Did a no-no and need help in Windows explorer

[ted_b]

I thought I was a pretty savvy computer audio user.  I'm not!  I did a real stupid thing last night and now can't seem to find a way out of it.  I need any help that Windows users could muster.

 

So, I noticed in Roon 1.8, after initially loading my external hdd library (my home office RAAL setup), that I could view and even export the results of my skipped files.  I noticed that hundreds of folder.jpg files were skipped over and realized they were all capitalized Folder (seems weird cuz I was not aware of other software noticing that, but oh well).  So I went to Windows Explorer and did a search on "Folder.jpg".  It came back with both capitalized and non-cap (Folder.jpg and folder.jpg).  So my thought was...fine...I'll just rename all of them to "folder.jpg" in one full sweep.  (Note: always test on smaller subsets!!!  )  So it produced the following (attached screenshot) where it named all the files "folder (1).jpg". 

 

 

It seems Windows Explorer thinks they are duplicates, even though they clearly come from different folders (albums).  Any attempt in Explorer to fix this returns the same nomenclature.  Argh!  I guess I am lucky in that this 4TB hdd is a subset of what's on my NAS and I could probably recreate the hdd that way, although I forget which major folders were subsetted down. 

 

Anyway, I tried a utility called Bulk Rename Utility (sounds good, huh) but when I right click on this searched list (BRU uses Windows context i.e right click) it brings up only one instance at a time.  Argh, I have over 4000.  Bulk?  So far I don't get this utility but it's likely user error.

 

Any ideas?  I wish I had a find and replace all function. 

 

Thx

Ted

[davide256]

Help me to understand. Doesn't this imply that you have Folder.jpg or folder.jpg with the newly added folder(1).jpg in all your folders?

 

If you take a peek and see thats the case, you should be able to do a search and safely mass delete all instances of folder(1).jpg

 

 

[ted_b]

8 minutes ago, davide256 said:

Help me to understand. Doesn't this imply that you have Folder.jpg or folder.jpg with the newly added folder(1).jpg in all your folders?

 

If you take a peek and see thats the case, you should be able to do a search and safely mass delete all instances of folder(1).jpg

 

 

Nope.  That was the first thing I checked.  The jpg in the folders is this one.  The (1) must mean Explorer thinks all these are duplicates and doesn't seem to care that they come from different folders and are unique to that folder. 

[seeteeyou]

It's looking like this at first
 

C:\ted_b>dir/s/b
C:\ted_b\Album1
C:\ted_b\Album2
C:\ted_b\Album3
C:\ted_b\Album4
C:\ted_b\Album5
C:\ted_b\Album1\folder (1).jpg
C:\ted_b\Album2\folder (1).jpg
C:\ted_b\Album3\folder (1).jpg
C:\ted_b\Album4\folder (1).jpg
C:\ted_b\Album5\folder (1).jpg

 

Then we're running this

 

FOR /R %f IN (*folder*.jpg) DO REN "%f" folder.jpg

 

It's gonna do this recursively

 

C:\ted_b>REN "C:\ted_b\Album1\folder (1).jpg" folder.jpg

C:\ted_b>REN "C:\ted_b\Album2\folder (1).jpg" folder.jpg

C:\ted_b>REN "C:\ted_b\Album3\folder (1).jpg" folder.jpg

C:\ted_b>REN "C:\ted_b\Album4\folder (1).jpg" folder.jpg

C:\ted_b>REN "C:\ted_b\Album5\folder (1).jpg" folder.jpg

 

Finally we're getting this

 

C:\ted_b>dir/s/b
C:\ted_b\Album1
C:\ted_b\Album2
C:\ted_b\Album3
C:\ted_b\Album4
C:\ted_b\Album5
C:\ted_b\Album1\folder.jpg
C:\ted_b\Album2\folder.jpg
C:\ted_b\Album3\folder.jpg
C:\ted_b\Album4\folder.jpg
C:\ted_b\Album5\folder.jpg

 

Could that be good enough? If not, maybe try another freeware instead

 

http://www.joejoesoft.com/vcms/108/

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/17949/how-to-change-all-these-file-names-quickly/6?lang=en-US

Quote

From this article, about different File rename software :

https://windowsreport.com/file-rename-software/

I downloaded 8 of them and, finally, after intensive testing, my preference is for the powerful free renamer software, called Rename Master.

 

[ted_b]

Sure..but you are hitting above my weight class.  :)  I assume that is a command prompt, and what do I replace in that example?  My hdd directory is specifically drive k

 

So in command window I change to k drive (K:) and then "FOR /R %f IN (*folder*.jpg) DO REN "%f" folder.jpg" (without the quotes of course) ??

[seeteeyou]

Well, it's always a good idea to do a "trial run" by making a brand new folder C:\losslessmusic first.

 

Then copy a handful of folders from K:\losslessmusic to C:\losslessmusic afterwards.

 

After that, you could "practice" with either Rename Master or Command Prompt.

 

I don't have to provide instructions for the former one, let's see how the latter one goes then.

 

Start → Run → cmd → OK

 

 

CD \losslessmusic will change to the folder C:\losslessmusic

 

 

DIR/s/b *.jpg will show you all *.jpg files

 

 

FOR /R %f IN (*folder*.jpg) DO REN "%f" folder.jpg

 

 

DIR/s/b *.jpg again and voila!

 

[ted_b]

The test worked.  Thanks so very much.  💓  🙂

 

Now I will put my big boy pants on and do the whole drive. 

[ted_b]

Voila!!!  Thanks so VERY VERY much.

 

[ShawnC]

That was fun to follow along while on my breaks at work today. Thanks guys. 

[DuckToller]

Salut, Ted et al.
Late to the party .. but ...
I usually use the Advanced Renamer software (3.64), which makes batch name changes that are allowed to be undone.
It is pretty advanced if you you want to batch change folder names ... however it doesn't include a search function, which you would be handy for your example.
 

With"EVERYTHING" Version 1.4.1.895 (x64), you have a powerful search function (imho much better than Windows Explorer), which to my surprise, gives you as well the possibility to rename the selected files and select match case if needed.

This one does not allow to redo batch changes, however it is easy to test in small batches if changes are appearing in the way you need them. I tested it with your example and changes some Folder.jpg into folder.jpg. successfully.

Good luck for future changes. Tom