How to rename a lot of photos at once

You can rename hundreds of photos in one go with Disk Sort by Zaweba. Tag the pictures you want, press F2 (or R), set up rules such as numbering or find and replace, and check the live Before and After preview before you apply it. If the result is not what you wanted, Undo last rename puts the names back.

Camera file names like IMG_4821 tell you nothing a year later. A batch rename turns a folder of those into names that say what and where, and it takes less time than renaming three files by hand.

Picking the photos to rename

Open the folder in the FILES tab. Thumbnails (Ctrl+1) make it easy to see which pictures belong together. Press T on each one to tag it and move on, or Ctrl+T to tag everything shown. If the folder has videos or other files mixed in, use the kind filter to show pictures only first, then tag them all.

Tags work across folders. You can tag photos from several folders and press G to see them as one Tagged list, then rename them together. Bulk rename also works on a plain selection if you only want a handful.

Sort order matters for numbering. Sort by date taken if you want the numbers to follow the order the pictures were shot, or by name to keep the camera's own order.

Building the new names

Press F2 or R and the bulk rename window opens with the files listed. Add rules: find and replace, numbering, change of case and more. The preview shows every Before and After name as you type.

Tokens bring in details from each file. {original} is the current name, {n:000} is a number padded to three digits, {width} and {height} give the picture size, {camera} and {lens} come from the photo's details, {rating} is its star rating and {folder} is the name of the folder it sits in. A pattern such as {folder} {n:000} gives a run of names like Cornwall 001, Cornwall 002.

Read down the preview before you apply. Look for clashes and for files where a token comes out empty, perhaps because a picture has no camera details. It is easier to adjust the pattern now than to fix names later.

Applying and undoing

Apply the rename and the files change on disk. If you spot a mistake, Undo last rename reverses the whole batch, so there is no need to work back through the files one by one.

Folders can be renamed too. Select a folder in the tree and press F2. Tags, history and the scan follow the folder to its new name, so you can carry on working without rescanning.

Good habits for photo names

Cull before you rename. Mark keepers with the star or P, rate them 1 to 5, and use Delete all but keepers to send the rest to the Recycle Bin after confirming. Renaming fewer files gives you a tidy, unbroken run of numbers.

Keep a part of the original name if you might need to match pictures back to a camera card or another copy. Adding {original} at the end of the pattern does that.

The {rating} token is useful when sharing a selection: put it at the front and the best pictures sort to the top in any file list. Disk Sort by Zaweba is free and works offline, so you can rename a whole year of photos without uploading anything.