How to batch rename iPhoto photo-files?

Question

How to batch rename iPhoto photo-files?

Hi there,

I do have some 15.000 photos in my library and many of them do have the same names (digital camera or digital disc transfer).

So when I just want to copy some photos to another folder or whatever, i run into some problems because many photos carry the same name, they cant be saved into one folder.

Do i have a chance of batch renamining the FILENAMES of my iPhoto library without damaging anything?

Alexander

iMac intel, Mac OS X (10.4.7), lots of ram & newest iPhoto

Posted on Jul 3, 2006 1:04 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 3, 2006 2:16 PM in response to Alexander Reinelt

You can select the files you want to rename, right click and choose "Batch Change". Select the title, select Text, and then type in a name... click on the checkbox to append a sequence number to the photo.

OR if you want to go through and manually select photos and rename them, just edit their title.

NOW for the tricky part. This renames the image in the iPhoto library, but as you mentioned, the filenames are not being changed. Select the photos you just renamed, and export them (from the file menu). You then can direct iPhoto to export them using the TITLE rather than the existing original file name. Look in the folder, and you will see that you have new files created with the title as the filename instead.

This can be confusing, but just remember iPhoto IS a database, not a file browser (like Finder).

If you find this helpful or if it solves your issue, please indicate this by clicking the appropriate icon in the header of this response.

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Answer 2

Jul 3, 2006 11:34 PM in response to SkipHaughay

I think i need some way to change the filenames without a dangerous export of all my photos and hazzling around with keywords and so on....

Something easy and safe.

alexander

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,541 points

Jul 4, 2006 4:00 PM in response to Alexander Reinelt

Alexander:

There is no way. iPhoto won't rename them without exporting with the Use Title option and if you do it from the Finder that will corrupt the library.

The way I get around that is before importing into iPhoto I upload to a folder on the desktop and use R-Name to sequentially batch rename the files with the capture date in the international formal: YYYY-MM-DD-01.JPG, -02.JPG, etc. That completely avoids the duplicate file name problem and makes it easy to search or sort by date.

Do you Twango?

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