Renaming and deleting multiple files

Bulk Rename Utility How-To's

Renaming and deleting multiple files

Postby QuesoGirl17 » Tue Jul 19, 2022 8:36 pm

I'm a newbie here, I'm needing to rename and delete multiple files in multiple different folders. I have UTC backup files that have been made, so sometimes there are 3-5 copies of a file from different dates. After doing some searching I found out how to rename multiple files / taking off the timecode but I havent been able to figure out how to delete the other copies of that file and save the most recent one..

For example I have these files :

Ink-1 (2021_01_21 03_15_20 UTC).mov
Ink-1 (2021_01_24 07_58_29 UTC).mov
Ink-1 (2021_03_24 09_44_00 UTC).mov

I want it to save the most recent file (Ink-1 (2021_03_24 09_44_00 UTC).mov)
rename it to just Ink-1 & delete the other two files.

Please tell me there's a way to do all of this??
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Re: Renaming and deleting multiple files

Postby Admin » Wed Jul 20, 2022 1:46 am

Hi, which product created these files? thanks
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Re: Renaming and deleting multiple files

Postby QuesoGirl17 » Wed Jul 20, 2022 1:57 am

Admin wrote:Hi, which product created these files? Thanks

I'm on a Windows computer
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Re: Renaming and deleting multiple files

Postby Luuk » Fri Jul 22, 2022 1:01 am

Greetings.. Admin is asking for the name of the application that does keep inventing these video files?
So then maybe its possible to change some settings, so that it can finally stop inventing so many of them?

The bru can fix this, but it does require a very dangerous setting, and so it does always get disabled by default...
First, to put a checkmark inside of...... "Renaming Options, Advanced Options, Allow Overwrite / Delete Existing Files" !!!
Also put a checkmark inside of........... "Display Options, Sorting, Use Logical Sorting".
There must NOT be a checkmark inside of...... "Renaming Options, Prevent Duplicates".
There must NOT be a checkmark inside of...... "Renaming Options, Rename in Reverse Order".

Because this can now delete your files, Im also highly recommend changing some settings inside of the Filters(12) like...
Put a "Mask" like .+ \([\d_]{10} [\d_]{8} UTC\)\.(mov|mpeg|wmv|mp4|avi|mkv|flv|webm)$ and then a checkmark inside of "RegEx".
If having more video-extensions to conduct? make sure adding them, or you could just make it (mov) to conduct only the .mov files.
Then only put checkmarks inside for "Files" and "Subfolders", and removing the checkmark from "Folders".

The RegEx(1) uses a "Match" and "Replace" like...
(.+?) *\([\d_]{10} [\d_]{8} UTC\)$
\1

Then carefully sort your files by clicking on the "Name" column, until your oldest UTC-dates present first (just like in your 3-examples).
This to rename the oldest-ones 1st, so then the next newest-one overwrites it, all the way until only the newest-one gets to keep the name.
If to be 100% certain that all of the setting are correct, only then it would be safe to click "Rename".

But if not 100%, it would be VERY easy to destined with having only the oldest videos, instead of the newest, and without having any "Undo" !!

A safer way would be with the same settings, but without "Renaming Options, Advanced Options, Allow Overwrite / Delete Existing Files".
Then reverse the order to present the newest-ones on top, and telling "Prevent Duplicates" to use a string like %name%--_=_--%count000%
This way, only the older-videos would get numbered, so then you could just verify, and quickly delete any videos ending like --_=_--###
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