How Do You Rename a Bunch of Photos in Adobe Lightroom?

When importing your files into Adobe Lightroom, you have the ability to specify a file name text and format for files that you are moving from your card to the Lightroom library. But sometimes you want to rename files that are already in the Lightroom catalog.

I like to name my files using a combination of the shooting location, type of photography (birds, wildlife, macro, landscapes, etc.), date, and a sequence number. Sometimes I have a combination of locations and photography types on a single card and want to rename them after importing into Adobe Lightroom.

In Lightroom renaming a bunch of files is easy to do.

Here’s how to Rename Multiple Files in Adobe Lightroom Classic

1. Go to Grid View (Keyboard Shortcut – G) in the Library Module

2. Select the files you want to rename

– If the files are in sequence, Click on the first file and Shift Click on the last photograph that you want to rename.

– If the files are not in sequence, click on the first file and Command Click (Control Click – Windows) to select each file to rename.

3. Go to the Library Menu and Select “Rename Photos” (Keyboard Shortcut – Windows – F2 / Mac – fn F2) and the following dialog will appear.

4. Click on the File Naming Dropdown and Select Edit. Here you can build your file format by inserting variables from the dropdowns in the window. Click Done When Finished.

5. Enter any custom test you want to appear in the filename. This is where I enter my location and photography type information.

6. Click OK and your files will be renamed.

Written by Martin Belan

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