A faster, better file manipulation cannot be found. I use it so many times a day I have it in the toolbar. I manipulate sometimes 1000's of files each time I use this. I will admit in the early releases of the product, it was at times unreliable. Since then it has become a hardened tool that I fully trust.
Ridiculous that the "most helpful" review displayed at the top of the page is a 10 year old post by "Bluestar" complaining that ABFR is supposedly updated almost every day. This may have been true when it was posted in 2009 - but it's not the case in 2019 and is now irrelevant.
I have been a registered user of File Buddy for a number of years now. Version 10 still works with Mojave, and there is a version 11 in the works, although the developer has been dragging his feet about it.
File Buddy is similar to ABFR and has a lot of great features and functions, some of which ABFR may not have. However, I would seriously consider switching to A Better Finder Rename if -- as other commenters note below -- it incorporated an undo option.
Sometimes we make mistakes, or perhaps change our minds about a naming change. When you are working with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of files, as I do, being able to undo a change on multiple files becomes very important. Developer, please consider implementing undo in ABFR. Thank you.
Like
Version 10.43
3 answer(s)
Publicspace.net
31 July 2019
I hear you and I do like giving people what they are asking for.
Unfortunately, while an "undo" feature sounds great and somewhat obvious, it is not the silver bullet that one might imagine.. it would only be an "undo*" (* within system limits, with a long list of assumptions) and as such it would give you a false sense of security.
The "normal" undo feature in an application relies on the assumption that the application has total control over the data and that those operations are revertable only in the same backwards sequence. Also generally when you quit the application, the undo history is lost.
A Better Finder Rename is not the only application that has access to the file system. Far from it. After you perform your rename, you are free to move files and folders, changes names manually, make copies, duplicates, etc.. other programs can manipulate the file system, etc.. all without A Better Finder Rename's knowledge or consent.
Worse than that, if your files are not on a standard APFS or HFS+ file system (NTFS, FAT, NAS, etc.), the new names that A Better Finder Rename requests for your files may not actually be the ones on the file system. Most third-party file systems are mounted via file system drivers that do their own name translations. If you use non-standard characters such as emoji (or accents, umlauts, some punctuation, etc), for instance, the APIs may report that the name change was successful, but the real name on the file system would be different. That makes reversing the change impossible.
A successful undo could thus only be guaranteed on the assumption of a standard file system and nothing having changed since the rename was performed. The sell-by date of that kind of undo would be very short. If you quit the program, it would be gone. A "long lived" undo on the other hand would risk being out of date quickly. If an undo was attempted but failed, it would leave your file system in an unconsistent state, which could be far, far worse than not having an undo at all.
I don't think it is a good idea to include a feature that can only work some of the time, but would have potentially grave consequences if it goes wrong and it would be very hard to communicate those limits properly. Users would expect the feature to work every time and they would be right to be mad when it has worked on dozens of previous occassions, but suddendly stops working.
By far the best way of avoiding renaming problems is to spot problems BEFORE you perform the changes, and that is exactly why A Better Finder Rename goes to such extreme lengths to preview and confirm those changes. An undo feature may sound great, but it just couldn't be 100% reliable and would have the potential of leaving your file system in a huge mess.
As I think you might have noticed, it is not as if I had never considered adding an undo. I think I could even do a fairly decent job at it.. a fairly nifty version of it was on the initial scope for v11.. but it would not be bullet proof.. it would give a false sense of security.. and it would fail for some users, some of the time for entirely valid reasons that those users would be not at all interested in.. and in my book that makes it a bad idea.
Normal best practices for important data have always applied to critical files: Make backups, use version control (or something like Dropbox which has built-in versioning). Moreover, the file name is rarely as important as the file content. If the file names are crucial, you can also use the "save file list" feature to create a permanent record of the name changes, just in case.
I know that is not the answer you want, sorry.
Like (1)
WordWeaver
01 August 2019
@Publicspace.net (Developer), thank you for your lengthy reply. I appreciate it. For the time being, I will be remaining with File Buddy, because I believe it has a lot more functionality than ABFR.
Like
zlazkow
30 October 2019
Preview is a better tool than undo, because it gives a chance and unlimited time to see the results, to think...before your final decision. And even in case you think you made a mistake, rename the files again to your liking.
That's unconscionable in a seasoned app like this, and is vital!
Even Path Finder has that available for its renaming window, and renaming is just a secondary function, not its PRIMARY JOB!
Like (1)
Version 10.40
3 answer(s)
Buegelfrei
01 June 2019
The app does give you a preview of the new file names before it renames them. Of course, you should already be using Time Machine for other reasons, but it'll also give you the undo you seek.
Like (2)
Big Johnson
01 June 2019
FYI, preview and undo are not the same.
Sometimes after renaming I find I want to rename differently, but I can't start over without undo.
And no, I haven't used TM in years. I use SD or CCC for frequent clones.
Like (1)
Mcr
26 June 2019
As much as I like this app, I completely agree the lack of an UNDO is a critical fault. I've been bitten MANY a time by not having an UNDO; sometimes as humans you just make a mistake, or you change your mind. And it's not like an UNDO would be that hard to implement, it's simply a matter of keeping a log of actions taken and recursing back through it and reversing it.
My favorite tool to automate renames of pictures according to their EXIF data. I hate all those cloud or library „You shouldn’t know how we store your data“ solutions like Apples Photos and prefer to have them stored without overhead of GB wasted space. A Better Finder Rename helps there a lot renaming my photos according to EXIF data. This would be an app I really miss if it’s gone.
As a basic user, you don't often need to rename huge quantities of files, but when you need, you worship an app like this!
With the use of RegEx (in Advanced & Special), it gives you nearly infinite power!
Here's an example: being French, I've appended the date in French format on many files names across the years (DD/MM/YYYY) — which was not a good idea to keep them sorted... :-/
With ABFR, It took just the time to figure out how to do it, and I've renamed them all with YYYY-MM-DD instead. Awesome!
I've been in IT for over 45 years and, for at least the last 15 of them (when I switched to Mac), A Better Finder Rename is the most useful, reliable, easy-to-use program in my toolbox.
I haven't been able to say that about ANY other program I use (and I'm a techie and a photographer).
Thank you for your consistently good work.
Like (5)
Version 10.24
4 answer(s)
plt3064
11 February 2018
Do you use this for renaming photos? Does it have capabilities to rename photos using EXIF? Do you use another application for that?
Like (1)
markrfriedman
11 February 2018
I have just finished prepending (is that a word?) 61,000 files with the EXIF date and a space; so - where I had a file named "Big Rocks", it's now named "201211171405 Big Rocks". YYYYMMDDSS (24 hour clock) helps me organize my library by date. You'll find it under Date & Time/Add date/time to beginning.
Best program I've ever used.
Like (1)
plt3064
11 February 2018
I've been trying ExifRenamer and NameChanger. Both of these I can not figure out.. Operator error I'm sure. And a Terminal based one called Exiftool... way over my head, although very powerful. I'm trying to name a file: P101-11234 to 20171231-Market-152113. Any guidance on using an app for this? Mac of course :)
Like
markrfriedman
11 February 2018
They're both good (haven't used EXIFRenamer - to limited in functionality). I'm fairly sure ABFR has a wealth of tools worth exploring.
I'm pretty sure they offer a free trial period. Give it a try on a copy of a group of pictures in sub-folders.
I've been using this app for many year, along with its sister app A Better Finder Attributes (which I use a lot less often). Solid, powerful, sophisticated. I don't use it as much as I used to ever since Lightroom built in rename-on-import, but it's a good tool to have for other renaming of files.
I have and used v9 for some time. What it does is fine, but the Mac Finder now has a built-in file renamer and others are available for free. The $20 price tag seems high and the $13 upgrade fee is also a bit much. In my humble opinion it doesn't to that much more. If it does something you really need, it may be worth it, but I'm making do without the upgrade. I'm not buying apps that charge everytime Mac upgrades.
Like (2)
Version 10.16
2 answer(s)
Mcr
16 May 2017
"I'm not buying apps that charge everytime Mac upgrades. "
Fact, ABFRX 8 was released in early 2008, the current macOS at the time was 10.5 Leopard. ABFRX 9 was released in Feb 2012. That's a four year spread between releases. ABFRX 10 was released in OCt 2015, also just shy of a four year spread. So macOS has gone from 10.5 to 10.12, seven major releases, in the same time only 3 releases of ABFRX. IMO that doesn't seem like a 'charge every time Mac upgrades.' And as you say yourself, version 9 still works great in latest macOS, which is great, and I would expect (wink wink) that your version 9 will still work in 10.13. If you had purchased version 9 when it first came out in Feb 2012, you'd still be using the same app now over 5 years later, for just an initial investment of $20.
I agree there are A LOT of companies that do excessively charge for updates every time Apple sneezes, but PublicSpace I don't think falls in that group.
Like (6)
Quiiick
17 September 2017
"the Mac Finder now has a built-in file renamer and ... in my humble opinion it doesn't to that much more."
My guess is, you never even looked at all the options that ABFR provides for file-renaming. Yes, the price for ABFR is a bit steep but considering what you get, it's well worth it. If you can live with the minimal options provided by the built-in file renamer of macOS, well fine. No need for a professional renaming tool.
Make sure you enter your Unlock Code AGAIN after upgrading and BEFORE renaming files! It's frustrating that the code doesn't carry over to newer versions!
I installed and opened 10.08, then renamed a half-dozen files. Needed to Undo, but that function was greyed out. Entered Unlock code and Undo function STILL wasn't available. Fortunately the files aren't crucial and I can give them new names.
WTF Dev.?
Like (2)
Version 10.08
1 answer(s)
Frank-Reiff
06 September 2016
Hi, I'm not sure what happen in your particular case, but the unlock does normally carry over through installs.
This app has not yet been updated to protect against the Sparkle updater framework vulnerability that was discovered in Jan. 2016.
Apps that use a vulnerable version of Sparkle and an unencrypted HTTP channel for server updates are at risk of being hijacked to transmit malicious code to end users.
Like
Version 10.07
1 answer(s)
Lpeting
02 August 2016
Are you sure? The version notes for 10.04 say "This release fixes a software update vulnerability in the Sparkle framework that was exposed on the 29th of January."
This is by far the best app of it's kind. You can perform just about any type of rename you can think of. I mostly use it to rename music files to my own particular needs. It's well worth $20.
"...Re: Version 10: It seems the "upgrade" price for current registered users is nearly the same as the purchase price for a new customer..."
It may not look like much of a break at $12.95 vs full price of $19.95 but it includes minor revisions up to, but not including version 11. per the website. It's a great utility, photographers will love it. I've used A Better Finder Rename without any issues for years. A real time saver. Recommended.
Like (2)
Version 10.00
2 answer(s)
GRMartin
19 March 2016
Well it is > 30%. I find the tool invaluable, a hint... You can use the Audio Tag tokens for Movies too.
Like (1)
bisnukumar678
14 March 2018
Cybersecurity is a major hub for the protection of data to protect against the Sparkle updater framework vulnerability that was discovered a long time ago.visit <a href="https://antivirussupport.org/"> Norton customer service</a> for more information.
A very useful utility, no doubt about that.
But since it moved to version 10, it would have been a great opportunity to also have "A Better App Rename" ...
I have a forever license so this is free for me :-). Great program, but I just thought I'd stop by to say the new icon does nothing for me... I'd rather see the old icon (with maybe a different colored ink to signify a new version) any day instead.
Like (3)
Version 10.00b1
1 answer(s)
Uncoy
26 February 2017
I particularly liked the Better Finder Attributes v4 icon. An open sphere with something magical inside. The new ones don't have much personality.
"A Better Finder Rename offers a complete set of renaming options..."
Well, not quite a "complete set."
Almost a month ago I sent a request to the developer asking for a naming function I need that is not included. I was told "I’ll file a feature request based on your idea."
It wasn't included in today's update and I've no indication if it ever will be.
I use Path Finder's renaming function a lot more often than ABFR because it's already open, thus quicker. I only open ABFR when I need more advanced options or when renaming files in more than one folder all at once.
It is nice to be able to save presets and droplets for repetitive tasks, but oddly those features aren't mentioned in the description.
This review is based on v9.50, the latest I've used.
Interestingly, after receiving an email alert from Macupdate that a new version was available and out of curiosity I opened the existing 9.44, where the app update stated that I had in fact the latest version.
I then opened Macupdate Desktop and updated, successfully, to 9.45
Developers: if you're listening, what might be a reason for this?
A fantastic app! Easy to use, well laid out interface, lot's of options and fast. From start to finish it took me about two minutes to rename approximately 500 photos from a single shoot just then. Worth every cent!
The AppStore version of A Better Finder Rename has not yet been updated to version 9.41. Any reason for that?
Like (1)
Version 9.41
1 answer(s)
M-Luther
20 November 2014
Yes, the App Store version must go through a review by Apple which takes some time, so getting the app direct from the developer will always be faster than at the Mac App Store.
This app continues to improve itself, and has been rock solid. The only feature I'm missing is the ability to edit tags from music files (including aiff). It's got nothing to do with file renaming but it would be an awesome addition to the existing great feature set.
Like (1)
Version 9.40
1 answer(s)
Flavum
27 October 2014
Agreed. While ABFR does contain some tagging functions, to be able to apply all of its powerful and versatile naming features to music tags (I use aiff also) would be tremendous.
With 30 years of PC use under my belt not many apps make me smile. This one does. The insight of the developer into the needs of the user are on spot. It's easy to use and the graphical interface is intuitive. As for usability and the "sure am glad I purchased this" factor, I rank this on my list with Transmit, 1Password, and MacJournal, my list of currently pleasing and delightful apps.
I am testing the demo for the fist time, just a few files.
I have made just a test changing '. ' to ' '
The app ask for my session password for each file!!!!
is it like this or I am doing something wrong?
Thanks
Unverzichtbares Tool am Mac - ein Segen beim Multi-Edit von mehreren bzw. vielen Dateien!
Leider lässt sich Multi-Step Drawer nicht immer verstecken, gelegentliche (eher seltene) Abstürze.
Like (2)
Version 9.19
1 answer(s)
klatch
05 June 2013
English (google) translation: Indispensable tool on Mac - a blessing in Multi-Edit of several or many files!
Unfortunately, multi-step Drawer can not always hide, occasional (rather rare) crashes.
A Must have program for any person who has a lot of photos to organize.
The Droplet, which basically is like a shortcut icon with preset renaming rules inside, change file names in Drag-Drop-Voilà!
I'm a long time user of this program. However I was hoping the 9.19 update would bring the ability to rename Movie and TV Episodes based on iTunes tags. For instance I need to rename TV Episodes based on the Name, Show, Season and Episode # tags assigned in iTunes in the form Show - Name - SxxExx (where Sxx is the letter S + the season number, etc.).
So I used to be a huger "Renamer" fan - but this one is better.
What it lacks in simplicity it makes up for in power; for example, you can rename files (media files especially) based on metadata, which is fantastic.
Furthermore, even the "simplicity" aspect is up for debate, because with "Renamer" the options are limited but hard to figure out.
WIth this app the options are ten-fold but much more straightforward.
The only other fault against this app is stability, it has frozen a few times, but faced with any other "batch rename" requirement I pine for this one.
Worth a shot in any case.
Confirmed that it works okay in 10.6.8. However, it breaks all your previous droplets, forcing you to rebuild them all :~(. For those of us who have a lot of droplets this is a VERY big deal.
Like
RoyPDX
17 January 2013
Sounds like a problem with the update but nothing to do with OS version.
Like
Dualie
01 February 2013
Thank you, Publicspace.net, your suggestion worked perfectly and all my droplets are now updated. Good job.
Most helpful
Read 166 A Better Finder Rename User Reviews
Rate this app:
File Buddy is similar to ABFR and has a lot of great features and functions, some of which ABFR may not have. However, I would seriously consider switching to A Better Finder Rename if -- as other commenters note below -- it incorporated an undo option.
Sometimes we make mistakes, or perhaps change our minds about a naming change. When you are working with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of files, as I do, being able to undo a change on multiple files becomes very important. Developer, please consider implementing undo in ABFR. Thank you.
Unfortunately, while an "undo" feature sounds great and somewhat obvious, it is not the silver bullet that one might imagine.. it would only be an "undo*" (* within system limits, with a long list of assumptions) and as such it would give you a false sense of security.
The "normal" undo feature in an application relies on the assumption that the application has total control over the data and that those operations are revertable only in the same backwards sequence. Also generally when you quit the application, the undo history is lost.
A Better Finder Rename is not the only application that has access to the file system. Far from it. After you perform your rename, you are free to move files and folders, changes names manually, make copies, duplicates, etc.. other programs can manipulate the file system, etc.. all without A Better Finder Rename's knowledge or consent.
Worse than that, if your files are not on a standard APFS or HFS+ file system (NTFS, FAT, NAS, etc.), the new names that A Better Finder Rename requests for your files may not actually be the ones on the file system. Most third-party file systems are mounted via file system drivers that do their own name translations. If you use non-standard characters such as emoji (or accents, umlauts, some punctuation, etc), for instance, the APIs may report that the name change was successful, but the real name on the file system would be different. That makes reversing the change impossible.
A successful undo could thus only be guaranteed on the assumption of a standard file system and nothing having changed since the rename was performed. The sell-by date of that kind of undo would be very short. If you quit the program, it would be gone. A "long lived" undo on the other hand would risk being out of date quickly. If an undo was attempted but failed, it would leave your file system in an unconsistent state, which could be far, far worse than not having an undo at all.
I don't think it is a good idea to include a feature that can only work some of the time, but would have potentially grave consequences if it goes wrong and it would be very hard to communicate those limits properly. Users would expect the feature to work every time and they would be right to be mad when it has worked on dozens of previous occassions, but suddendly stops working.
By far the best way of avoiding renaming problems is to spot problems BEFORE you perform the changes, and that is exactly why A Better Finder Rename goes to such extreme lengths to preview and confirm those changes. An undo feature may sound great, but it just couldn't be 100% reliable and would have the potential of leaving your file system in a huge mess.
As I think you might have noticed, it is not as if I had never considered adding an undo. I think I could even do a fairly decent job at it.. a fairly nifty version of it was on the initial scope for v11.. but it would not be bullet proof.. it would give a false sense of security.. and it would fail for some users, some of the time for entirely valid reasons that those users would be not at all interested in.. and in my book that makes it a bad idea.
Normal best practices for important data have always applied to critical files: Make backups, use version control (or something like Dropbox which has built-in versioning). Moreover, the file name is rarely as important as the file content. If the file names are crucial, you can also use the "save file list" feature to create a permanent record of the name changes, just in case.
I know that is not the answer you want, sorry.
That's unconscionable in a seasoned app like this, and is vital!
Even Path Finder has that available for its renaming window, and renaming is just a secondary function, not its PRIMARY JOB!
Sometimes after renaming I find I want to rename differently, but I can't start over without undo.
And no, I haven't used TM in years.
I use SD or CCC for frequent clones.
You'll find it under Date & Time/Add date/time to beginning.
Best program I've ever used.
I'm trying to name a file: P101-11234 to 20171231-Market-152113.
Any guidance on using an app for this? Mac of course :)
I'm fairly sure ABFR has a wealth of tools worth exploring.
I'm pretty sure they offer a free trial period. Give it a try on a copy of a group of pictures in sub-folders.
Fact, ABFRX 8 was released in early 2008, the current macOS at the time was 10.5 Leopard. ABFRX 9 was released in Feb 2012. That's a four year spread between releases. ABFRX 10 was released in OCt 2015, also just shy of a four year spread. So macOS has gone from 10.5 to 10.12, seven major releases, in the same time only 3 releases of ABFRX. IMO that doesn't seem like a 'charge every time Mac upgrades.' And as you say yourself, version 9 still works great in latest macOS, which is great, and I would expect (wink wink) that your version 9 will still work in 10.13. If you had purchased version 9 when it first came out in Feb 2012, you'd still be using the same app now over 5 years later, for just an initial investment of $20.
I agree there are A LOT of companies that do excessively charge for updates every time Apple sneezes, but PublicSpace I don't think falls in that group.
My guess is, you never even looked at all the options that ABFR provides for file-renaming.
Yes, the price for ABFR is a bit steep but considering what you get, it's well worth it.
If you can live with the minimal options provided by the built-in file renamer of macOS, well fine. No need for a professional renaming tool.
It's frustrating that the code doesn't carry over to newer versions!
I installed and opened 10.08, then renamed a half-dozen files. Needed to Undo, but that function was greyed out. Entered Unlock code and Undo function STILL wasn't available.
Fortunately the files aren't crucial and I can give them new names.
WTF Dev.?
Well, not quite a "complete set."
Almost a month ago I sent a request to the developer asking for a naming function I need that is not included. I was told "I’ll file a feature request based on your idea."
It wasn't included in today's update and I've no indication if it ever will be.
I use Path Finder's renaming function a lot more often than ABFR because it's already open, thus quicker. I only open ABFR when I need more advanced options or when renaming files in more than one folder all at once.
It is nice to be able to save presets and droplets for repetitive tasks, but oddly those features aren't mentioned in the description.
This review is based on v9.50, the latest I've used.