Rename only selected matches (but keep unselected matches in the list for further processing)

[drwhofan]

sorry if this has been asked or it's to stupid to have been asked but i have a problem and i need a little help. I'm renaming some anime that was ripped for a website. i go through the normal procedure and added say 20 episodes to the original files window using drag and drop. i then go to episodes and grab the episode names for the given season and drop them into new name window. I'm using an emby/plex preset that renames and moves the files to a different destination. All of the above works fine and has for a long time. the problem arises when i try to match the files and the names are not all "exact" matches. with anime, sometimes as episode will have several names depending on when / how it was released (like the lupin III series). on a perfect match, say 5 out to the 20 files, i would like to just rename and move them and leave the others alone so i can research the possible names for the episode. i can't find a way to just rename a few (or even one) of the files from the original file window without removing the others from the window. there is a "file rename" that comes up when you double click the original filename but it prompts you to enter the file name instead of using the existing match in the new name window. it seem like i can only automatically rename all files and not one or two files of the group. What am i missing ? Thanks for your help.

[rednoah]

You'll want to fix all the matches first and then click Rename. I don't see the point of renaming some files but not others, when you plan on renaming all of them anyway.


Alternatively, you can use the DELETE key to remove items from the list. Since we usually move files into a new folder structure, that makes it easy to process the left-behind files in a second round of processing, since only not-yet-moved files remain in the original folder.


Alternatively, unmatched files remain in Original Files after you click the Rename button, so I guess you could remove all the Episode matches you don't like, i.e. remove items from the right-hand side only. This seems a bit cumbersome to me since items below move up as items above are deleted.


That said, I don't see what you see. Please read How to Request Help otherwise we'll be talking apples and oranges.


The Open / Reveal / Rename / Move to Trash popup allows you to perform basic file system operations directly from FileBot instead of Windows File Explorer. You'd usually do that before auto-matching files, perhaps to fix up the file name a little bit to make auto-matching work a little bit better. Most users would just do that in File Explorer and then reload the files, but doing it from within FileBot is quicker.

[drwhofan]

the problem is that i have to look up the possible alternate filename online and then use the arrows to move the mismatched filename into the correct order. it would be easier to get the direct matches "out of the way" by letting filebot just rename them and then i have less clutter and filename options to deal with when i'm manually lining them up. i was using the delete button to remove non perfect matches but them still had to add them back to the file window when i wanted to work on them - but i see your point based on the function of the program - anime is a royal pain due to the multiple episode name and the varying season / episode counts. i guess i'l have to do them one at a time (drag and drop one file at a time ) or continue using the delete (remove 18 files out to 20 to get 2 renamed) or try an alternate utility - thanks for your help

[rednoah]

You would of course use mouse drag-n-drop to quickly align files with episodes if you end up doing this a lot. Personally, I'd probably want to have all the episodes in the list nicely matched up before I commit, even if getting there takes a bit of time and research. FileBot is happy to wait for you. I'd definitely only do one series at a time to keep things manageable though.


There is indeed no way to have 20 files in the list matched up, and then only rename the first 2 files. That use case hasn't come up before. Personally, I don't see the benefits of doing it this way. Again, I don't see what you see (i.e. that's code for post screenshots) but processing files one by one seems like a very not-smart way of doing things.


How do I convert AniDB Absolute numbers to TheTVDB Airdate SxE numbers? might have some good ideas for you. Depending on the specific file paths at hand, there might be a smart way to deal with them, as there usually is some kind of pattern / logic to how things are named and numbered.

[drwhofan]

Thanks for the link the AniDb thread. I've never had an issue like this before moving to dealing with anime. at most i might have a single episode of something not match and i would just use the delete. i didn't know about the mouse drag and drop - that's much easier that repeatedly hitting the up/down alignment arrows. will give that a shot. the worst aspect of this is that i don't have the episode numbers in the filename (i'm only sure about the season). The episode names may match one of the two or three episode names listed in Wikipedia / fan sites or they may just have one of two words of the match - so i really have to look at it to figure out which has the best probability of a match. sometime i have to play the file to see the title (if it's not in Japanese or Chinese or if it is, does it have subtitles for on screen text) to figure out what goes with what. Some of the shows have an incredible number of episodes ( One Piece has or 1100 episodes). Thanks again for your help.

[rednoah]

Well, I cannot speak for files where I cannot guess the file names. But One Piece is easy at the very least, it has come up a few times, and the files were always in order, so even if auto-matching doesn't work due to bad numbering, Linear Rename always made short work of the task at hand.

If you find a tricky use case, just post sample file paths as text and we'll have a look.