Add .mp3 to the end of file names

Question

I moved all my songs off my phone to a flash drive. Then I uploaded them to my new phone, only when they were stored to the flash drive they come over missing the ".mp3" so they are seen as "file". If I rename each file, adding the ".mp3" the file switches back to an audio file and plays just fine but there are 167 songs.

Is there a way to add the ".mp3" extension to all of them at once instead of one at a time?

I'm using my Windows 7 laptop to rename the songs on the flash drive. I selected all files names and right-clicked and hit rename. I entered the .mp3 and it rewrote every file to that one title, but it didn't add the .mp3. What should I do now?

Answer 1

I often use a command in Command Prompt in Windows, it's REN. The purpose is to rename a file or more.

ren oldfile.png newfile.png

But in this case, you need to rename multiple files, then we can make the command like this:

ren * *.mp3

In that, the first * is to declare all files and the second is to change all files to .mp3

Make sure you move all files to a folder and run the command in this folder.

Answer 2

Just run ren * *.mp3 in cmd. You don't need 3rd party solutions in this case

Answer 3

LOL. so you have a bunch of numbered extensionless music files? Well, we can get the extension fixed so you can play the files. Also, once they're recognized as .mp3 files, they most likely will be metadata that can help restore meaningful names. But first things first.

This can be done with a few lines of PowerShell. If you'll please edit you question to provide paths & example names, as well as clarify if all the files are in one folder or a folder with subfolders. Are the extensionless .mp3 files mixed in with other file types?

For the time being, I'll assume the easiest, all files need the extension added & are in a single folder or its subfolders. The code is simply:

( Get-ChildItem 'c:\Music\Folder' -File -Recurse ) |
    Rename-Item -NewName { '{0}.mp3' -f $_.Name }

and for those that value brevity:

gci | ren -N {"$_.mp3"}

and that's it! Your files should be renamed.

Answer 4

Ex Falso free open source audio tag editor for Windows/Mac/Linux can do exactly what you want. Ex Falso automatically identifies all mp3 files as mp3 whether they have an .mp3 extension or not. Just select all the songs in Ex Falso, select the Rename Files tab, click the Preview button to preview the results of the batch rename operation, and click the Save button to batch rename them.

Ex Falso is a GUI application, so you can browse to the files to be renamed and batch rename them wherever they are located. You don't need to move all the files into the same folder.

Ex Falso can also edit song metadata tags in several different ways.

1. Delete all song metadata tags.

2. Batch edit song metadata tags.

3. Automatically generate the tags from the path (for example song titles).

4. Automatically rename songs from their tags.

5. Automatically add numbers to songs' names from their track number tags.

Answer 5

PowerToys is an official tool from Microsoft, that includes the PowerRename tool. It has a clear GUI, which makes it easier to use (but harder to automate). It also has some options for supporting smarter logic and will list any changes, so that you know what will happen in advance.

In your case you should perform the following steps after installing PowerRename:

• Select all files
• Right click a file and select PowerRename
• Define the renaming pattern.
  • (Make sure to select Use Regular Expressions)
  • $ means end of sentence
  • We replace this ending with .mp3
• Visually inspect the output and select Rename

Do note that it only works on more recent versions of Windows 10.

Answer 6

Have you tried Command Prompt?

1. Open up desired folder in windows Explorer.

2. Select address bar and with it selected type cmd and press Enter. It will open up a Command Prompt in folder's path.

3. Paste the following command in the Command Prompt:

   for /f %i in ('dir /b') do move "%i" "%i.mp3"
   

   and press Enter.

Enjoy.

Answer 7

Best tool for that is Total Commander. It has batch rename tool with batch extension edit feature + preview.

Answer 8

If selecting all then renaming them with the .mp3 suffix didn't work, it may be that you have the Hide extensions for known file types option ticked.

You can find this option in File Explorer under File > Change folder and search options
Shown here

Once in Folder Options, click the View tab, under Advanced settings untick Hide extensions for known file types
Shown here

You should then be able to select all files and add .mp3 to the end.