How to rename multiple files at once?

Question

I want to rename multiple files at once. For example:

Picture1.jpg
Picture2.jpg
Picture3.jpg
Picture4.jpg

into

Vacation-Picture1.jpg
Vacation-Picture2.jpg
Vacation-Picture3.jpg
Vacation-Picture4.jpg

I am quite familiar with the terminal, if there is no app which is quite good in renaming files.

score 66 · Answer 1 · answered May 23 '16 at 04:57

No need for command line...

Add all the images to be renamed into a folder.
Select all files, right click mouse and select "Rename x items"
Select "Add text" from first drop down menu
Select "Before name" from the second drop down menu
Enter "Vacation_" into the text box (without the quotation marks)
Press Enter.

score 43 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 14 '16 at 13:16

43

Try something like this:

 for file in Picture*.jpg
 do
    mv "$file" "vacation-$file"
 done

(open terminal and add one line {press Enter} at a time.)

What that does is uses the variable file for each entry matching Picture*.jpg. Then it takes the file or folder and moves it to be prefixed with "vacation".

Hope that helps

edited Dec 14 '16 at 13:16

Jaime Santa Cruz

4,846

answered Sep 19 '12 at 20:45

slowBear

580

1

What if I would like to rename Vacation-Picture4.jpg back to Picture4.jpg? Namely, removing a word from file name. Thanks! – zyy Oct 04 '18 at 03:29
@zyy ${file/Vacation-/} as target (where ${file/find/replace}) – grg Jul 15 '23 at 06:13

score 34 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 15 '15 at 20:50

34

brew install rename

rename s/config\./route\.config\./g *

First you need homebrew installed. Then install rename, and the above regex renames all files with "config." to "route.config".

So say files config.a.js, and config.b.js -> route.config.a.js, route.config.b.js.

answered Jul 15 '15 at 20:50

Nick

449

1

According to the brew desc rename command: "rename: Perl-powered file rename script with many helpful built-ins". The brew home rename command leads to http://plasmasturm.org/code/rename/ for documentation, etc. – kjones Jan 19 '19 at 08:41

Sean · Answer 4 · 2020-03-18T08:44:33.410

6

After downloading rename

brew install rename

run following command

rename -n -A Vacation- *

-A : prepend

-n : Only show how the files would be renamed.

If it looks good, run the same command without -n flags.

edited Mar 18 '20 at 08:44

answered Sep 19 '19 at 05:10

Sean

161

Dan J · Answer 5 · 2012-09-19T20:56:42.563

5

While not a Terminal solution, I like Forklift for this purpose (and for many others). From their website:

Forklift's Multi-rename feature description

edited Sep 19 '12 at 20:56

answered Sep 19 '12 at 20:13

Dan J

5,721

Yep, for sure there is a terminal based solution. I also found this on mighty google ;) http://manytricks.com/namemangler/ – YeppThat'sMe Sep 19 '12 at 20:18
You may as well post NameMangler as an additional answer, since this is basically a recommendation question. :) – Dan J Sep 19 '12 at 20:24
To rename multiple files(recursively) with Forklift .. just select all files then expend all directories by CMD+right .. till you cover them all .. its working with me – Maher Abuthraa Sep 07 '16 at 12:16

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 19 '12 at 21:19

5

I like user933531's answer, but if you'd like a GUI, the A Better Finder Rename app is really good. I got it from the App Store.

answered Sep 19 '12 at 21:19

Trieu

830
3
9
10

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 21 '16 at 02:20

If you want to bulk rename files I built a small script for that.

# Rename Bullk files.
# Renames all the files in PWD with the given extension.
#
# @param extension | jpg
# @param new_name | name
# Usage: rename jpg new_name
function rename() {
    echo "———————————————— STARTED ————————————————"

    # Counter.
    COUNTER=1

    # For do loop.
    for file in *."$1"; do
        mv "$file" "$2-$COUNTER.$1"
        COUNTER=$[$COUNTER +1]
    done
    echo "———————————————— ✔✔✔ RENAMED Every $1 file in the PWD! ✔✔✔︎ ————————————————"
}

Just put it in your .bashrc or .zshrc and run Usage: rename jpg new_name this will rename all jpg files in the PWD to new_name-1.jpg, new_name-2.jpg, etc.

Cheers!

Alternatively to put the function in .bashrc or .zshrc files I put it in my .bash_profile and it works great! — Elena, Feb 15 '18 at 13:35

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 02 '20 at 07:51

0

try this. do not need run command https://tidbits.com/2018/06/28/macos-hidden-treasures-batch-rename-items-in-the-finder/

Hope that helps

answered Nov 02 '20 at 07:51

LouisLeung

1

1

Answers should be more than just a link (which may break, rendering your answer useless). – nohillside Nov 02 '20 at 07:58

How to rename multiple files at once?

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