How to Rename Several Files at Once in macOS

[mw360]

I just found it interesting since macOS is usually more intuitive. That Apple implemented a more roundabout solution for this.

The MacOS solution seems more intuitive to me, There’s a UI with discoverable and clearly named options, and a preview feature, versus having type some special syntax. I think you’ve been misled by the size of the article which could have been condensed to a single sentence without leaving too many readers behind.

 

[jchap]

Really glad to read about this, and I appreciate MacRumors taking the time to offer these tips. I was using Path Finder and NameMangler to do this, but I see that it's a standard part of Finder now, aside from the ability to use regular expressions to rename a file which Finder currently lacks. Usually I only need to add a suffix to the end of a filename in my use cases, so maybe Finder is good enough

 

[Ovedius]

This is something much simpler in Windows. Highlight a group of files, right click on one, choose rename, the rest get the same name with numbers. If you start one with a number in brackets or is it parentheses . The rest get higher numbers.

This might be a Mac forum but I use Windows as well and that was a helpful tip

 

[Don Pomponio]

In early versions of Mac OS, users looking for a way to quickly rename multiple files simultaneously (commonly referred to as batch renaming) had to use the command line or download and install a third-party tool dedicated to the task.

Since OS X Yosemite however, Apple has integrated several useful batch renaming capabilities directly into Finder.

To rename several files of the same kind on your Mac at once, follow the steps below. In our example we're going to be batch renaming some photos.

1. Open a Finder window and locate the files you want to rename.
   Drag a selection box over the files with your mouse or hold the Shift key and click them one by one.
   
   
   Click the Action button in the Finder toolbar. Alternatively, right-click (or Ctrl-click) one of the selected files in the Finder window.
   
   
   Select Rename [XX] Items in the menu.
   Select Format from the first dropdown menu in the Rename Finder Items panel.
   
   
   In the next dropdown, select a Name format. We're going to use Name and Index, but you can optionally select Name and Counter or Name and Date.
   
   
   Enter a common name for your files in the Custom Format field.
   
   
   Enter a starting number for the file series in the Start numbers at field. Note that if you selected a number format, you can use the Where dropdown to choose whether the sequential numbers appear before or after the common name of your files.
   Make sure you're happy with the preview example at the bottom of the Rename panel, then click Rename.
   

The selected files will now be renamed with your chosen nomenclature. Note that if you're note happy with the change, you can select Edit -> Undo Rename in the Finder menu bar or press the keys Command-Z to revert the files back to their original names.

How to Add Text to Existing File Names
Finder's renaming tool also lets you add supplementary text to filenames without changing their original titles.

Simply select the files whose names you want to adjust and bring up the Rename Finder Items panel as described above, only select Add Text from the from the first dropdown instead. Then just type in the additional text in the input field.

How to Search and Replace Text in File Names
Finder also allows you to rename only certain files whose names include a certain piece of identifying text. This is particularly convenient if you have tens or hundreds of files in a folder with different names and you only want to change those files that contain a particular word.


Select all the files in a folder (make sure they're all of the same kind, or this won't work), bring up the Rename Finder Items panel in the same way as before, but this time select Replace Text in the first dropdown.

Now simply type the identifying text you want to replace into the Find field, and enter the text you want to replace it with in the Replace With field, then click Rename.

Article Link: How to Rename Several Files at Once in macOS

This functionality is OK for the renaming of file names as given in the example.

But is of little use when trying to rename thousands of files with names such as this:

P12345678-9809867-Edit-2.jpg and rename
P12345678.jpg.

But, I might be wrong. If it is possible, show me how do you will remove all the 15 characters stating at index 9 through index 24 in this example. I need to renma about 5k files named like in the example.

 

[chinchillas]

?Messing in Automator and not accomplishing anything. I want it to be like in Word when you press find --> replace and choose right there, not record a specific task since I have many of them.