I like books, for some reason, THE INTERNET STORE, likes to make books with stupid long names available. when i download them i often have to rename or remove illegal characters like"???" getting inserted for non latin characters etc. This I can do on a onesy-twosy basis. when i save the books to an archive, i often get copying errors if the nesting exceeds windows legal name length.

I'm trying to find a "smart" rename utility that can recursively go through a directory and truncate any filename over "x" number of characters, and keep the file extension. would also be handy if it can truncate and rename directories, since often the files are stored in a directory/folder/ with the same name as the file cause internet is retarded and stuff.

anyhow i can't be the first to have this problem in the history of humanity. wondering if anyone knows a utility to do this.

 

hey Garamondo.
This one isn't exactly what you asked, but might help you if you don't find what you're looking for.
it cleans characters you don't want, replace words, etc.
you can also code a function like the one you need
Unfortunately it doesn't work on folders, archives only

https://www.den4b.com/products/renamer

 

thanks, I'll give it a look over, and after reading around a bit, I may have to use a power shell script.

 

If you're on Windows 10 21H1 or newer, you could try enabling NTFS long path support (launch "Edit Group Policy" > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem > Enable Win32 Long Path Support) and then use a file manager that supports long paths. Explorer doesn't yet. 7-Zip's file manager looks crude but works.

 

bulk rename
https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/
been using the free version for years

 

MS-DOS is good at that.

 

I use Advanced Renamer to modify lengthy names and a lot more and it also has a portable version.
https://www.advancedrenamer.com

 

just downloaded it, gonna give it a go. thanks!!!

 

I know its a running joke, but I was much more at home in a terminal than a GUI, its much more productive also you can destroy an entire filesystem in a matter of seconds.... gotta watch for those typos... thank god for backups...

 

I've been using this since it was a paid for software, its now free. it does let me rename files with illegal characters, so i can move them around.
https://www.altap.cz/salamander/downloads/

its a really good bit of software that is now free. i use it every day on every computer I own, except for the unix/linux/apple stuff.

you can add like 10 user programs with parameter passing, so I might be able to use on of the utilities inside the file explorer of Salamander, its really like butter once you get used to the layout...

 

When you're saving the incoming files themselves adjust the local filename before saving it to storage - Best solution.
If you have saved a exceedingly long filename and getting rename errors open it with 7Zip and rename it. - adequate solution.

Most "utilities" will simply use the same methods as file explorer (and the same rules) to open the files initially and you will end up getting the same errors when trying to rename filenames that exceed the limit.

 

Last edited: Jun 22, 2024

Bulk Rename Utility. Great free program!
https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

This looks pretty good too. Never tried though :
https://www.advancedrenamer.com/

 

Another +1 For Bulk Rename Utility

 

Yeah it can be a real headache, I tried LongPath Tool Program which helped a lot.

 

Bulk rename utility is quite useful:
https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

and my classic goto for smaller tasks is multirename in total commander

 

I use an app called Namechanger on a mac.works great