Most windows users use notepad which is a built-in text editor in Windows or Notepad++ which needs to be installed on the windows system for a better experience since this has additional features like language, plugins, etc.
But these days, some windows users have reported an issue where they were not able to open some text files with notepad or notepad++ app on their system and instead it throws an error message that says “The <filename along filepath> is too large for Notepad. Use another editor to edit the file.”
This is probably because the file size must have been more than 2 GB. Notepad or Notepad++ app on any windows system is only able to open any text file which is less than 2 GB in size as default. If the problem occurs in the Notepad++ app only, then it might have been because of the extra plugins installed and the scripting language selected.
In this article, we have listed a few ways by which you can open your text file without getting any errors and continue with your work.
Fix 1 – You can use any browser to view the text file
If there is a problem while opening any huge text file using Notepad, then you can use the web browsers like firefox, chrome, etc. But in this method, you can only view the contents of the text file but will not be able to edit it.
Steps on how to use any web browser for viewing the text file.
Step 1: Go to the text file and right-click on it.
Step 2: Select Copy as path from its context menu as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 3: Now open any web browser on your system like chrome by pressing the Windows key and typing chrome.
Step 4: Then press Enter key.
Step 5: In a new tab, paste the copied path of the text file.
Step 6: Now remove the quotation marks from the copied path and press Enter key.
Step 7: This opens the text file in the browser.
There are a few tools which are able to open text files whose size is more than 2 GB and they are Glogg, Large text viewer, EditPad lite, Universal Viewer, etc.
Fix 2 – Disable the Plugins, Clickable Links Settings in Notepad++
Sometimes, the extra plugins and other clickable links in the contents of the text file consume a lot of space and it takes a lot of time to load the text file. So we suggest trying to disable the plugins and clickable links settings in your notepad++ app on your system.
Here are the steps on how to do it.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and type notepad++.
Step 2: Select the Notepad++ app from the search results as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 3: After the Notepad++ app window opens, go to the Plugins option on the top bar and select Plugins admin from the dropdown list.
Step 4: In the Plugins Admin window that just popped up, click the Installed tab and select all the plugins like Mime tools, Npp converter, and NppExport.
Step 5: Then click Remove on top as shown below and then close the Plugins admin window.
Step 6: Next, go to the Settings option on the main top bar and select Preferences.
Step 7: In the Preferences window, select Cloud & link option on the left panel.
Step 8: Next, on the right side, uncheck the Enable checkbox under the Clickable Links Settings section at the bottom.
Step 9: After that close the window.
Step 10: Finally, you need to make sure the Language is Normal text by clicking Language on the top bar and selecting None (Normal Text).
Step 11: Now restart the Notepad++ app and see if the text file can be opened.