Batch rename files for free in Mac OS
NameChanger is a free solution to quickly and easily batch rename files in Mac OS X, using it is very easy and it has all the features you’d expect in a batch renaming app. You can replace occurrences of text in filenames, use wildcards, append, add dates, make files sequential, and remove characters, just select your options and you’ll see a live preview as to what the new names will be, when you’re satisfied click “Rename” and away you go.
It’s fast, free, and incredibly easy to use, which makes it my preferred choice for renaming a ton of files in Mac OS. If you’re happy with NameChanger, throw the developer a couple bucks, it’s donationware.
Developer home
Download NameChanger now
And yes, we did a prior post on software to batch rename files in Mac OS X but the developer decided to turn the once donationware software into a paid solution. For now though, NameChanger is still free.
why not just use automator that comes standard with all macs?
How do you do this with automator? I have tried to use automator in the past and it is too complex and did not perform the tasks I wanted it to: resize images and change to black and white. For me, automator is not a solution.
One of the most needed utilities for changing names is a random number generator for slideshows, etc. As Chuck stated this program can easily be replaced with Automator. All the developer would need to do is add the ability to prepend a randomly generated number and he would have something. Easy to find renamers on Windows to do this but all but impossible to find a free version on a Mac to do this.
I once suggested this software as an alternative to the software in the other post mentioned, and it seems to be what triggered this post. Awesome! although I didn’t receive any credit for it.
You guys forget that your OS is based on a unix-style OS.. use bash
Do you have a simple command to rename a bunch of items from the command line with bash? I don’t like downloading anything new if I can prevent it, but I can’t think of a good way to do this with bash either, I am a bash newb.
Good point. While I’m all for ease of use, nothing beats good old bash and the rest of the (free!) gnu utilities when you wanna deal with a lot of files. As per db, there’s tons of renamers on Windows that are free as well, but in the Mac world, we seem to have to usually have to pay a premium for everything.. including the hardware. oh well..
You coul try this is bash: for i in *JPG; do j=`echo $i | sed ‘s/DCP_11/Image – /g’`; mv “$i” “$j”; done
Tried namechanger today (Jan 1st 2013) and it works beautifully – thanks for the recommendation
Tried Name Changer today and it worked flawlessly on batch renaming about 400 files, highly recommend it.
J, you forget that OSX has free GCC compiler, why bother with Automater when you can simply wright a quick little something in C++. Actually, my bad, I forgot that Mac’s now run on X86 hardware. Screw C++, just code a quick renaming script in some Assembly, but no cheating, pop a hexeditor open, and start typing hex in.
Actually, that’s too complicated as well, you don’t want to rely on OSX hard drive drivers and such to do something as simple as renaming a few files. Ok, here is the trick, far less complicated. Just grab a screwdriver, pull that harddrive out, pull the platters off, grab a small magnet, and you are in business!
Jesus, people, the guy wrote a nice little utility, and it’s free, for god sakes. And it works ok, not the best I have seen, but easier then bash or automator. And I have done this in bash in the years past, you need to use padding, BTW.