FIX Error 'Could not find this item. This is no longer located in :\ Verify the item's location and try again'

I got that message after copy and paste files from my external hard disk to my PC (windows 8.1), while some files weren't able to be pasted. I pressed the 'try again button', still the same problem happened.

The file that wasn't responding was in C:/Users//Downloads. So I opened Command Prompt and typed the following:

cd downloads

dir /x

[long list of files and folders in \Downloads, with each given an additional short name, in the case of my file it was FILE~1]

del FILE~1

...and that did it. Apparently some have had more success renaming the file:

REN FILE~1
DEL