Guides

How to batch rename music files to Artist – Title

Track ID Deck · Last updated: 1 October 2026

A folder of music named track_07 (1).mp3, 0123456789.m4a and audio (3).mp3 is hard to search and worse to play. Renaming a few by hand is fine. Renaming a few hundred is a job for a tool, and which tool depends on one thing: whether the files still carry their tags.

First, find out which kind of files you have

A music file has two names. One is the file name the folder shows. The other is the set of tags stored inside the file: artist, title, album and so on. Players read the tags; file managers show the name. The two get out of step all the time, because copying, downloading and sending a file can replace the name and leave the tags alone.

Open three or four of the badly named files in a music player. If it shows the right artist and title, the tags survived and the fix is easy. If it shows the file name, or “Unknown artist”, the tags are empty.

Files that still have their tags (free)

These only need their file name rebuilt from what is already inside them. Three ways:

In a browser, nothing to install: Track ID Deck

1. Open trackidentify.com and open the folder, or choose the files.
2. It reads every file and tells you how many it can name for free, how many would need identifying, and how many already read properly and will be left alone.
3. Press “Name for free”. Each file becomes Artist – Title with its original extension.

This part costs nothing and the files are not uploaded; the tags are read in your browser. In Chrome or Edge on a computer the files are renamed where they sit, and “Undo renames” puts them back as long as the page stays open. In other browsers, and on a phone, you get renamed copies to download and the originals are left untouched.

On a computer: Mp3tag

Mp3tag is a long-established tag editor. Load the folder, select the files, and use Convert › Tag – Filename with the pattern %artist% - %title%. It shows a preview before it renames anything. It also works the other way round, filling tags from file names that follow a pattern.

On a computer: MusicBrainz Picard

MusicBrainz Picard is free and open source. It can rename and move files as it saves them, using a naming pattern you set in its options. It is built around albums, so it suits a collection of full releases better than a pile of loose singles.

Files with empty tags

This is where tag-based renaming stops. With no artist and no title inside the file, the pattern has nothing to fill in. The song has to be recognised from its sound first, and then it can be renamed.

• A few files: play each one to a listening app such as Shazam, then rename it by hand. Free, and slow.
• Albums, on a computer: Picard’s Scan button fingerprints each file and looks it up in the MusicBrainz database. Free; best with complete tracks from released albums.
• Loose songs, any device: Track ID Deck’s “Identify the rest” sends a short sample of each remaining file to a music-recognition service and renames the file from the answer. This is the paid part: one credit per song.

With Track ID Deck you check every match and can edit the label before the file is renamed. A lookup that finds no match still uses a credit, because the lookup was paid for either way; a failure on our side uses nothing. Credits come in one-time packs with no subscription, and the current price is under pricing. There is more on how recognition works, and what it cannot name, in how to identify a song from an audio file.

Choosing a naming pattern

• Artist – Title suits loose songs and playlists. It sorts by artist and reads well on any device. This is what Track ID Deck writes.
• 01 Title, inside a folder per album, suits full albums, because it keeps the running order.
• Leave out characters a file name cannot hold. Windows refuses \ / : * ? " < > |. Good tools strip them for you, so a title like What’s Going On? loses its question mark in the file name and keeps it in the tag.
• Keep the extension. Renaming .opus to .mp3 does not convert the file; it only confuses the player.

Before you rename a whole folder

• Work on a copy the first time, or keep a backup, until you trust the result.
• Check the preview. Mp3tag and Track ID Deck both show the new names before they apply them. Look for blanks and for two files heading for the same name.
• Mind playlists. A playlist file that points at the old names will not find the renamed files. Rename first, then rebuild the playlist.

Common questions

Does renaming a file change its tags?

Not by itself. The name and the tags are separate. When Track ID Deck renames the files in a folder you opened, it writes the tags as well, so each file reads correctly in a folder and in a player.

Can I do this on a phone?

Yes, with the browser tool: choose the files, and download the renamed copies one by one or as a zip. Renaming files where they sit needs Chrome or Edge on a computer.

My files came from a chat app and are all called AUD-…. Same steps?

Yes. There is a separate guide for those, with where the files are kept: what song is AUD-…-WA0031.opus?