run Go scripts (i.e. have Go installed or are willing to)? I.e. I provide a small script where you’ll need to enter a folder root path resulting in the failure and it will check a few things to narrow down the source of the problem.
---
### Author:  [@Nintendo](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/Nintendo)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2018, 11:58am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/7 "2018-09-12T11:58:10Z")
Tell me exactly what you need me to install and what to run and I’ll do it for you 🙂
---
### Author:  [@MAW](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/MAW)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/8 "2018-09-14T17:49:32Z")
Seeing the exact same error after automatic update to v0.14.50, Windows (32 bit), on two old machines with Windows XP Pro SP3. Haven’t tested extensively, but sync appears to be working both ways in spite of the error message on both PCs.
So what’s the best solution, roll back to v0.14.49 and stay there, or hope that a future release will fix the error? Will v0.14.49 keep working indefinitely (as long as XP 😉)?
---
### Author:  [@cosas](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/cosas)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/9 "2018-09-14T19:27:10Z")
Waiting for a fix, we still can ignore or disable fsWatcher
---
### Author:  [@AudriusButkevicius](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/AudriusButkevicius)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/10 "2018-09-14T23:57:19Z")
Xp is not supported so if it works, it’s an accident
---
### Author:  [@jozamm](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/jozamm)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2018, 4:30pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/11 "2018-09-25T16:30:41Z")
Hi,
The same here, The error is appearing only on an XP machine, I use syncthing because an i386 version is supplied.
Any ideas or do I need to wait for the next version,
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 8:51am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/12 "2018-09-26T08:51:45Z")
> [@Nintendo](#):
>
> Tell me exactly what you need me to install and what to run and I’ll do it for you 🙂
Install Go: [Download and install - The Go Programming Language](https://golang.org/doc/install)
Get the script and adjust the `folderRoot` variable: [Script to debug https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/3 · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/imsodin/eab9a292367f86a80e48c38222b0ebea)
On the command line, navigate to the place where you saved the script and run `go run debug.go`.
Post the output here.
---
### Author:  [@Nintendo](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/Nintendo)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 9:44am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/13 "2018-09-26T09:44:30Z")
Okay I did what you asked, this is what I get:
```
C:\Go\scripts\debug.go:13:29: unknown escape sequence
```
The directory was:
```
var folderRoot string = "P:\my data\health"
```
I figured perhaps the script needs double slash to work so I did it that way also:
```
var folderRoot string = "P:\\my data\\health"
```
And this is the output I got:
```
folderRoot: P:\my data\health
After drive hack, folderRoot: P:\my data\health
ExpandTilde: P:\my data\health
folderRoot is absolute
After longFileNameSupport, folderRoot: \\?\P:\my data\health
EvalSymlinks failed: FindFirstFile \\?\P:: The filename, directory name, or volu
me label syntax is incorrect.
```
Hope this is helpful 🙂
---
### Author:  [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 10:03am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/14 "2018-09-26T10:03:32Z")
Thanks a lot, that was speedy 😉
My bad, the path should be enclosed in backticks.
Until now it just shows that the error is indeed coming from `filepath.EvalSymlinks`, but not yet why. I updated the script to check something else, could you run it again please: [Script to debug https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/3 · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/imsodin/eab9a292367f86a80e48c38222b0ebea)
---
### Author:  [@Nintendo](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/Nintendo)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 10:09am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/15 "2018-09-26T10:09:37Z")
Sure here you go:
```
folderRoot: P:\my data\health
After drive hack, folderRoot: P:\my data\health
ExpandTilde: P:\my data\health
folderRoot is absolute
After longFileNameSupport, longRoot: \\?\P:\my data\health
EvalSymlinks on \\?\P:\my data\health failed: FindFirstFile \\?\P:: The filename, directory name, or volume
label syntax is incorrect.
EvalSymlinks on P:\my data\health failed:
```
---
### Author:  [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 10:15am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/16 "2018-09-26T10:15:59Z")
Ok thanks, now it’s clear what’s causing the problem, but not why it is happening. Meaning it’s easy to work around, but the problem shouldn’t occur in the first place. Which version of windows are you running?
---
### Author:  [@Nintendo](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/Nintendo)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 10:16am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/17 "2018-09-26T10:16:53Z")
I tried the test on Windows 10 and Windows 2012 R2 and got the same result on both.
I run SyncThing usually on several Windows Server 2012 R2 servers.
---
### Author:  [@Nintendo](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/Nintendo)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 10:27am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/18 "2018-09-26T10:27:13Z")
After running the test on other drives in my system such as C, D, R etc it appears to work on those. But it won’t work on P. For example:
```
folderRoot: T:\Test
After drive hack, folderRoot: T:\Test
ExpandTilde: T:\Test
folderRoot is absolute
After longFileNameSupport, longRoot: \\?\T:\Test
After EvalSymlinks, evalRoot: T:\Test
After longFileNameSupport, evalRoot: \\?\T:\Test
rooted("", %v): %v, %v \\?\T:\Test \\?\T:\Test
```
The only thing I can think of is that P:\ on my systems is a RAMDISK. So it’s not a real physical disk and is instead created by software. Specifically IMDisk a driver.
All the prior versions of SyncThing worked fine with it though, no problems of any kind syncing folders/files with the RAMDISK. I’ve actually never had software that had an issue seeing or utilising it before, sometimes it even fools disk utilities.
Think that could be related?
---
### Author:  [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 11:27am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/19 "2018-09-26T11:27:48Z")
> [@Nintendo](#):
>
> All the prior versions of SyncThing worked fine with it though, […]
The previous Syncthing version didn’t “work”, it just ignored this error, which didn’t have any consequences for you, as you don’t have symlinks in place.
> [@Nintendo](#):
>
> After running the test on other drives in my system such as C, D, R etc it appears to work on those. But it won’t work on P. For example:
>
> […]
>
> The only thing I can think of is that P:\ on my systems is a RAMDISK. So it’s not a real physical disk and is instead created by software. Specifically IMDisk a driver.
It looks like the `FindFirstFirstFile` syscall is not supported with long path names on your driver (paths prefixed by `\\?\`).
See issue [Watcher fails due to filepath.EvalSymlinks error (FindFirstFile) · Issue #5226 · syncthing/syncthing · GitHub](https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/5226) and PR [lib/fs: Try EvalSymlinks without '\\?\' prefix on failure (fixes #5226) by imsodin · Pull Request #5227 · syncthing/syncthing · GitHub](https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/pull/5227)
---
### Author:  [@Nintendo](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/Nintendo)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2018, 11:40am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/findfirstfile-error/12140/20 "2018-09-26T11:40:29Z")
Thanks for the workaround.
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