Photo file name Hell

Bulk Rename Utility How-To's

Photo file name Hell

Postby bsac » Fri Sep 05, 2025 12:13 pm

OK, I have a ton of photos where all the file names are not uniform.

Some have metadata, some don't.

Because the file names are not uniform, they are hard to read and edit.

Can someone provide step-by-step instructions on how to rename all the files in bulk using strategy of YYYY_MM_DD_XXXXX.jpg?

I am using the file format of Year, Month, Day, then five digits.

I'm unsure what is the best way to approach wiping out all the current file names and re-naming them with date taken (metadata) followed by 5 sequential digits.

Any ideas?
bsac
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2024 6:47 pm

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby TheGhost78 » Fri Sep 05, 2025 3:46 pm

You could prefix with Year-Month-Day Hour.Minute.Second - Current Filename. This might get rid of the need for the five sequential numbers.

Renaming Options > ID3 / Exif Data / File Properties - tick Extract Exif Data (Photos)

Auto Date (8):
Mode: Prefix
Type: Taken (Original)
Fmt: Custom
Sep: space dash space
Custom: %Y-%m-%d %H.%M.%S

This will add the date taken for the ones that do have metadata. Then for the others, in Type try Taken (Digitized), Taken (Modified), Modified (Curr.), Created (Curr.). Some files save data in slightly different ways. Just make sure you don't keep adding the date/time prefix to files you've already renamed.

You could add this in Filters (12) to exclude files that already have a date/time prefix. It also limits it to only image files. Tick RegEx.
Mask: ^(?!.*((?:0\d|1\d|20)\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2}|\[(?:0\d|1\d|20)\d{2}\]|\[(?:0\d|1\d|20)\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2}\]| - (?:0\d|1\d|20)\d{2} - )).*\.(bmp|dng|gif|heic|ico|jfif|jpe|jpeg|jpg|jps|ong|png|svg|tif|tiff|webp|wmf|ytif)$
Last edited by TheGhost78 on Fri Sep 05, 2025 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
TheGhost78
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2024 11:25 am

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby TheGhost78 » Fri Sep 05, 2025 3:50 pm

After doing that, you could foldserise them based on the date.

RegEx (1):
Match: ^(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}) (\d{2}.\d{2}.\d{2}) - (.+)
Replace: \1\\\1 \2 - \3

or
Year-Month:
Match: ^(\d{4}-\d{2})(-\d{2} \d{2}.\d{2}.\d{2}) - (.+)
Replace: \1\\\1\2 - \3

or
Year:
Match: ^(\d{4})(-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}.\d{2}.\d{2}) - (.+)
Replace: \1\\\1\2 - \3
Last edited by TheGhost78 on Fri Sep 05, 2025 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
TheGhost78
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2024 11:25 am

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby TheGhost78 » Fri Sep 05, 2025 4:02 pm

I would definitely add the new date/times to the filenames before deleting any other portions of the filenames from them. Using a separator like space dash space when prefixing would make it a bit easier to delineate between what you want to keep and what you might want to get rid of in a later action, using RegEx (1), for example.
TheGhost78
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2024 11:25 am

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby TheGhost78 » Fri Sep 05, 2025 4:35 pm

I typically name photos in a format like this:

YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS - Event, Place - Names Left to Right
TheGhost78
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2024 11:25 am

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby bsac » Fri Sep 05, 2025 5:11 pm

TheGhost78 wrote:I typically name photos in a format like this:

YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS - Event, Place - Names Left to Right


Yes, but doesn't the "periods" you use in the file interfere with your file extension, i.e. ".jpg" thus rendering the file unopen-able?
bsac
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2024 6:47 pm

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby TheGhost78 » Fri Sep 05, 2025 5:17 pm

You still have .jpg at the end. BRU won't do anything to the file extensions unless you specifically tell it to.

Copy a few image files to a new location, and test out the renaming options on them before you do it for thousands of files.
TheGhost78
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2024 11:25 am

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby bsac » Fri Sep 05, 2025 5:54 pm

OK, if I already have the Date Taken meta data for a given file I can paste in a new date/time stamp because the time & date are unique and correspond to the exact time/date the photo was taken.

For the files that don't have date taken metadata I tried using item date but the date/time stamp are not unique, thus not giving me a unique file name. That is, many of the files have the exact date/time and thus producing non-unique values.

NOTE: I rescued many of these photos from a devastating PC crash that corrupted many of my family photos and I had to rebuild from scratch, thus my challenge.

My plan is to get a corresponding YYYY_MM_DD prefix on each photo THEN process the photos THROUGH EXIF Date Changer using its function (set date/time from DATE in FILE NAME. If I do this then it automatically changes all the screwed metadata like Date Taken, Date Created, Date Modified and Item Date back to the DATE TAKEN. This will ensure if I ever accidently erase the file name, I can use the metadata in the file to rename the file.

Let me know if you have any better ideas because this is what I found that works so far. Getting access to changing metadata in BULK is difficult especially in free programs. I do not want to install nor want to subscribe to Adobe Lightroom/Bridge to get access to such paid programs. SO, this is the path I found so far.

Of course, I am open to suggestion for a more effective/efficient way of editing my photos in BULK.
bsac
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2024 6:47 pm

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby TheGhost78 » Fri Sep 05, 2025 6:14 pm

Item date doesn't include seconds. I would use the full Hour.Minute.Second as, unless you are taking multiple pictures per second, you will get unique filenames with 'real' data, not arbitrary data like sequential numbering.

For the files without Date Taken (Original), try each of the other types in turn:
Taken (Digitized)
Taken (Modified)
Modified (Curr.)
Created (Curr.)

If you still get names that aren't unique, remove the separator ( - ) from Auto Date (8), and in Numbering (10):
Mode: Insert
At: 19
Start: 1
Incr.: 1
Pad: 2 (if there are tens of files), 3 (if there are hundreds of files), 4 (if there are thousands of files), etc.
Sep.: space dash space

This will result in:
YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS - 0001 - Current Filename.jpg
YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS - 0002 - Current Filename.jpg
YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS - 0003 - Current Filename.jpg
etc
TheGhost78
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2024 11:25 am

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby bsac » Fri Sep 05, 2025 7:25 pm

Do you know a way to make the fonts larger in BRU?

My eyes are straining with the smaller fonts.

DO you know a way to make everything larger?
bsac
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2024 6:47 pm

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby TheGhost78 » Fri Sep 05, 2025 8:27 pm

Right click on the desktop, go to Display Settings, Display Resolution, and choose a small number. It has probably defaulted to 1920 x 1080; try 1280 x 720 or lower.
TheGhost78
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2024 11:25 am

Re: Photo file name Hell

Postby Admin » Sat Sep 06, 2025 1:54 am

There is also the increase font option within BRU > display menu.
Admin
Site Admin
 
Posts: 3065
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:39 pm


Return to How-To


cron