MATLAB: Movefile “the system cannot find the path specified” (Windows OS)

fileMATLABmovefilerenamethe system cannot find the path specified

I'm writing a small file renaming function to reverse the order of a list of image files (code below). I've run into an error using movefile. I get the error "Error using movefile … The system cannot find the path specified." on the first call of movefile.
Surprisingly, I found that if I change
[dirname '\' 'TEMP_' fnames{n1}]
to
['TEMP_' fnames{n1}]
in both movefile calls, it now works and no longer throws the error. However, this means the files are moved to the local directory and then back again, which is obviously pretty slow when working with files on a network!
I've got a feeling this is related to the path length limitations of Windows OS. I've spent some time trying to research workarounds for the path length limit, but haven't yet found anything comprehensive. If anyone has a link to good material on the subject please let me know.
function reverseImgStackDir()
% Select folder
dirname = uigetdir('C:\');
% Compile list of tif image files
fnames = dir([dirname '\*.tif']);
fnames = {fnames.name}';
% 1st pass - swap file names
for n1 = 1:length(fnames)
    % Index working from the end backwards
    n2 = length(fnames)+1 - n1;
      % Temporarily rename file

      movefile([dirname '\' fnames{n2}], [dirname '\' 'TEMP_' fnames{n1}])
end
% 2nd pass - remove temp qualifier
for n1 = 1:length(fnames)
    % Temporarily rename file
    movefile([dirname '\' 'TEMP_' fnames{n1}], [dirname '\' fnames{n1}])
end

Best Answer

In addition to Jan's suggestion of the FileExchange files, since you're on Windows you can also delegate the renaming to .Net:
prefix = ['\\?\', dirname, '\'];  %\\?\ to enable paths longer than MAX_PATH
System.IO.File.Move([prefix, fnames{n2}], [prefix,  'TEMP_', fnames{n1}]);
See MSDN for the \\?\ notation.
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