# Renaming Sequence issue



## scott_1 (Feb 19, 2020)

Hi All -
I'm a nature photographer and will often have thousands of images to rename.  For example, I'll go out and get pictures of deer, squirrels and birds over several days.  I like to use the naming convention [Animal]_YYDDMM_seq# .  My only issue is that in order to do this I have to do my renaming by day - in other words, I look at a specific day, rename those images, then the next day, rename those, etc.  The reason is that if I don't the sequence number continues between days, so instead of Bear_200101_1, 2, 3... and then Bear_200102_1, 2, 3... I get Bear_200101)_1,2,3... and then Bear_200102_4,5,6... .  Does anyone have a way of making the seq# reset to 1 each time the date changes?  That way I could just take all my pictures of one species from all dates and rename them at once, rather than this tedious day by day process.  Hope that's clear and thanks!


----------



## clee01l (Feb 19, 2020)

Sequence numbers are always continuous per import.  You will need to continue to import by day to sequence by day.    You might want to revisit your workflow and question the important of using a naming convention that even requires a sequence of an Imported image.

You can create smart publish collections that will rename your exported images  by day (the exported image files are the only ones that have relevance outside of Lightroom).    I never pay attention to the name of the imported image files.  All of this information that you are putting into this constructed file name is already included in other parts of the metadata for that file and can be grouped inside of Lightroom by using smart collections or the filter bar.


----------



## scott_1 (Feb 19, 2020)

Thanks for your reply ... understood that this info is already available as metadata, but having filenames reflect information has saved me more than once when Lightroom wasn't available to me and helps me work quickly with Spotlight and in the finder when searching images... also this is actually not during import, but once I've grouped my folder by species... thanks though.


----------



## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (Feb 19, 2020)

If you add the day in your renaming preset rule, you could rename all your photos of a species at once without doing day by day.


----------



## HobbyJohn (Feb 19, 2020)

I used to break up my imports by day to get this day-specific sequencing, but gave up on it because it added a lot of time to my workflow and I never had a circumstance where I needed the sequence to reset at each day.
I use yyyymmdd_[text]_sequence so I always know the date and event/place. To me, the ending sequence is only useful for making the filename unique, and isn’t ever used to locate a file.
If I do a large import from a lot of separate events, I’ll often do the renaming after I have it split up into separate collections for review.


----------



## johnbeardy (Feb 19, 2020)

To get the daily sequential number, you will have to rename one day at a time.

Putting some brief subject info in the filename makes sense, but it's not good practice to put it at the start. Sorting in Finder is arbitrary (what happens when there's a bear and an eagle in the photo or if you misidentify some type of bovine?) and harder to read. Maybe consider switching to renaming one day at a time, but renaming all photos for that day rather than breaking it up by subject. So you would enter bear, eagle... in the Headline or Title fields, decide which photos to keep, and then rename the photos  with a naming template like YYMMDD_Seq#0000 {Headline}.


----------



## PhilBurton (Feb 19, 2020)

clee01l said:


> Sequence numbers are always continuous per import.  You will need to continue to import by day to sequence by day.    You might want to revisit your workflow and question the important of using a naming convention that even requires a sequence of an Imported image.
> 
> You can create smart publish collections that will rename your exported images  by day (the exported image files are the only ones that have relevance outside of Lightroom).    I never pay attention to the name of the imported image files.  All of this information that you are putting into this constructed file name is already included in other parts of the metadata for that file and can be grouped inside of Lightroom by using smart collections or the filter bar.


Cletus,

I agree with your point about renaming/renumbering issues on export.  However, I can't seem to add a leading 0 to the sequence number.  With that leading 0, images would be renamed in export order, which for me is date/time based.  Thus, I am forced to rename images before export.  Did I overlook something?


----------



## PhilBurton (Feb 19, 2020)

johnbeardy said:


> To get the daily sequential number, you will have to rename one day at a time.
> 
> Putting some brief subject info in the filename makes sense, but it's not good practice to put it at the start. Sorting in Finder is arbitrary (what happens when there's a bear and an eagle in the photo or if you misidentify some type of bovine?) and harder to read. Maybe consider switching to renaming one day at a time, but renaming all photos for that day rather than breaking it up by subject. So you would enter bear, eagle... in the Headline or Title fields, decide which photos to keep, and then rename the photos  with a naming template like YYMMDD_Seq#0000 {Headline}.


Or what is the filename if there are both a bear and an eagle, and a squirrel in the photo?  Things get very complicated very quickly.  To manage the subjects, use keywords.


----------



## clee01l (Feb 20, 2020)

PhilBurton said:


> Cletus,
> 
> I agree with your point about renaming/renumbering issues on export.  However, I can't seem to add a leading 0 to the sequence number.  With that leading 0, images would be renamed in export order, which for me is date/time based.  Thus, I am forced to rename images before export.  Did I overlook something?


A Sequence token in the file name can be defined as {Sequence # (00001)}. or fewer leading zeros if you choose .  Of this is not want your are trying to describe, then provide an example because I may not be understanding correctly


----------



## PhilBurton (Feb 22, 2020)

Cletus,

Sorry for the late reply.  Maybe a screen shot will provide a better explanation.  I'm trying to Export photos to a folder, and I want to have the sequence number start at 01, not 1.  When I entered "01" in the Start Number box, Lightroom changed that back to "1."  is there another way to accomplish this goal?


----------



## Jim Wilde (Feb 22, 2020)

You can change the sequence number to have leading zero(s) by using the edit option, there you can delete the current sequence number setting (1) and add a different sequence number setting (e.g. 01). Save the new settings as a new renaming preset.


----------



## clee01l (Feb 22, 2020)

Jim Wilde said:


> You can change the sequence number to have leading zero(s) by using the edit option, there you can delete the current sequence number setting (1) and add a different sequence number setting (e.g. 01). Save the new settings as a new renaming preset.


The starting sequence number always is a integer defaulting to "1" with no leading zeros. The leading zeros are a part of the sequence template in the naming preset and are applied in the naming.   i.e. if I want a sequence field of 5 numeric, I want to pad the field with 4 leading zeros in the sequence token.  Then the first number is "00001" and the largest value is "99999" before it starts repeating. As you can see the largest value in that sequence token has no zeros but still complies with the sequence token of 5 numeric.


----------



## Jim Wilde (Feb 22, 2020)

clee01l said:


> The starting sequence number always is a integer defaulting to "1" with no leading zeros. The leading zeros are a part of the sequence template in the naming preset and are applied in the naming.   i.e. if I want a sequence field of 5 numeric, I want to pad the field with 4 leading zeros in the sequence token.  Then the first number is "00001" and the largest value is "99999" before it starts repeating. As you can see the largest value in that sequence token has no zeros but still complies with the sequence token of 5 numeric.


I'm not sure if you are agreeing or disagreeing with what I said.

Phil's requirement seemed very simple to me, i.e. he wants to export using a Custom Name with a sequence number starting with "01". In his screenshot he is using the default "Custom Name - Sequence" renaming template, which does indeed start the sequence with "1". I pointed out that he can edit that template (or create a new template) to replace the start sequence number with "01" (or 001, 0001, etc.), and when that is used the start sequence number does indeed become "01".


----------



## clee01l (Feb 22, 2020)

Jim Wilde said:


> I'm not sure if you are agreeing or disagreeing with what I said.
> 
> Phil's requirement seemed very simple to me, i.e. he wants to export using a Custom Name with a sequence number starting with "01". In his screenshot he is using the default "Custom Name - Sequence" renaming template, which does indeed start the sequence with "1". I pointed out that he can edit that template (or create a new template) to replace the start sequence number with "01" (or 001, 0001, etc.), and when that is used the start sequence number does indeed become "01".


I am agreeing but adding additional information about how the Sequence token works and valid values for the Start Number.


----------



## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (Feb 23, 2020)

> Then the first number is "00001" and the largest value is "99999" before it starts repeating.


Are you sure? I don't have LR handy right now to test, but I think the number of digit is just a minimum. Once the sequencce number as reach 99999, it will continue with 6 digits: "100000".


----------



## clee01l (Feb 23, 2020)

Philippe Coudé du Foresto said:


> Are you sure? I don't have LR handy right now to test, but I think the number of digit is just a minimum. Once the sequencce number as reach 99999, it will continue with 6 digits: "100000".



You are correct, I have not tested this. I’ll get back with you 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## PhilBurton (Feb 24, 2020)

Jim Wilde said:


> I'm not sure if you are agreeing or disagreeing with what I said.
> 
> Phil's requirement seemed very simple to me, i.e. he wants to export using a Custom Name with a sequence number starting with "01". In his screenshot he is using the default "Custom Name - Sequence" renaming template, which does indeed start the sequence with "1". I pointed out that he can edit that template (or create a new template) to replace the start sequence number with "01" (or 001, 0001, etc.), and when that is used the start sequence number does indeed become "01".


Jim,

I don't mean to be obtuse or sound like a complete novice, but how do I edit one of those templates?


----------



## Jim Wilde (Feb 24, 2020)

Pages 30, 116 & 355 of the Missing FAQ book (PDF version)  explain in detail how to do that. To be clear, you cannot change the default "Custom Name - Sequence" preset, you can either edit it (click the up/down arrows and choose "Edit" and then save the edited version as a new user preset, or create your own preset from scratch which you would then select in the "Rename To:" box.


----------

