Is there a way for DIR(path) in VBA to handle strings longer than 260?

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Shortly put (to answer the answer as titled): No. VBA’s Dir function simply does not work with paths beyond 260 characters.

Long version: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247(VS.85).aspx#maximum_path_length (then Ctrl+F and search for “260”)

Maximum Path Length Limitation

In the Windows API (with some exceptions discussed in the following paragraphs), the maximum length
for a path is MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters. A local
path is structured in the following order: drive letter, colon,
backslash, name components separated by backslashes, and a terminating
null character. For example, the maximum path on drive D is “D:\some
256-character path string” where “” represents the invisible
terminating null character for the current system codepage. (The
characters < > are used here for visual clarity and cannot be part of
a valid path string.) Note File I/O functions in the Windows API
convert “https://stackoverflow.com/” to “\” as part of converting the name to an NT-style name,
except when using the “\?\” prefix as detailed in the following
sections. The Windows API has many functions that also have Unicode
versions to permit an extended-length path for a maximum total path
length of 32,767 characters. This type of path is composed of
components separated by backslashes, each up to the value returned in
the lpMaximumComponentLength parameter of the GetVolumeInformation
function (this value is commonly 255 characters). To specify an
extended-length path, use the “\?\” prefix. For example, “\?\D:\very
long path”. Note The maximum path of 32,767 characters is
approximate, because the “\?\” prefix may be expanded to a longer
string by the system at run time, and this expansion applies to the
total length.

I think the section about Win32 File NameSpaces is worth giving a try:

For file I/O, the “\?\” prefix to a path string tells the Windows
APIs to disable all string parsing and to send the string that follows
it straight to the file system. For example, if the file system
supports large paths and file names, you can exceed the MAX_PATH
limits that are otherwise enforced by the Windows APIs. For more
information about the normal maximum path limitation, see the previous
section Maximum Path Length Limitation.

There must be a Win32 API function you can DECLARE and use, but that’s not using the DIR function. Sorry, don’t have a long path name at hand to test anything…

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