Do you own a Nikon, Canon or Sony digital camera? If you do, you might have noticed each camera has its own default file name structure. When you take new snaps, your digital camera names the file with some text followed by number increments (for example: DCIM_100001.jpg, DCIM_100002.jpg, DCIM_100003.jpg). It can become more troublesome when you transfer these photos to your PC. You’ll find yourself spending a lot of time finding and organizing your photos. If you’re facing the same issue and don’t know where to begin, read on. In this workaround, we’ll cover a workflow of solutions to batch rename your photos and make them more friendlier and readable.
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Rename Photos Using File Explorer
Manually Rename Photos Using File Explorer
If your photo collection is smaller in size, you can rename each photo one by one. You may use any renaming pattern of your choice to manually rename your photos.
- Double-click This PC.
- Open the root folder that contains photos you want to rename.
- Check if your Ribbon interface is expended. If it isn’t, expand it using the Downward arrow that you can see on the right side corner of your screen.
- Click the View tab on the Ribbon and set the Details view under the Layout.
- Select the topmost file in the File Explorer.
- Press the F2 key of your keyboard or just right-click that file, and select Rename.
- Type a new name for your file and press Enter key.
- Now, press the Tab key to jump to the next file in sequence, type a new name and press Enter.
- Repeat the same process over and again for each file in your photos collection.
Automatically Rename Multiple Photos Using File Explorer
Using this method you can rename hundreds of Nikon photos without using a third party software. Windows will use a common name structure to all photos and add counts to non-original photos. This method has some limitations though. It supports only one file renaming pattern. You cannot expect this method to replace text from filename, add text before the file name or remove part of the filename.
- Open the File Explorer and go to the directory that contains your photos.
- Select all the photos you need to rename. Use Ctrl + A to select all files.
- Press the F2 key, type a common name you want to appear in each file name.
- Press Enter.
- Windows will auto-rename all files that you’ve selected.
Using Command Prompt
Manually Rename Photos Using Command Prompt
An alternative way to rename your Canon photos is using Command Prompt. Just like File Explorer, this method also requires you to rename photos one by one. Therefore, it is safe to assume that it may take longer than normal. Use it only if your files are limited in nature.
- Type CMD in the Search box in your Taskbar.
- Right-click on Command Prompt from the search results, select Run as Administrator.
- Use the change command to define the current directory that has your photos. Replace the text in red with your actual file location.
- cd D:\MyPhotos.
- If your photos are stored in the Documents folder, type the following command:
- cd %USERPROFILE%\Documents\
- You will notice that the Command Prompt has now changed your active directory to the newly assigned path.
- Now, use the “dir command to view the photos list.
- Use the following command to rename the file abc.txt to xyz.txt.
- ren “abc.txt” “xyz.txt”
- Repeat the same procedure for each and every other file in the directory.
Automatically Rename Multiple Photos Using Command Prompt
Just like you can manually rename Sony photos in Command Prompt, you can automatically rename photos as well. The only catch is that CMD does not support multiple file renaming patterns. You’ve very few options when it comes to renaming patterns.
Using the following method, we’ll rename all .png image files leaving the first 5 characters. “?” (without quotes) here signifies one character, whereas “?????” signifies five characters. We’ll then add a new text “NewTextToAdd” into the original file name. You may modify the command with your actual requirement..
- Open up Command Prompt.
- Change the active directory to the folder that contains your photos. Use the following command to change the directory to your Documents folder.
- cd %USERPROFILE%\Documents\
- Use the “dir” command to list all photos into that folder.
- Type the following command. Change the text in red to define some other file extension, character length and text.
- ren *.png ?????-NewTextToAdd.*
- Press Enter.
Note: While renaming your photos, your computer may display an error stating that the file is already in use with an error “The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process”. To overcome this issue, simply close any background applications that are using your photos. If the problem still persists, try booting in the Safe Mode.
Automatically Rename Photos Using A Batch File
The more cleaner way to accomplish the same task is to create a batch file and use it. The most prominent benefit of using batch photos is the simplicity that it offers. You do not need to remember or write complex commands again. Just write your commands once, save the file and execute it. That’s it, you’re all done. Should you need to perform the same task again, just open up the same file.
In the following example, we’ll create a Batch file to loop through all the .png files in a folder. The batch file will then search for a text “OldTextToFind” and replace it with a newer text “NewTextToReplace”. You can modify the Batch file depending on your actual usage and requirement.
1.To start with, type Notepad in the Search Box on your Taskbar and open it from the Search Results.
2. Enter the following text. Make changes to the text in red to customize the command.
@echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET old=OldTextToFind
SET new=NewTextToReplace
for /f “tokens=*” %%f in (‘dir /b *.png’) do (
SET newname=%%f
SET newname=!newname:%old%=%new%!
move “%%f” “!newname!”
)
3. Click on File, select Save As.
4. Specify a new name: AutoRename.bat
5. Set the File Type to All Files.
6. Click on Save.
7. Close Notepad.
8. Double-click the newly created file: AutoRename.bat
Automatically Rename Hundreds Of Photos Using Easy File Renamer (Recommended)
If you’re looking for an innovative way to rename Nikon, Canon and Sony photos, Easy File Renamer is your best bet. EFR is an algorithm-based software that does more than what it promises.
EFR is equipped with many interesting features. EFR comes with various file renaming patterns. You can choose a renaming pattern of your choice and rename hundreds of photos with one-click. EFR has a friendly interface. In contrast to Command Prompt, EFR is very safe as you don’t need to write complex commands or worry about messing up with your photos. Even before you rename your photos, EFR shows a preview. Once you confirm the new naming pattern, EFR will start processing.
EFR not just renames your local photos, you can rename photos stored on the cloud as well. If you’re using Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon S3 or Dropbox to store photos from your digital camera, this feature can be very handy. With your subscription to EFR, you get free access to the cloud renamer. Just log-in to it, securely add your cloud account, select your photos and folders, choose a renaming criteria among 12 patterns and click the Rename button. That’s it, EFR will do the job automatically. You don’t need to download a single file. The process is done “over-the-cloud” and saves your time & bandwidth.
When I said EFR does more than what it promises, I actually mean it. EFR makes it extremely easy to batch move or copy your files and photos to another folder. The best thing is that EFR moves/ transfers your large files with zero possibility of error. This feature is very handy if you’ve high-volume of data scattered across different hard drives, USB sticks and external HDDs. Just specify the source, destination and proceed. EFR will do the rest.
EFR also has an in-house Music Fixer. It simplifies the entire process of editing music tags, changing the music title, artists, album name, year, genre, copyright and other information. If you’re a music addict, it’ll be helpful in managing your music library.
