22 Votes

Rename Files from their Dates

Question by Mail Request | Last update on 2023-03-02 | Created on 2016-07-11

Is it possible to automatically write the file creation or modification date in front of the file name using the FileRenamer?

For example, when having the file "FileName.pdf", I want to change the name to "2016-01-01_FileName.pdf" if the file was created or modified at this date. The program should automatically take the date from the file properties.

Is this possible?

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2Best Answer2 Votes

Yes, the FileRenamer can do that. You can use placeholders for that. A complete list of all placeholders for the File Renamer can be found here. You can arrange them in an arbitrary order and it is also possible to combine them with arbitrary other characters.

To perform your mentioned task, you can use the option "Changes > Name > Append" and write the following text into the field "Prepend this Text":

%yyyy-mm-dd-c%_

The placeholder %yyyy-mm-dd-c% stands for the creation date in the format yyyy-mm-dd, the "-c" in this placeholder stands for "created".

If you want to be more flexible, you can alternatively use the following Mask as file name:

%yyyy-c%-%mm-c%-%dd-c%_%name%

This allows you to use customized characters between the individual parts of the date.

The placeholder %name% is standing for the old name of the file, %yyyy% is standing for the year (with four digits), accordingly %dd% and %mm% are standing for date and month (with two digits). With attaching "-c" (created) behind the constants, you tell the program that it should use the creation date.

The modification date can be retrieved with "-m" (modified), the last access using "-a" (accessed). If you only write %yyyy% without any addition, the current year respectively date will be taken.

By the way, this can be done with files as well as with folders. The File Renamer is available for the systems Windows, maOS X and Linux.
Last update on 2023-03-02 | Created on 2016-07-12

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