Change multiple files at once in OS X

Are you running Tiger (10.4) or Panther (10.3)?

 

Ah too bad.. in Panther you could select a buncha file and Get Info on them and end up with all of them bunched together for this. Unfortunately, this was changed in Tiger back to the way it was in Jaguar, and now each file opens individually, so the easy way is blocked off.

Hopefully this will work:

I hope all your MP3s are in one single directory, I'm not sure how to make this recursive for multiple subdirectories.

Instead, you'll have to use an XCode tool to fix it.. If you haven't installed XCode, the you will have to. Then you will have to open the Terminal.app and do/type this:

sudo /Developers/Tools/SetFile -a L /Path/To/Your/MP3s/*.mp3

Where naturally, "/Path/To/Your/MP3s/" is replaced by the actual path to your mp3s. Something along the lines of: ~/Music/Moved_MP3s/*.mp3

The easiest way, if you're unfamiliar with the Terminal, will be to do this part "sudo /Developers/Tools/SetFile -a L " (note: there's an important space after the capital L), and then drag the folder containing your locked mp3s into the Terminal window, and it will automatically fill in the correct path, you just need to make sure you add "*.mp3" to the end so it will only set the L flag (or unset if it's already set) on mp3s.

There may be an easier/better way, but I'm not familar with it, so you might want to wait and see if someone chimes in with a better idea.

 

There's a couple of GUIfied apps that will supposedly do the same thing for you. I don't know if they are Tiger aware/functional, and I've never used any of them, so I cannot say if they are good/useful/non-breaky..

In no particular order:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12657
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20751
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22566
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24782

 

When you have marked all the files you want to unlock, press option-cmd-I (not just cmd-I) and you should get one single Multiple File Info window, where you should be able to unlock them with the Locked checkbox under General.

 

Heeeeeeyy, sweet! I didn't know that. Wish they'd thrown that in the File pull-down menu, though I see the menu changes now if you hit the Option key while it's open. Well, that's my "official" learned-thing-of-the-day!
Thanks Mitth!

wdschrank: skip all that other crap I spoted.. go with Cmd-Opt-I and then unlock all at once, it's much easier/safer.

 

You're welcome...

Also: They do, in a way, have it in the File menu, too. Just pull down the menu and hit the option key. Some things change ever so slightly...

 

Don't forget automator in tiger. It makes batch renaming simple.