Chapter 10

Multi-rename

Multi-rename renames many files in one step. The new names are built from a pattern, which can include parts of the old name, a counter, the modification date and metadata such as music tags or the date a photo was taken. You see every new name before anything is renamed.

Renaming a group of files

Mark the files and folders you want to rename.
Press ⌘M / Ctrl+M.
Edit the Name and Extension patterns, and optionally the search and replace, case and counter settings.
Check the new names in the list.
Click Rename or press Enter.

You can also rename the results of a search. Each file is renamed in its own folder.

The dialog keeps your last settings until you quit the app.

The dialog

Field	Description
Name	The pattern for the new name, without the extension. Default: `[N]` (the old name).
Extension	The pattern for the new extension. Default: `[E]` (the old extension). Leave empty to remove extensions.
Insert…	Inserts a placeholder at the cursor position in the field next to it
Search / Replace	Text to replace in the new name (see Search and replace)
Regex	Treat Search as a regular expression
Case sensitive	Distinguish upper and lower case when searching
Case	Changes the case of the whole new name: Unchanged, lowercase, UPPERCASE, First letter uppercase, Every Word Uppercase
Counter [C]: start, step, digits	Settings for the `[C]` placeholder

The new name is built in this order: patterns, then search and replace, then the case conversion.

Folders have no extension; for folders, the Extension pattern is ignored. A file name that starts with a dot and contains no other dot, such as .bashrc, also has no extension.

Placeholders

Placeholders are written in square brackets. They are case-sensitive: [N] is the name, [n] restores the original case.

Name and extension

Placeholder	Inserts
`[N]`	The old name without the extension
`[E]`	The old extension
`[N3]`	The 3rd character of the name
`[N2-5]`	Characters 2 to 5
`[N2,5]`	5 characters, starting at the 2nd
`[N3-]`	From the 3rd character to the end
`[N-5-]`	The last 5 characters
`[N-5,2]`	2 characters, starting at the 5th from the end
`[N-8-5]`	From the 8th-last to the 5th-last character
`[N2--5]`	From the 2nd to the 5th-last character
`[E1-2]`	Characters 1 to 2 of the extension (all ranges work with `E`)
`[1-5]`	Characters 1 to 5 of the complete name, including the extension

Folders

Placeholder	Inserts
`[P]`	The name of the folder that contains the file
`[G]`	The name of the folder above that

Ranges work here too, for example [P1-4].

Counter

Placeholder	Inserts
`[C]`	A counter, using start, step and digits from the dialog
`[C10]`	A counter starting at 10
`[C+5]`	A counter that increases by 5
`[C:3]`	A counter with 3 digits (001, 002, …)
`[C10+5:3]`	Start at 10, step 5, 3 digits: 010, 015, 020, …

The counter follows the order of the files in the list.

Date and time

These placeholders insert the file's modification date and time.

Placeholder	Inserts	Example
`[Y]`	Year	2026
`[M]`	Month	03
`[D]`	Day	07
`[h]`	Hours (24-hour clock)	09
`[m]`	Minutes	05
`[s]`	Seconds	04
`[d]`	Date	2026-03-07
`[t]`	Time	09.05.04

For the date a photo was taken, use the [=taken] metadata field instead.

Case

These placeholders change the case of everything that follows them in the pattern.

Placeholder	Effect
`[U]`	UPPERCASE
`[L]`	lowercase
`[F]`	First Letter Of Each Word Uppercase
`[n]`	Original case

Example: [U][N1-3][n][N4-] turns the first three characters to upper case and keeps the rest.

Brackets

To insert a square bracket, write [[] for [ and []] for ]. Example: [N] [[]draft[]] gives report [draft].

Metadata fields

Metadata placeholders insert information stored in the file itself. Write them as [=field]. The Insert… menu lists them by file type.

Syntax	Inserts
`[=artist]`	The artist tag
`[=artist:1-3]`	Characters 1 to 3 of it (same ranges as `[N]`)
`[=artist\\|Unknown]`	The artist, or `Unknown` if the file has none

Audio files

MP3, FLAC, M4A, AAC, Ogg, Opus, WMA, WAV, AIFF and others.

Field	Inserts
`artist`	Artist
`albumartist`	Album artist
`album`	Album
`title`	Title
`track`	Track number with two digits, for example `03` (three digits for albums with 100 or more tracks)
`tracktotal`	Number of tracks
`disc`	Disc number
`year`	Year
`genre`	Genre
`composer`	Composer
`duration`	Length, for example `3m25s`
`bitrate`	Bit rate in kbit/s

All audio fields except bitrate are also read from MP4, M4V and MOV videos.

Videos and images

Field	Inserts
`width`	Width in pixels
`height`	Height in pixels
`resolution`	Width and height, for example `1920x1080`
`quality`	The height as `1080p`, `720p` and so on (videos)
`duration`	Length, for example `1h02m03s` (videos)
`fps`	Frames per second (videos)
`title`	Title (videos)

Photos (EXIF)

Field	Inserts
`taken`	Date the photo was taken, for example `2026-03-07`
`taken_time`	Time the photo was taken, for example `09.05.04`
`taken_year`	Year taken
`taken_month`	Month taken, for example `03`
`camera`	Camera make and model
`make`	Camera make
`model`	Camera model
`lens`	Lens
`iso`	ISO setting
`focal`	Focal length in mm

How metadata is read

Metadata is read in the background. Until it has been read for all files, the list shows "reading metadata…" for the remaining files and Rename is unavailable.
Characters that aren't allowed in file names are replaced. For example, the artist "AC/DC" becomes AC-DC, and a colon followed by a space becomes -.
Files on servers are downloaded to read their metadata. Online-only cloud files are not downloaded; they are skipped.

Files without a value

If a file doesn't have a value for a field in the pattern, it is not renamed. Its row shows, for example, "skipped: no artist". The other files are renamed normally. To rename such files anyway, add a fallback: [=artist|Unknown].

Search and replace

Search and replace is applied to the new name, including the extension.

Search	Replace	Effect
`copy`	(empty)	Removes `copy`
`_`		Replaces underscores with spaces
`-\\|_`		Replaces hyphens and underscores with spaces
`-\\|_`	`+\\|=`	Replaces hyphens with `+` and underscores with `=`

Separate several search terms with |. With one replacement, all of them are replaced by it; with several, they are paired in order.
Without Regex, characters such as . and * are matched literally.
With Regex, use $1, $2 (or \1, \2) in the replacement for the groups of the expression. For example, search (\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+) and replace with $3.$2.$1 to turn 2026-03-07 into 07.03.2026.

Checking the new names

The list shows each file's old and new name. The status column explains anything unusual:

Status	Meaning
(empty)	The file will be renamed
unchanged	The new name is the same as the old one
skipped: …	A metadata value is missing; the file keeps its name
reading metadata…	The file's metadata hasn't been read yet
same new name as …	Two files would get the same name
a file with this name already exists	A file with the new name is already in the folder
empty name, contains "/", name too long	The new name isn't valid
inside …, which is renamed too	A file and the folder that contains it are both in the list. Rename them in two steps.

Problems are shown in red. Rename is available only when there are no problems. The line below the list summarizes how many files will be renamed, skipped or have problems. If the pattern itself contains an error, such as a missing ], the line describes it.

Files can be swapped or renamed in a circle, for example 1.txt → 2.txt and 2.txt → 3.txt, and names can differ in case only, such as photo.JPG → photo.jpg.

Undoing a rename

Press ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z and confirm with Undo rename to give the files of the last multi-rename their old names back. Only the last multi-rename can be undone.

Examples

Number photos in order, keeping the folder name

Name	Extension	Counter	Result
`[P]_[C]`	`[L][E]`	start 1, step 1, digits 3	`Holiday_001.jpg`, `Holiday_002.jpg`, …

Name photos by the date they were taken

Name	Extension	Result
`[=taken] [=taken_time]`	`[L][E]`	`2026-03-07 09.05.04.jpg`

If two photos were taken in the same second, add a counter: [=taken] [=taken_time] [C].

Name music files from their tags

Name	Result
`[=track] [=artist] - [=title]`	`03 AC-DC - Thunderstruck.mp3`
`[=track] [=title\\|Untitled]`	`07 Untitled.mp3` for a file without a title

Add the resolution to video names

Name	Result
`[N] ([=quality])`	`Interview (1080p).mp4`

Remove a prefix

Name	Result
`[N5-]`	`IMG_4501` → `4501`