A Mac app that batch-renames photos from a template — or from a pattern you type

Every camera names its files the same way, and none of them helpfully. A shoot comes off the card as DSC_4821 to DSC_5310, the second body starts again at DSC_0001, the phone contributes IMG_2207, and once three people have handed over their folders the same number appears four times and not one name says what, when or whose. Renaming by hand is out of the question at any real volume, and Finder’s own batch rename can only put the same text and a counter on every file — it cannot read the date or the photographer out of a photo and put that in the name.

Archyv is a Mac app with two renaming processes for two different situations. Metadata Renaming fills a template from what each file already carries — date, photographer, camera, location — so a whole shoot lands in one convention without typing a thing. Manual Renaming takes a pattern you type, for files that carry no useful metadata or need a name the metadata cannot supply. Below: which one to reach for, how each is set up, what happens when a file is missing a value, how to see every new name before it happens — and, at the end, where Finder, Photos and Automator stop if you would rather not install anything.

Decide which renamer the folder needs

The choice turns on one question: do the files carry the information you want in their names?

If they do — a camera-original shoot with capture dates, a collection whose photographer and location fields have been filled in — use Metadata Renaming. Its value is applying one repeatable pattern across the set, and it handles a mixed batch from several cameras or photographers in a single run, numbering each group on its own.

If they do not — scans, screenshots, downloads, anything with no EXIF or IPTC data — or if the name needs something the files do not record, such as a project, a client or an event, use Manual Renaming. You type the shared element yourself and let the dates, where they exist, still come from the metadata. It also suits a single batch where simple 1, 2, 3 numbering is all you want.

The two are not exclusive. A sensible sequence for a mixed folder is Manual Renaming for the scans, Metadata Renaming for everything with a date, and File Sort afterwards to close any gaps in the numbering.

Renaming from a template filled with metadata

Select the files in the Folder Navigator, choose Metadata Renaming from the process bar, and pick a template from the menu. A template is a pattern of variables in braces plus any literal text: {artist}-{yyyy}-{seq:4} produces Smith-2024-0001, and {city}-{mm}{dd}-{seq:3} gives a place-and-day name with a three-digit counter. The variables come in categories — Photographer, Date / Time, Camera, Descriptive, Location, File and Utility — and the template editor lists every one with a description and an example, validating the pattern as you type and suggesting the closest match when a name is misspelled.

Two settings decide how the numbers run. {seq:N} inserts a zero-padded counter N digits wide, and Sequence Grouping decides which files share it: on auto-detect, the variables before {seq} set the grouping, so {artist}-{yyyy}-{seq:4} gives each photographer-and-year its own count starting at 0001, and {yyyy}-{mm}-{dd}-{seq:4} starts every day at 0001. A case setting can force the finished name to upper or lower case, across the whole template or per variable.

Built-in templates are locked; duplicate one to get an editable copy, or click New and build your own. The live Example Output shows the name a template produces with and without metadata, so you confirm the shape before saving, and templates export and import as files so a team can share one convention. For a naming part that is more than a single field — a four-letter photographer code, a client-plus-job identifier — a custom variable combines several fields with its own truncation, fallback chain and case, and drops into any template by name.

Handling the files that are missing a value

Some file in every batch lacks something the pattern needs. Each template carries a Fallback Mode for that case. Skip, the default and the safest with clean data, leaves the file unrenamed and reports it. Use Fallback substitutes a placeholder — UNKN unless you change it — so every file renames. Prompt User asks you for the value during the run, which gives full control but interrupts an otherwise unattended batch.

One more prompt can appear when you press Start: if some files already match the template, choose Skip, Rename All or Non-Matching Only, so a folder that was half-renamed last month can be finished without renumbering the part that was already done.

Renaming from a pattern you type

Choose Manual Renaming from the process bar and type a pattern into the field — literal text and variables in any mix, such as HarbourFestival-{yyyy}-{seq:3}. A palette of chips below the field inserts a variable at the cursor: Photographer, Camera, Location, Date / Time, Descriptive, File and Utility variables, plus any custom variables you have defined. Modifiers work here too — {seq:4} pads to four digits, {artist:4} truncates to four characters.

{seq} numbers the files 1, 2, 3 within the session, unlike Metadata Renaming’s per-group counters, and if you rename several files without it you are prompted to add one so the names cannot collide. {yyyy} resolves from the file’s EXIF or IPTC date and becomes UNKN when there is none; any other variable that comes up empty prompts you for a value. Press Start, and the log lists each original and new name.

See every new name before it changes

Both renamers show their work first. The template editor’s live preview shows the name an example file would get, and Simulation Mode, in General Settings, dry-runs the whole batch into the log — every old and new name — without changing anything on disk. Read it, adjust the template or the pattern, then turn Simulation Mode off and run for real. When the run finishes the log holds the same old-to-new list, and Refresh reloads the file list.

Renaming touches only a file’s name. The image data and the metadata inside are left exactly as they were, so a name you regret is a naming problem, not a photo problem. Back up before any batch rename all the same; it costs nothing.

Where Finder, Photos and Automator stop

If you would rather try the built-in tools first, here is what each one covers.

Finder’s batch rename — select the files, right-click, Rename — is genuinely good for the simple case: replace text in every name, add a prefix or suffix, or apply one name plus a counter. If every file is to be called Harbour-001, Harbour-002 and so on, Finder does it and you are done. What it cannot do is read anything out of the photo. The date, the photographer, the camera and the location all sit inside the file, and Finder’s rename never looks there; the date it can add is today’s.

Photos renames nothing on disk. It keeps the original filename in its library and shows a title you can edit, and a new filename appears only on export — a copy, not a renamed original.

Automator and Shortcuts can rename from a photo’s date with some assembly, and for a one-off the hour may be worth it. What neither keeps is the convention: the next folder means rebuilding the workflow, and neither offers a fallback for the file with no date or a counter that restarts per photographer. ExifTool on the command line can do all of it in one dense line — the ExifTool GUI guide covers when that line is worth typing and when a front end over the same engine earns its keep.

Next: the Metadata Renaming and Manual Renaming references cover each process in full, and Filename Templates covers building a template. For a convention worth applying, see a photo file naming convention that still works in ten years; to rename by the date the shutter fired specifically, see renaming photos by the date taken.