If you've ever taken a bunch of photos and then gone to edit them on your PC, you've experienced having to sort through the generic file name that's generated by your phone or camera. Bulk renaming files is the easiest way to organize these systematically.
Bulk file naming isn't just for photos either. Some apps are for organizing episodes of a television show or any group of files that you'd like. Here are the best tools to organize all of your files.
Filebot
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Filebot is the most expensive entry on this list at $19.99, but with that comes a significant amount of power and features. It's aimed at renaming files that are media content such as movies, films, TV episodes, and songs. You can use Filebot to match files against TheMovieDB or TheTVDB. With that comes the ability to replace add episode titles to TV shows and similar tasks. This setup is excellent for if you use something like Plex or Kodi because it aids in browsing content and playing things automatically.
Filebot has been around for a long time and earned a solid reputation. It's a great app to look at if you are bringing older formats such as DVDs to your PC or if you have multiple media files that need renaming. The price tag is a bit hard to swallow, but if you need Filebot to boost the functionality of your server or media playing setup, then it could well be worth it.
Filebot is available on Windows 10.
Rename It! Pro
Rename It! Pro has the ability to rename hundreds of files in multiple ways. You can enter a naming scheme such as replacing the names of files into a sequence like "Wedding-Wide-001, Wedding-Wide-002" or you can import file names from a text file.
This second option is great for if someone has broken up footage and put in a key or glossary of the contents. For example, I have hundreds of hours of family movies to go through from my childhood and my dad has them all timestamped. I could use Rename It! Pro to rename files after I chop of the footage.
It's available for $1.49 on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.
File-Renamer
File-Renamer is a free app that comes with a lot of power. It allows you to add dates to files, rename them with text, replace text with an iteration number, and more. The bottom line is that it gives you a lot of control when it comes to adding and replacing file names and doesn't put a dent in your wallet.
It's available for free on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, and HoloLens.
Default File Explorer
While there aren't batch renaming tools built into Windows 10, you can use the File Explorer to do basic renaming. If all you need to do is rename a batch of files into a naming structure like "Football(1), Football(2)" then you can select all the files at once and name them the same thing. Windows 10 will realize you've named multiple files the same thing and add numbers at the end of each so you don't have duplicates.
This is nowhere near as powerful as the options listed above but could be useful in specific usage cases.
Over to you
Deciding which bulk renamer to use depends largely on what you need them for. If you're a photographer you should look towards Rename It! Pro and File-Renamer but if you're using a media server or need to index videos, you should check out Filebot.
How to you make sure that your files are organized and named correctly? Do you use a program, edit them by hand, or just stick with the default naming schemes from your sources? Let us know in the comments below.
