Renaming Files With Date

[mala]

I have a lot of files in my catalogue that I need to rename. I want to use the format YYYYMMDD_[running number]_Orig.[FileExtension] where YYYY is the 4 digit year, MM is the two digit month (with a trailing 0 for month 1-9) and DD the two digit day. I can't see any such options and I couldn't find anything in the documentation, either. How can I achieve this?

[Greyfox]

I have a lot of files in my catalogue that I need to rename. I want to use the format YYYYMMDD_[running number]_Orig.[FileExtension] where YYYY is the 4 digit year, MM is the two digit month (with a trailing 0 for month 1-9) and DD the two digit day. I can't see any such options and I couldn't find anything in the documentation, either. How can I achieve this?

You haven't specified what date, so I will assume it's the EXIF:date/time Original, and you've said you want a trailing zero for the months 1 to 9, which would show them as 10,20, 30 etc which is clearly not right, so I will assume you meant a leading zero.

So select the images
Use Batch Rename
Select Template (not just tick it)
Click on Clear Template (to clear any previous template
Click on Insert Metadata
expand EXIF
Expand Image
tick Date/time Original
Click on OK
Move cursor to the end of <Image Date/Time Original> (make sure the <Date/Time Original is not highlighted) and type in an underscore followed by an asterisk
So the template should now be <Image Date/Time Original>_*

You should now have the New names show in the Preview panel as
YYYY-MM-DD hh-mm-ss_filename.ext



Edit: As pointed out by Emil the date format returned does depend on the setting in Tools/Options/General/date/Time output format.
and to get the results shown here Date should be set to yyyy/MM/dd and Time to HH:mm:ss

To remove the "hyphen" characters, tick and select Search and Replace
In "search for" type in a single hyphen.
Leave Replace blank

You should now have the new names show in the preview panel as
YYYYMMDD hhmmss_filename.ext



To remove the time

Select and tick Remove Text
Start from Position 9
Remove Count = 7

You should now have the New names show in the Preview panel as
YYYYMMDD_filename.ext



As you will probably want to use this rename format again, save it as a preset.
Near the top of the rename dialog, to the right of the current Preset (probably showing as Default), there is a diskette icon.
Click on that, add a preset name and click on OK to save.




Now if you are happy with the Preview shown, click on the Rename button to rename the selected files.

NOTE: This will only work with files that have EXIF metadata, and in particular with files that specifically have EXIF Date/Time Original.
So it won't work with most video formats, because they don't have EXIF Date/Time Original.
You could of course choose alternate metadata date fields.

[Emil]

Select and tick Remove Text
Start from Position 11
Remove Count = 9

Beware, the format of dates depend on settings in "Options [ALT-O] / Common". If you use a user modified format string replacements might fail. If you change the template for time to an empty string you don't need the quoted sub strings replacement.

NOTE: This will only work with files that have EXIF metadata, and in particular with files that specifically have EXIF Date/Time Original.
So it won't work with most video formats, because they don't have EXIF Date/Time Original.
You could of course choose alternate metadata date fields.

Because the batch rename in AC doesn't supply any control flow (e.g. if - then - else) I would never use it. Much better tools to do this job count in hundreds.

[Greyfox]

Beware, the format of dates depend on settings in "Options [ALT-O] / Common".

Correct. I have that set as

Date: yyyy/MM/dd
Time: HH:mm:ss

Note that it does automatically change the "/" and the ":" to "-" because the slashes and colon chars are not valid for filenames