Guides

How to rename music files on Android to Artist – Title

Track ID Deck · Last updated: 23 October 2026

Songs on a phone pick up names like AUD-20240115-WA0007.opus, track_07 (1).mp3 or a row of numbers. Fixing one is a minute’s work. Fixing a few hundred needs a way to do them together, and how well that goes depends on what each file already knows about itself.

Why a song can show the wrong name

A music file has two names: the file name a file manager shows, and the artist and title tags stored inside it, which music players show. Sending, downloading and copying a song can replace the file name and leave the tags alone, or lose the tags and keep a useless name. That is why a song can look right in one app and wrong in another.

One or two songs: rename by hand (free)

1. Open Files by Google, or your phone’s own file manager, and find the song. Chat-app downloads are usually in a media folder of that app; downloads are in Download.
2. Open the file’s menu and choose Rename. Type Artist – Title and keep the extension, such as .mp3 or .opus, exactly as it was.

This changes only the file name. A music player that reads the tags may still show the old title or “Unknown artist” until the tags are filled in too.

Many songs: from what the files already say (free)

Lots of badly named files still carry their real name somewhere: in the tags, or in a file name such as Artist_Title (Official Video) [320kbps].mp3. Track ID Deck for Android reads that with Free names:

1. It finds the songs whose name or tags say what they are, and splits the artist from the title.
2. It shows the old name and the new one side by side before anything changes.
3. It renames each file to Artist – Title and writes the tags into MP3, M4A, FLAC, OGG, WAV and AIFF files, so every music app shows the same name. OPUS files are renamed, but their tags are left as they are.

Free names uses no credits and uploads nothing. A rename can be undone, and Edit details fixes a title, artist or album by hand. Android may ask you to allow the change, because the files are in the phone’s shared storage. In the app, a renamed song keeps its playlists, its heart and its cover.

Songs nothing can name: identify them

Some files have no tags and a meaningless name, so there is nothing to read. Those have to be recognised from their sound first. Track ID Deck’s Identify sends a few short clips from inside the song to a music-recognition service and suggests the artist and title; you check the match, then tap Rename.

• It uses one credit per song, bought in the app through Google Play. A lookup that finds no match still uses a credit, because it was made either way; a failure of the service itself uses none.
• Recordings that were never released, such as voice notes, cannot be found this way.
• There is more on how recognition works in how to identify a song from an audio file.

On a computer instead

If the songs are on a computer, or you would rather not install anything, the browser version does the same naming: open a folder in the deck. The batch rename guide also covers Mp3tag and MusicBrainz Picard.

Common questions

Will renaming break my playlists?

Not Track ID Deck’s own: a renamed song keeps its place in them. A playlist file made by another app that points at the old file name may lose the song, so rename first and rebuild such playlists after.

Can I undo a rename?

Yes. “Undo rename” in the song’s menu puts back its old name, and the tags the rename wrote.

Is it free?

Installing the app, playing music and renaming with Free names are free. Only Identify uses credits, and the app has no ads.

A phone full of songs with no names? Install Track ID Deck and start with Free names, which costs nothing.

On a computer? Open the deck in your browser, or read more about Track ID Deck for Android.