FileBot

How does one use the GUI to rename small files? The files I'm trying to rename are being ignored, and their small file size is my best guess as to why. I've tried launching the GUI with "--def minFileSize=0 minLengthMS=0" on the command line after searching on this issue, but that doesn't do the trick either. I can't find any settings to control the behavior.

In the meantime, I'm just multiplying all the file sizes by 10, renaming through GUI, and then shrinking them back down...

The --def options you found are amc script options which have no effect on FileBot in general:
Why are files being ignored? Please read How to Request Help. I'll need to see the file paths you have trouble with. If you could make a sample file available, that would be even more appreciated.


I'm not aware of any file size limits being used in the GUI or CLI (except for the amc script which does it's own filtering of input files).

Thanks for the reply. Multiplying the file size with no other change prevented them from being ignored, so I'm fairly certain it was just the file size that was the issue.

Since you asked for a sample file, is it the case that small files should not in fact be ignored by the GUI?

Small files are not ignored. FileBot definitely works with small files, or even 0 byte files:
I'm using the CLI for illustration purposes since you can run the same commands yourself. The GUI works exactly the same though. It works for both.


When you say "multiply file size" what exactly do you mean and what exactly do you do to achieve that?

Interestingly, it must be more than file size? If I try renaming all the files again, now that they've been properly named, none of them are ignored. Unfortunately, I no longer have the original file names available now that everything has been renamed.

I was going to share a script that would bump past the min file size and then later undo (without having to multiply by a full factor of 10), but in trying to test this and narrow down the min file size found that my (now properly named) files were no longer being ignored.

When I say multiply file size, I had a script doing this:

That bumps the EOF of the file without writing any data, increasing its size. You do need to have the space available for it. Afterwards, I just ran the opposite (Length / 10) on the renamed files.

For a more robust version, I'd increase the EOF by a fixed 100MB or so, and then use "fsutil file queryvaliddata" to get the original size and undo the increase.

It's weird that just increasing the size did fix my issue with files being ignored.

Interesting. I have no idea why that would make a difference, especially not in the GUI.

If you're using the GUI, then you'll find the original file paths in the history.

Yeah, it's really bothering me that I can't reproduce this for you now, haha.

I'm gonna grab the original files again and see if I can repro again.

I have the originals again, and I can repro some of the files being ignored again. However, I'm having a really hard time figuring out specifically what's causing it.

Changing the file size seems to work for some of the files, but only when I bump their size up fairly significantly. Taking some of the ignored files and copying them into a different folder also seems to work, but only if I don't copy everything.

Is there some kind of heuristic at work that determines when to ignore files?

I'm still working away to see if I can sort out exactly what triggers it.

It seems there might be an element of history at play here too? Not sure.

When I copied only a few files to another folder, they worked, but that new folder had a different name (just: New folder). I got prompted to pick a show as well, and nothing was ignored.

Renaming "New folder" back to the folder name they were in when files were ignored triggered that same set of files to be ignored again.

Slapping a "2" at the end of the folder name again caused the popup again where I need to match the show name, and the files stop being ignored again.

Ok, I have a slightly less convoluted example to show the weirdness now.

1. Original folder, file name, size, everything: file gets ignored
2. Multiply file size by 10, still original folder name: file *still* gets ignored (so not just size matters)
3. Restore original file size
3. Add an extra space in the folder name, e.g. "Show-name" becomes "Show--name" where the "-" is a space: file still gets ignored
4. Multiply by 10 again, file *stops* getting ignored

So it seems the combo of turning a space into a double space, and increasing the file size caused the file to stop being ignored.

I'm guessing it's just remembering a bad match or something..? And the combo of folder name changes and file size changes works around it?

I'm just gonna chalk this up to I'm not sure what's going on, and I got it to work with my weird file size hack. Since I did get my files renamed, and it is acting so weird for me and I'm not able to narrow it down, I don't want to eat up your time on this. Thanks for your help!

skippy10110 wrote: ↑09 Oct 2019, 18:05 I have the originals again, and I can repro some of the files being ignored again. However, I'm having a really hard time figuring out specifically what's causing it.

That's why I need file paths (as text) so that I can generate an empty file structure and try this myself, and if necessary step through the code with a debugger, to find out why something is or isn't happening.