File Name Cleaner

Paste a list of messy file names and get a clean, consistent version instantly: lowercase, spaces swapped for hyphens or underscores, special characters stripped, and repeated separators collapsed. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

📖 How it works & FAQ

File names (one per line)

Spaces become

Lowercase everything

Strip special characters

Collapse repeated separators

Protect file extension

0names cleanedpaste names above to start

0duplicates after cleaningidentical names can overwrite each other

Cleaned names

Turn messy file names into clean, consistent ones

Camera exports, phone downloads, and shared drives leave you with names like Final REPORT v2 .pdf or IMG 4025 (copy).JPG — mixed case, stray spaces, doubled separators, and characters that break links, scripts, and uploads. This tool cleans a whole list at once, entirely in your browser: nothing you paste ever leaves your device.

You control exactly how names are cleaned. Lowercase everything for consistency across systems. Turn spaces into hyphens (the web-friendly choice) or underscores (common in code and data work), remove them, or keep them. Strip anything that is not a letter, number, dot, hyphen, or underscore, and collapse runs like -- or __ into a single separator. Extension protection keeps the final extension intact so files still open correctly, and a duplicate counter warns you when two cleaned names end up identical.

How to use it

Paste your file names into the box, one per line — the results update live as you type.
Choose what should happen to spaces: hyphens, underscores, removed, or kept.
Toggle lowercase, special-character stripping, and separator collapsing to taste.
Check the duplicate counter — identical names can overwrite each other when files are moved into one folder.
Click Copy cleaned names and paste the list wherever you need it.

FAQ

Are my file names uploaded anywhere?: No. Everything runs with plain JavaScript in your browser. The list never touches a server, so it is safe for confidential project and client names.
Should I use hyphens or underscores?: Hyphens are treated as word separators by search engines and read cleanly in URLs, so they are best for anything published to the web. Underscores are the convention in many programming and data pipelines. Pick whichever matches the destination.
What counts as a special character?: Anything other than letters, numbers, dots, hyphens, and underscores (plus spaces if you keep them). Parentheses, quotes, emoji, ampersands, and accented symbols are removed.
Does this rename the actual files?: No — it cleans the text list. Paste the results into a bulk-rename tool, a script, or use them as a guide when renaming by hand.