# Make a copy of an Ember app

**URL:** <https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747>\
**Category:** Ember CLI\
**Created:** [October 11, 2016, 11:36am UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747 "2016-10-11T11:36:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![myc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@myc](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/myc)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 11:36am UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/1 "2016-10-11T11:36:49Z")

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is there a way to make a copy of a whole ember app? i tried just copying and pasting the folder for the app, but i get this error when i paste it. “the file name(s) would be too long for the destination folder. You can shorten the file name and try again, or try a location that has a shorter path.”

i’m just trying to make back up copy of my app and can’t seem to find any info on this.

thanks

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**Author:** ![Bauke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/bauke/32/12190_2.png) [@Bauke](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/Bauke)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/2 "2016-10-11T12:46:53Z")

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Microsoft Windows right?

This is exactly why I switched to Linux Ubuntu.

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**Author:** ![myc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@myc](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/myc)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/3 "2016-10-11T12:50:22Z")

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yes, windows 8… is there anyway around this?

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**Author:** ![Bauke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/bauke/32/12190_2.png) [@Bauke](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/Bauke)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/4 "2016-10-11T13:01:47Z")

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Yes. Go to the Microsoft headquarters and burn the place to the ground.

Serious answer: I’ve been looking for a solution to this for quite a while, but I gave up. The Windows file system is horrible, not just with long path/file names, but with compiling and live reloading as well. Since I switched to Ubuntu my build times are just 25% to 40% of previous build times on Windows.

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**Author:** ![broerse](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/broerse/32/9497_2.png) [@broerse](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/broerse)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/5 "2016-10-11T13:07:27Z")

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7-zip walks the path so it has no problem with long paths. But if you create a `bare` git repository on your backup it is much faster to backup using `git push` (no bower and NPM modules are backuped)

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**Author:** ![Tobias\_Wenger](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/tobias_wenger/32/13314_2.png) [@Tobias\_Wenger](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/Tobias_Wenger)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/6 "2016-10-11T15:08:33Z")

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Git is of course the best solution but sometimes you really want a copy of your app. On windows the fastest way is to not copy node\_modules, bower\_components, dist and tmp and run `npm install` and `bower install` afterwards.

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**Author:** ![myc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@myc](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/myc)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/7 "2016-10-11T17:16:56Z")

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thanks, thats what i needed.

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**Author:** ![haldiggs](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/haldiggs/32/9852_2.png) [@haldiggs](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/haldiggs)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/8 "2016-10-18T18:08:29Z")

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AND if you find you cannot delete node\_modules because of those long file names, try creating a batch file with this set of commands in the root of the Ember app and run it.

```
@echo on
#rem this is a hack way to dump the big ol nodeModules folder with its deep file structure
mkdir empty
robocopy empty node_modules /mir
rd empty
rmdir node_modules /s/q

```

it works

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tobias\_Wenger](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/tobias_wenger/32/13314_2.png) [@Tobias\_Wenger](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/Tobias_Wenger)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 9:46am UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/9 "2016-10-21T09:46:54Z")

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Or install rimraf ([https://www.npmjs.com/package/rimraf](https://www.npmjs.com/package/rimraf)) and run `rimraf node_modules` to delete the folder.

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**Author:** ![jackyflint](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/jackyflint/32/18692_2.png) [@jackyflint](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/jackyflint)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:59pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-a-copy-of-an-ember-app/11747/10 "2026-02-16T17:59:11Z")

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LongPathTool is useful when Windows blocks files due to long paths.