You open your Downloads folder and it looks like a crime scene. IMG_4821.jpg, document_final_FINAL_v3.pdf, Untitled 47. Somewhere in there is the file you need.
If you are a Mac user dealing with poorly named files, you are not alone. macOS has a built-in batch rename tool in Finder. There is also something smarter if Finder falls short.
The Built-In Mac Way: Finder Batch Rename
Finder can rename multiple files at once.
- Select the files (shift-click or command-click for multiple)
- Right-click and choose Rename [X] Items
- Pick Replace Text, Add Text, or Format
Replace Text swaps a word or phrase across all files. Add Text tacks a word onto the beginning or end. Format applies a consistent naming structure with sequential numbers or dates.
Where Finder Falls Short
Finder works on names you already have, not names based on what is in the file. If you have 200 scanned receipts named Scan_001 through Scan_200, Finder can rename them Receipt_001 through Receipt_200 but it has no idea what is actually in each file.
Finder does not read your PDFs, look at your images, or understand what a file is. It just manipulates strings.
When You Need More Than Finder
Tools like Filewise (https://tryfilewise.com) take a different approach: the AI reads the content of each file and generates a descriptive name based on what it finds.
A photo of a birthday party becomes emilia-birthday-party-2025.jpg. A scanned utility bill becomes pge-bill-march-2025.pdf. You do not touch a single filename manually.
This matters most for photo libraries with meaningless camera filenames, scanned documents dumped in bulk, and Downloads folders with years of random accumulation.
Use Both
Finder is perfect for quick pattern-based changes. When you have a folder full of files with no useful names, AI does the heavy lifting.
Try Filewise free at https://tryfilewise.com