Bulk Rename

Bulk Rename changes file names on disk, for many videos at once. Each file stays in the folder it is already in.

The catalog remembers the previous name as Original File Name, so a search for the old name can still find the file.

Title is the name you see in the library, and it is separate from the file name. If Title still matches the file name, Skagway updates Title to the new file name. A Title you set yourself stays.

Characters a file name cannot hold are rewritten as the name is built. A slash, backslash, colon, asterisk, question mark, quote, or vertical bar does not survive. A × becomes x. A name longer than 255 bytes is shortened to fit. A leading dot is removed, so the file does not become hidden.

File → Bulk Rename… renames every video in the current view. Search and filters count. If the window still shows the whole library, that is the set.

Select the videos first, then right-click → Bulk Rename…, to rename only that selection. A command on one selected clip applies to every selected clip.

The line under the window title names the set, for example “12 filtered videos · Preview before applying.” Nothing is written until you click Rename N Files.

The window opens with three parts already filled in: Title, a dot, and Extension. For a file named IMG_2044.mov whose Title is Harbor, First new name reads Harbor.mov. Change the parts, or add to them. The window can be resized.

New name is the stack of parts, in order from top to bottom. The last row is blank. Choose a type there, or start typing, and that row becomes a part. A new blank row appears under it. On each part, the arrows move it earlier or later, and the trash button removes it.

The columns are Type, Parameters, Case, and Sample. Sample is that part’s piece of the first file. A dash means the part adds nothing for that file. Rest the pointer on the dash to see why.

First new name is the whole new name of the first file in the preview, with the name it has now underneath. It updates while you edit. If that first file would be skipped, the reason is under the name.

Preview lists every file: Current File Name, New File Name, and Status. Sort, above the list, sets the order of the list, the order of the numbers, and the order of the rename. File Name, ascending, is the default. A file with no value for the chosen field sorts last.

A new name is a stack of parts. Skagway joins them in order. You do not type a pattern string.

Text is characters you type: a word, a hyphen, the dot before the extension.

A field inserts something Skagway already knows. The Type menu groups those fields as Identity, Media, Library, and Custom. Custom is there when this library has custom fields.

Number counts through the files in preview order.

If taken adds text only when the new name is already taken. When the name is free, that part adds nothing.

Each example is a whole recipe. The Sample column is the first file. Build the same parts, in the same order, and the preview should match the results.

On a field, Keep is Whole value, Before the first, or After the first. Case is at the end of the row. A Format box appears for dates and for Duration.

Number steps once per file, in the preview’s current order. The first file gets the number you typed. 1 goes 1, 2, 3. 01 goes 01, 02, 03. 015 goes 015, 016, 017.

If taken is three boxes: text before the number, the number, and text after the number. The new part starts as a hyphen, then 1, then an empty after box. Clear the hyphen if you do not want it. The number box uses the same width rule as Number, so 01 is 01, 02, 03.

The whole If taken part is empty when the new name is free. It is filled in when two files in this batch would land on the same name in the same folder, or when some other file already in that folder already has the name.

Without If taken, a repeated result is a Collision. Those rows stay as they are. Rename N Files does not include them. Add If taken, or change the parts, until the preview no longer says Collision.

Today's date, Date Created, Date Imported, the date last played, and Date Converted take a format. Leave it empty and the date is yyyy-MM-dd, such as 2026-11-01. MMM-yyyy is Nov-2026. The letters are the usual date pattern: yyyy is the year, MM is the month number, MMM is the short month name, dd is the day.

Duration with an empty format is a length that is safe in a file name: 1h02m03s, 12m34s, or 45s. mmm is the total minutes. sss is the total seconds. hhh is the total hours. hh, mm, and ss are the hours, minutes, and seconds of the clock time, not the totals. A 90-minute video is 1h30m00s, or 90 with mmm.

Case applies to a field after any cut. As written leaves the text alone. lowercase and UPPERCASE change all of it. Title Case capitalizes each word, The Quick Brown Fox. Name case capitalizes the first letter only, The quick brown fox.

Keep has three choices. Whole value uses the field as it is. Before the first keeps the text before the first time the separator appears. After the first keeps the text after that, and a later copy of the separator stays.

The separator is the exact characters you type, including spaces. For City-roll-a, Before the first - is City. After the first - is roll-a. If the separator is not in the value, the whole value is kept.

The cut happens before Case. Title Case still applies to the piece you kept.

An empty field adds nothing. A short separator sitting just before it is left out as well, so the name does not pick up a dangling hyphen. The separator has to be one, two, or three characters long, and every character has to be a space, a hyphen, an underscore, or a dot.

Text that is longer than that is a real part of the name. Topic- stays even when the next field is empty. So does a word with a hyphen inside it.

The same rule is why the opening recipe does not become .mov when Title is empty. The dot is a one-character separator in front of Extension, and it is left out with the empty Title. The new name is then only the extension. Use Name without extension when Title might be empty.

The status line under the list is the count, such as “8 will rename · 1 warning · 2 skipped · 3 unchanged.” Rename N Files uses the “will rename” count. Skipped and unchanged rows are left on disk as they are.

OK means the row will be renamed. No extension means it will still be renamed, and the new name has no extension. That is usually a missing Extension part, or a dot that was left out with an empty field.

Unchanged means the new name is the name the file already has. Empty name means the parts added up to nothing. Collision means two files in the same folder would get the same name.

Click a row to open the same three facts larger: the current name, the new name, and the status.

Click Rename N Files only after the preview is the list you want. The window stays open. A finished file says Renamed. A file that failed says why: it is missing, a file with that name is already in the folder, a move of that file is still in progress, or macOS refused the name. The status line reads “N files renamed.” or “N files renamed · N failed.”

The main button becomes Done, which closes the window. Retry Failed is there when some files failed. It tries those files again and leaves the ones that already succeeded.

Undo, on the status line, puts the names back. It shows its own progress, then lists the same files again, ready to rename, as they were when the window opened.

After Done, the activity strip at the bottom of the library keeps “N files renamed · Undo” until you undo or run another rename. A later scan does not push that line off. Edit → Undo Rename does the same thing. ⌘Z is Undo Rename while that line is waiting. When it is not, ⌘Z is still Undo Reconnect.

Undo is one step, not a stack. It restores the names from this rename. A file whose name you changed again after that is left as it is.

While a rename is running, each file briefly has a temporary name and then the new name. If Skagway quits in the middle, the next launch puts that file back to the name it had before the rename.

The menu at the right of New name is Templates, or the name of the template that matches the parts you have now.

Save As Template… asks for a name. Choosing that template later fills the parts in again.

Saving under a name you already used replaces that template. Delete Template removes one.