Bulk Rename Utility

Hi All,

I am new to the bulk rename utility and it appears to be able to address what I am looking for. However, when I attempt to strip certain characters from all files, folders and subfolders, I receive the following error:
"The system cannot find the file specified"

I get that error when I attempt to apply a "remove (5)" for a certain string of characters, select Filter(12) of Folders, Files and Subfolders. What happens is that my top level folders get renamed, but none of my subfolders or files underneath, even though in the file viewer the utility accurately displays all files and folders with NEW NAME.
If you could provide any help - that would be great.
Thanks in advance!

certain characters

What are certain?

all files, folders and subfolders

Does all mean all?

Anything of note in the logs?


I'd suspect that it is a permissions issue?

Hi therube,

I am entering the following string of chars o remove " \/:*?"<>|#{}%~&"

Not sure how to check the log files...

Yes all files, folders and subfolders

Most of those will be illegal on a Windows OS.
Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces

Right therube, that is why i want to remove them from the filenames.

woudldn't this tool help me accomplish this?
it renames the top level folder with no problem.

Hi, I am not sure it's possible at all in Windows, other than delete the file itself. Did you try copy it?
https://superuser.com/questions/31587/how-to-force-windows-to-rename-a-file-with-a-special-character

Admin wrote:Hi, I am not sure it's possible at all in Windows, other than delete the file itself. Did you try copy it?
https://superuser.com/questions/31587/how-to-force-windows-to-rename-a-file-with-a-special-character

The thing is, if I go into each folder and run the utility from there, it will rename the files. Bulk rename just wont go through in one step to rename all files at once (main folder, subfolders and files)..and I have hundreds of directories and subdirectories
any ideas?

Is the error then only given when trying to rename files that are in subfolders? Do the subfolders have invalid names themselves or just the files? thanks

Admin wrote:Is the error then only given when trying to rename files that are in subfolders? Do the subfolders have invalid names themselves or just the files? thanks

Both the folders and the files have invalid names. Ex:

C:\Users\vman\Documents\Bulk Test\RELO #3003 Test 1
files are:
RELO #3003 Base 1 (RELO) 12.20.17.pdf
RELO #3003 Loc 2 (RELO) 12.20.17.pdf
RELO #3003 Loc 3 (RELO) 12.20.17.pdf

There is nothing "wrong" or "illegal" with the samples you have given.

Do you get any message back when you attempt to rename?
(That would have surely help.)

Most likely what is happening is that the directory itself is renamed, & once that is done, the files within are no longer existent where they once were, so their renaming fails.


If you had:

C:\Users\vman\Documents\Bulk Test\RELO #3003 Test 1\
C:\Users\vman\Documents\Bulk Test\RELO #3003 Test 1\RELO #3003 Base 1 (RELO) 12.20.17.pdf

If you rename # to ------------, you get:

C:\Users\vman\Documents\Bulk Test\RELO ------------3003 Test 1\
& that is fine for the directory itself, but at that point, the file,
C:\Users\vman\Documents\Bulk Test\RELO #3003 Test 1\RELO #3003 Base 1 (RELO) 12.20.17.pdf
no longer exists at the location where it originally was read from, because it is now at,
C:\Users\vman\Documents\Bulk Test\RELO ------------3003 Test 1\RELO #3003 Base 1 (RELO) 12.20.17.pdf
& BRU is not attempting to rename that (newly named directory part + filename) but rather the old path/name,
C:\Users\vman\Documents\Bulk Test\RELO #3003 Test 1\RELO #3003 Base 1 (RELO) 12.20.17.pdf
so it fails.

I didn't test, but if you were to sort the file list such that the directory names appeared at the bottom of the list, that way all the files would end up renamed.
The directories... if they were in a bottom up order, rather then top down, would also work, I would think?

Recursive, top down directories would fail for the reason I mentioned above.
Recursive, bottom up would work, I'd think, cause as the bottom-most directory is renamed, it's parent is still valid at that point.


Or maybe just, Renaming Options, Rename in Reverse Order would handle it, not sure?

Yes, BRU has the capability of correctly renaming files and folders together if the folder name is renamed before the file.
So if c:\folderA\folderB\ is renamed to c:\folderA\folderC\ then the following files to be renamed that are now in c:\folderA\folderC\ should be renamed correctly.

On XP (currently), my renames probably ran into a pathlen (> ~260) issue.
On Win7, I think it was different? Will have to check later.

Thanks, if you find an issue with this please let me know we are preparing version 3.2 for release and if there is a problem here we can fix it. thanks!

Win7.

I was just doing some renames, forward, backwards, upside down, just trying to see how things went.
At some point, this:



As it is, I was renaming from a longer to a shorter string.
Message is different from above, don't believe it is a pathlen issue, here.

Maybe ? cause 12:Filters (not shown in the shot), I had Mask: *#*, & maybe the mask was not valid (no matches found) after a certain set of renames ?
No, that does not look to be it.

I'll note that on XP, what did I see - oh, yeah, XP mentioned, was it, to hit Ctrl+F5 to refresh, something like that?
Win7, I've not seen that. Oops, there it is. OK now seen on both OS, so ignore this.