Bulk file renaming

[DarkTXKnight]

Ive got a list of files in my music folder (example below ) that have parts of the name messed up:

example:
--file1.mp3
- -file2.mp3
file3.mp3

Id like to take the files that have the "--" and other info ( like track names) and remove it in mass. Ive not figured out how to do this in windows 7 or another utility. anyone have ideas?

 

[bigi]

First result in google search

 

[yinan]

Learn powershell

 

[AkumaX]

Bulk Renaming Utility - my favorite

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

 

[corkyg]

. . . and I find this one to be excellent:
http://www.vicman.net/getfree/Filename-Editor_50970s.html

 

[abaez]

Bulk Renaming Utility - my favorite

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

This program is the BOMB.

Also, OP should just rip his CDs with custom filename/tagging options and never have this issue.

 

[Badkarma]

Learn powershell

LoL. Love the advice. Might as well tell him to go learn perl also.
I think he wants something simple that can be done in a couple of mouse clicks.

To the OP, your best bet is to find a file renamer that supports regular expression. Regular expression or regex is a way to match strings and complex patterns. There's a little bit of a learning curve but not that hard to pickup. Once learned you can almost do anything.

Depending on the task, you can use something relatively tame like RegexRenamer or something robust as Pfrank Renamer. The latter supports inserting of exif data and ID3 tags and plugins. I recommend RegexRenamer as it is less intimidating.

Using your example files above with RegexRenamer:
--file1.mp3
- -file2.mp3
file3.mp3

You wanted to remove the "--" from the file names. Use this little tutorial to get you started or how to replace texts. In this case, type in "[ -]+" without the double quotes in the Match field and leave the Replace field blank. Pretty easy, right? You can read about the rest of the regex basics here.


Edit: corkyg, the download link at vicman.net is down. FYI.

 

[Eos]

Bulk Renaming Utility - my favorite

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

This program is the BOMB.

Also, OP should just rip his CDs with custom filename/tagging options and never have this issue.

Third. I use this plus Folder Print Plus to help me.

I use dbPoweramp for ripping and before the rip begins, it allows me to set the base filename format as tracknumber - trackname.mp3, plus it will tag artist, album, year, blah, blah. It's been a while since I ripped, but I don't recall the ability to tag the ALBUMARTIST field. I just do that in iTunes.

 

[corkyg]

corkyg, the download link at vicman.net is down. FYI.

Seems OK now. ???

 

[shortylickens]

ACDSee does it for all files, not just images.

But free ones that specialize in just naming probably work better.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Gents thank you for the advice. Im actually using a combination of BRU + some of the regular expression examples, since i can't figure out how to make the regex part of BRU to work. The whole reason things were messed up is that I have years worth of ripped CD's, but one of the sort and rename options in monkey audio messed a bunch of the names up, and im trying to fix them now. Im also removing track numbers from the filenames too.

 

[Eos]

Gents thank you for the advice. Im actually using a combination of BRU + some of the regular expression examples, since i can't figure out how to make the regex part of BRU to work. The whole reason things were messed up is that I have years worth of ripped CD's, but one of the sort and rename options in monkey audio messed a bunch of the names up, and im trying to fix them now. Im also removing track numbers from the filenames too.

What is regex, and what are you trying to do exactly? Maybe I know how to accomplish it and can show you.

 

[Badkarma]

Seems OK now. ???

Nope. Click on your link and try and download it and you'll see that http://www.faraseen.com/ is long gone. You're gonna have to use google and download it from another source.

DarkTXKnight, can you give us an example of what your files look like now and how would you like to rename it to? That way we all can better help you.