diff --git a/monai/handlers/utils.py b/monai/handlers/utils.py
index 3e36af0652..a0717169aa 100644
--- a/monai/handlers/utils.py
+++ b/monai/handlers/utils.py
@@ -85,27 +85,39 @@ def evenly_divisible_all_gather(data: torch.Tensor) -> torch.Tensor:
     return torch.cat([data[i * max_len : i * max_len + l, ...] for i, l in enumerate(all_lens)], dim=0)
 
 
-def string_list_all_gather(strings: List[str], delimiter: str = "\t") -> List[str]:
+def string_list_all_gather(strings: List[str]) -> List[str]:
     """
     Utility function for distributed data parallel to all gather a list of strings.
+    Note that if the item in `strings` is longer than 1024 chars, it will be truncated to 1024:
+    https://github.com/pytorch/ignite/blob/master/ignite/distributed/comp_models/base.py#L92
 
     Args:
         strings: a list of strings to all gather.
-        delimiter: use the delimiter to join the string list to be a long string,
-            then all gather across ranks and split to a list. default to "\t".
 
     """
-    if idist.get_world_size() <= 1:
+    world_size = idist.get_world_size()
+    if world_size <= 1:
         return strings
 
-    _joined = delimiter.join(strings)
+    result: List[List[str]] = [[] for _ in range(world_size)]
+    # get length of strings
+    length = len(strings)
+    all_lens = idist.all_gather(length)
+    max_len = max(all_lens).item()
+    # pad the item to make sure the same length
+    if length < max_len:
+        strings = strings + ["" for _ in range(max_len - length)]
+
     if get_torch_version_tuple() > (1, 6, 0):
-        # all gather across all ranks
-        _joined = delimiter.join(idist.all_gather(_joined))
+        for s in strings:
+            gathered = idist.all_gather(s)
+            for i, g in enumerate(gathered):
+                if len(g) > 0:
+                    result[i].append(g)
     else:
         raise RuntimeError("string all_gather can not be supported in PyTorch < 1.7.0.")
 
-    return _joined.split(delimiter)
+    return [i for k in result for i in k]
 
 
 def write_metrics_reports(
diff --git a/tests/test_handler_metrics_saver_dist.py b/tests/test_handler_metrics_saver_dist.py
index 1b17d0adb4..dfdaa16526 100644
--- a/tests/test_handler_metrics_saver_dist.py
+++ b/tests/test_handler_metrics_saver_dist.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 
 import csv
 import os
+import random
 import tempfile
 import unittest
 
@@ -44,8 +45,13 @@ def _val_func(engine, batch):
 
             engine = Engine(_val_func)
 
+            # test the case that all_gather with string length > 1024 chars
+            filename_postfix = "abcdefghigklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
+            for _ in range(1100):
+                filename_postfix += filename_postfix[random.randint(0, 26)]
+
             if dist.get_rank() == 0:
-                data = [{"image_meta_dict": {"filename_or_obj": ["filepath1"]}}]
+                data = [{"image_meta_dict": {"filename_or_obj": [f"1{filename_postfix}"]}}]
 
                 @engine.on(Events.EPOCH_COMPLETED)
                 def _save_metrics0(engine):
@@ -58,8 +64,8 @@ def _save_metrics0(engine):
             if dist.get_rank() == 1:
                 # different ranks have different data length
                 data = [
-                    {"image_meta_dict": {"filename_or_obj": ["filepath2"]}},
-                    {"image_meta_dict": {"filename_or_obj": ["filepath3"]}},
+                    {"image_meta_dict": {"filename_or_obj": [f"2{filename_postfix}"]}},
+                    {"image_meta_dict": {"filename_or_obj": [f"3{filename_postfix}"]}},
                 ]
 
                 @engine.on(Events.EPOCH_COMPLETED)
@@ -86,7 +92,8 @@ def _save_metrics1(engine):
                     f_csv = csv.reader(f)
                     for i, row in enumerate(f_csv):
                         if i > 0:
-                            self.assertEqual(row, [f"filepath{i}\t{float(i)}\t{float(i + 1)}\t{i + 0.5}"])
+                            expected = [f"{i}{filename_postfix[0: 1023]}\t{float(i)}\t{float(i + 1)}\t{i + 0.5}"]
+                            self.assertEqual(row, expected)
                 self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(os.path.join(tempdir, "metric3_summary.csv")))
                 # check the metric_summary.csv and content
                 with open(os.path.join(tempdir, "metric3_summary.csv")) as f: