How do I delete file extensions on files in sub folders?

Question

How do I delete file extensions on files in sub folders?

I want to delete all file extensions on the files I have in several sub folders.

If I highlight the files themselves in a folder and run "Get Selected Finder Items", then "Replace Text in Finder Item Names", then it works. However, how can I have Automator choose ALL files in ALL sub folders of a folder and then do it's magic on all those files at once?

Thanks.

17" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Dual 2GHz G5, 17" 1.5GHz Powerbook, PCs.

Posted on Jul 16, 2010 9:37 AM

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Answer 1

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Top-ranking reply

red_menace

Level 6

17,054 points

Jul 16, 2010 3:45 PM in response to Don_McCracken

Does the Notebook software accept aliases? If so, you could rename aliases instead of the main file, so that the original extensions are preserved.

For your original question, you can use an action to get the folder contents, and adding a filter action will just give you the file names - for example:

1) *Get Selected Finder Items*
2) *Get Folder Contents* (repeat for each subfolder found)
3) *Filter Finder Items* -- remove items that are folders
4) *Replace Text in Finder Item Names*

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

361,919 points

Jul 16, 2010 9:54 AM in response to Don_McCracken

Why are you removing file extensions? File extensions is the mechanism by which OS X chooses which applications open files and documents. Deleting extensions defeats that process and is not recommended.

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Answer 3

Jul 16, 2010 10:01 AM in response to Kappy

I'm using a notes software called Notebook from Mark/Space. When dragging text files from a folder to Notebook, the note takes it's title from the file name. I don't want every note to have a *.txt in the title, so removing the file extensions before dragging the files to Notebook eliminates this problem.

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Answer 4

Jul 16, 2010 11:26 AM in response to Don_McCracken

Don't know if this will work, but right click on a file, select get info, and in the info window check hide extension. Is the extension hidden from the program when the title is created?

Have a nice day.

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Answer 5

Jul 18, 2010 9:17 AM in response to red_menace

Thank red_menace, that formula worked! 🙂 However, I had to omit step 3 as it gave an error message. I tried both "Kind is folder" and "Kind is text". But it worked without that step.

I know it's a bad idea to remove extensions, but these files are just copies for this purpose and they really needed no file extension to show up correctly in Notebook.

Thanks again,
Don

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Answer 6

Aug 30, 2017 2:13 AM in response to Don_McCracken

I myself tried to find solution for this problem ,but could not find one. finally it worked. Open safari browser, you will see safari at top corner of your apple mac book,click, select preferences, select extensions and uninstall the file.

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Answer 7

Jul 16, 2010 1:23 PM in response to Boyd Porter

Hi Boyd, yeah I tried that already. It didn't work since it doesn't change the name of the file. OS X only masks the extension. Thanks anyway.

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Answer 8

Kappy

Level 10

361,919 points

Jul 17, 2010 10:50 AM in response to Don_McCracken

Are you aware that you can hide extensions without removing them? It really isn't a great idea to remove an extension that Notes uses to determine the association to that filetype.

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How do I delete file extensions on files in sub folders?