P: Ability to bulk - batch rename files

Report · Oct 19, 2017

Lightroom CC - Renaming in bulk. This is another important feature from Lightroom which appears not to have made it (yet) to Lightroom CC.
Everyone has there own renaming strategy (don't they?). Once I have applied keywords and corrected location details, I bulk rename to include date, location and primary keyword in the file title. OK - that may be overkill, but does help people I am selling images to.
Bulk renaming - for whatever reason and using whatever system - is an important tool for DAM and support for it in Lightroom CC would be appreciated.

Report · Dec 19, 2019

The latest version of Lightroom now allows you to configure the file name (along with a bunch of other settings) during export.

Report · Dec 19, 2019

Rename on export *IS NOT* what I (and hopefully we) are asking for, especially since that mechanism is relatively neutered compared to anything we had with Lightroom Classic or Adobe Bridge (e.g., I personally use a format of <Name>-<Capture Date>-<Original Picture Suffix/Sequence Number>). Currently, from what's being offered I don't see any way of doing anything like this without having to manually enter the custom text and break up my exports by day so the custom text is correct.

Note: Why does LRCC keep feeling like an exercise in how out of touch the developers are from the users - coming from a Software Engineer.

Report · Dec 24, 2019

Agreed - Rename on export is not what we are after. It's useful, but not the goal here (for me at least).
One can edit the Title, Caption, Copyright metadata for a photo but not the File Name. Bulk renaming as well as renaming an individual file when viewing it is important. I understand it's probably stored in the backend with a GUID, but the File Name is obviously captured at import time, so why can't it be edited?

Report · Dec 24, 2019

The fact is that the lack of renaming features can be a SHOWSTOPPER for many (I am sitll thinking of refusing!)

I guess there is a paradigm change with cloud based photos, but the fact is that users of cloud systems (around for a few years) have been renaming fotos for 20 years and, because of different reasons, most of those photos have no geolocation, keywords or even the right capture date! And all these photos are imported into LR CC.

File names have been also the main tool to make images portable between different photo management sw. It is a fact that nobody is going to stick to the same sw the whole life long. I still cannot see how I am expected to organise my photos into LR cc with the new paradigm or how can I find them and how can I make this sw independent! File name was probably the most versatile metadatum so far.

Report · Jan 22, 2020

Can't believe LR doesn't have a rename feature. First step would be to rename individual files, but better yet a way to batch rename a subset. Classic case of the conflict between users who always want more features and developers who hate to add them.

Report · Jan 31, 2020

Love Lightroom Mobile but we have been waiting a very long time for the ability to have the option to rename our files. Funny how we can edit the date and time in Lightroom Desktop but we are unable to change the file name. Would love to have this functionality much sooner than later.

Report · Feb 04, 2020

The ability to create a smart album that automatically adds photos. E.g. automatically adds photos of high ratings

Report · Mar 05, 2020

I need to export images from LRCC for a variety of reasons, both individually and in bulk, and being able to identify them by name is really important. I've considered reverting to LR Classic, or purchasing Photo Mechanic for that purpose. I'm holding out hope that Adobe will add the feature - I'm not quite ready to trash my current LRCC workflow.

Report · Aug 14, 2020

Rename on import would be really helpful....it's just good housekeeping....

Report · Oct 13, 2020

Adobe needs to allow file naming accorss all versions of LR, its such a basic thing!

Report · Nov 13, 2020

I don’t thing this is possible at the moment, but I am trying to see if I can move away from a traditional laptop and use my new iPad Pro while on the road. One big problem is not being able to rename files (ideally on import) before I send final images to clients. Please add this feature and if anyone has a workaround for now, let me know!

Report · Jan 21, 2021

It is a shame that this is not implemented yet. I have product pictures which I need to share with various client. By renaming a finished shot I can give them a workable filename.

It is great to have all your pictures with you in the cloud, but it does not make sense you can not share them with the right file name.

Renaming while exporting does not resolve this.

Report · Jan 21, 2021

I have just learned it is not possible to rename photos in Lightroom! I am a bit shocked! I have taken up birdwatching and it is very important to have the birds identified and then sorted by file name. So, I will try this method- export the photos from Lightroom to Desktop, name them on my Desktop, delete the photos from Lightroom and then import the named photos from the desktop. Hopefully, I am able to retain the edits from Lightroom. Assuming this works, this is a lot of work! I would highly suggest that the ability to rename photos is incorporated into Lightroom. This inability to rename photos is very disappointing.

Report · Feb 14, 2021

Please add Batch rename option to Lightroom Mobile.

A really great tool to allow photographers even more remote workflow capabilities.

Report · Feb 14, 2021

Thanks for the idea. The forum does not automatically apply a "vote" to your post so don't forget to click the green arrow in the upper left.

Report · Feb 14, 2021

Thanks. I like to rename my images from a shoot “after” I have removed all the bad ones. Keeps things nice and tidy. But the only way to do it now is in Lightroom on the PC.

Report · Feb 23, 2021

I second this feature request. This would let me use Lightroom on iPad as my primary editing device. Currently I have to use my desktop to rename my imported files.

Report · Jun 03, 2021

I am not happy with the Lightroom app for IPad.

With IPads/tablets only steps away form replacing laptops you would think both versions should be working pretty much the same!

What is missing from the IPad version 6.2.2 is when you save/export to files on the iPad it loses its original time stamp which there should be an option to keep the original time stamp like you can on the desktop version. So far on the iPad version you can keep the location and camera info so it shouldn’t be that hard to keep the original time stamp.

Also there really needs to be a way to rename photos in bulk. Please look into the keeping the time original stamp on the iPad version as now I find the iPad version pretty useless now. 😞

Report · Jun 09, 2021

Can you rename files upon import? e.g. with a unique date/time name

When using multiple camera that have overlapping file names, or whether the camera resets its file name series, duplicate file names are a common situation out of a camera. Which causes a problem on import and if later having to manage archived backups.

I believe the answer to the question is no, but LR CC should at minimum have the option to have the file renamed with a date string, and preferable with some prefix options like LR Classic has. This is a basic feature that is missing and causing a pain in the workflow from camera to LR.

Another basic that is missing is batch file rename and auto stacking of jpg with raws

It's great you regularly release nice editing features, but please at least add the file renaming basics, like some options on import, even if a fixed name change to a date string like Dropbox does!

And please, also do this for all the mobile app versions as well. Where most of the advantage of LR CC is.

Report · Jun 09, 2021

This thread is being merged into an existing authoritative thread for better tracking and response. Please review the official answer (if any) in the second post on the thread for more information.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

Report · Jul 11, 2021

This thread is being merged into an existing authoritative thread for better tracking and response. Please review the official answer (if any) in the second post on the thread for more information.

_______________________________________________
Victoria - The Lightroom Queen - Author of the Lightroom Missing FAQ & Edit on the Go books.

Report · Aug 10, 2021

This is essential.

It was in Elements. There is no reason why it couldn't be in Lightroom as well.

When you import photos directly from the camera to the Ipad, you basically skip the step of EOS Utility (or equivalent), which renames properly all the imported files, and also adds the copyright in the raw file.

For the direct import to iPad's Lightroom to work well, it needs to do this, otherwise, we have to go the long way: through the PC and the EOS Utility

Many thanks in advance !

Report · Oct 18, 2021

I know there probably has been a lot on this topic, but unable to rename file on lightroom is truly something that I scratch my head on. I do product photography and I go through a lot of file renaming in order to keep everything organized. I transitioned from classic to cloud-based and realized this simple function isn't available (actually a lot of stuff got simplified, not just renaming). I find it very odd and is hoping if there are anyone that can explain the complication on the developer end on not adding renaming function?
Honestly I probably would have stayed using classic if i knew, but I already spent days importing everything over.

Report · Oct 19, 2021

I doubt that there's any technical difficulty in providing a renaming function, I would think it's simply the fact that the "new" Lightroom was initially targetted at a different type of user than the Classic user-base. Which means that many of the functions that exist in Classic have not yet been added to Lightroom, renaming being just one of them. Whether is ever gets added probably depends on the number of Lightroom users requesting such a function, so make sure you remember to add your own vote (the forum software doesn't automatically do that when posted an "Idea").

For information, here's a feature comparison between Classic and "the cloud": https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-cc-vs-classic-features/

Report · Apr 20, 2022

Renaming files is the only way to "lock in" a particular order when files have manually been reordered. Otherwise the reordering is at risk of being lost while doing other operations. For example I reorder a series of 150 files, then I run "enhance" on all of them - the ordering gets lost in the enhanced versions. Please give us this.