Inconsistent Results When Testing BRU On Samples Of Files

[NapaValleyCabbage]

Objective: Remove Last 36 characters from all files' filenames created prior to December 25, 2023 within a given folder and all subfolders while excluding all files created between December 25, 2023 and the present and also excluding all folders' names as well.

Process So Far:

Setting the Remove (5) option to remove the last 36 characters from each file seems pretty straightforward (Last n).

Setting the Filters (12) to exclude all Folders and Include all of the contents of all folders and subfolders also seems pretty straightforward. I checked 'Files' and 'Subfolders', and I unchecked 'Folders'.

I first tested BRU by renaming a single HTML file that I copied to a completely different folder that I created solely for this purpose. It was successful.

I then created a separate test folder with one of the subfolders copied from the main folder containing all of the files I wish to rename. The subfolder I copied contained many HTML and PDF files through varying levels of other subfolders. I commenced testing BRU again and received 21 errors where BRU had failed to rename these files. The error I received was: Error: The system cannot find the path specified.

I started investigating this error and found that most of the information I came across did not seem to apply. For instance, there are no illegal characters in any of the filenames. Some of them have an '&', but not all of them do, and some of the ones that failed did, and others did not.

After further testing of the specific, copied subfolder in question, and including the specific HTML file (which was one of the 21 that failed), it appears to me that perhaps it is a long pathname issue where BRU is not able to process and rename files over the 260 character pathname limit.

While I have already set my installation of Windows 10 in the Local Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor to accept Long Path Names I have heard and read that in many cases that is not enough due to other software developers not necessarily adhering to that same option probably due to other problems it may cause for their users and thus themselves. Anyway, I am not sure that this is absolutely the problem, but when I test the different variations of the same subfolder and HTML file(s), and simply try to isolate the variable to be only the pathname length, the only one out of the three test folders that fails to be visible in BRU's interface is the one with the substantially longer pathname.

I so far have not even gotten to the stage where I try to figure out how to exclude all files created in this folder between December 25, 2023 and the present.

I should also note here that I am in no way a programmer nor am I familiar with how to write a regular expression. I apologize in advance for this limitation, but if this community is at all willing and able to help me here I would very much appreciate it. Thank you in any case. Cheers.

[NapaValleyCabbage]

So it looks like BRU definitively does not support pathnames over 260 characters. As a result of this new information I have started moving folders that are as close to the top level folder and root of the volume as possible to the root of the volume, and then checking their pathname length with another tool before commencing renaming them with BRU. I have to go one folder at a time, but since they are still somewhat close to the top level folder it is not too onerous so far.

I am still wondering if there is a better way to exclude all of the files in a given folder created after a certain date other than simply sorting them as I come to them and just not selecting those files to be renamed...?

Anyway, cheers, and thanks again.

[NapaValleyCabbage]

So after working on this for the last couple days I have successfully finished correcting the problem. Through a combination of Windows File Explorer Search, Sort, and Group functions I was able to isolate the redundant files, and through the use of BRU plus some creative, temporary moves of some folders I was able to successfully rename everything properly. Cheers, and thanks BRU dev team!

[Admin]

Glad that you were able to make it work! Adding support for paths > 260 is something we want to add to BRU!