Edit Long file names

I have a Finder folder containing numerous files that have very long file names, all of which have identical long strings within the name, for example: X A Y.aiff where A is the common portion of the file name that I wish to delete. There could be as many as 48 files of this kind within a folder. Can someone suggest an Applescript that would strip out the A from all of the file names.
Thanks.

The following script should do what you are asking for:
*set portionToDelete to "some text"* -- insert your own text here
*set L to length of portionToDelete*
*set F to choose folder*
*tell application "Finder"*
*   set theFiles to files of F*
*   repeat with thisFile in theFiles*
*      set oldName to name of thisFile*
*      set P to offset of portionToDelete in oldName*
*      if P > 0 then set name of thisFile to text 1 through (P - 1) of oldName & text (P + L) through -1 of oldName*
*   end repeat*
*end tell*
Message was edited by: Pierre L.

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Hello,
I've managed to solve every problem I've had through searching other people's forum posts - apart from this one.
I've got a MacBook Pro and Dell PC (Windows 7) connected to a Time Capsule. Soon I'll happily bin the Dell but am moving gently to Macs while I learn about them.
The Mac connects happily to TC and will allow creation/editing of long file names.
The Dell allowed this for a week, but now doesn't like it. When I go to the Time Capsule/Data folder in Windows 7 Explorer, I can copy over files with long names, but I can't create them, nor can I change any existing file/folder names on TC to be longer than 8 characters.
I've searched and searched online and can't find anything that would suggest why this is happening.
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Tried DHCP & NAT but had the double NAT issue.
If you got the TC working and had double NAT .. sorry but the TP-Link is exactly the same.. you cannot distribute a single IP without double NAT.. the TC tells you it is a problem.. the TP-Link doesn't.. otherwise there is no difference.
But it is important the double NAT is setup right.. ie you must use different ranges.. please tell us the IP you get from a directly connected computer..
If it is 10.x.x.x then you should move the TC to 192.168. rather than default IP of 10.0.1.1 .. the TP-Link already will use 192.168.x.x. which might also explain why it works better.

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I'm trying to transfer files from my old Vista box to my new MacBook Pro. I'm set up with a direct ethernet connection and using smb protocol. Problem is I cannot transfer files with long file names. Only a problem when you consider that I'm transfering about 400 gigs of files at a time... it would be rather tedious and take me a considerable amount of time to go back and shorten so many file names. Is there any way around this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

maybe try zipping up the files as a folder or something. SMB follows similar rules the the older FAT32 based windows oses followed back in the day. If the zipping doesn't help, then you'll have to rename the files.
you might try a renaming utility to look for files with blank spaces or the following characters:
"SMB, files can’t use the following characters: ” / \ [ ] : + | = ; , * ? and space, and the period ‘.’ can only be used once."
http://www.rossolson.com/dwelling/2007/03/notes-on-nas-and-mac-os-x/
Message was edited by: kmac1036

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This is not an issue so much as a comment about how OSX handles (or I should say ignores the possibility of) long file names. I will use spotlight because it is the worst offender, but I also routinely run into this in finder (although it is not as bad as I will discuss later). The issue is this, we use pretty long file names at our company because we have a lot of files that are very similar and a lot of files with version numbers as they are edited and reviewed. These can be 40-60 character names. This issue is that when you go into spotlight and start searching, I often get a totally useless list of identical files because the version number or distinguishing text is after character 30ish. A great example is shown in the picture below.
I think spotlight is just about the most useful tool in OSX, but this only makes it more challenging when I run into this computer because I have to remember how to use a computer without spotlight. Finder solves this problem two ways: having expandable window width and but putting the ... in the middle of the file name and showing you the end. This is shown below:
I can understand how the apple folks down want to have spotlight be an expandable window. But it seems like putting the ... in the middle of the file name would be a simple fix. Alternatively, the file names could scroll, the full name could be listed at the bottom of the window when highlighted, or any other number of fixes.
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Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Feedback

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Just after a bit of advice with regards long file names with OSX/Win.
I have a user that uses a mixture of SL and ML connection a shares on a Win 2008 R2 server. They had some issues a while back with long file names ( I think folder depth more than anything) and a previous engineer installed ExtremeZ-IP. However ever since they've been having random file permission issues.
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I suspect they are connecting to the server using Samba and you're using afp ?

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how can i turn off my macs irritating annoyance at not wanting to copy files with long file names ? some of these files come straight from CD's, so I can't change the filenames unless I went to a PC, copied them, changed the name and then copied them to my Mac. that is way too much to do.

Hi, Ted.
It would also help to know if you're trying to copy the files to your Mac's internal hard drive(s) or an external drive, such as a FireWire drive. If an external drive, knowing the format of that drive also helps.
Along the lines of your question:
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• However, I've seen cases in some Carbonized applications, i.e. those written originally for Mac OS 9 and ported to Mac OS X using the Carbon developer tools, that still insist on enforcing the 31 character limit of Mac OS 9. That is an issue with the application, not Mac OS X, and occurs when you attempt to File > Save or Save As... a new file created in that application.
• Certain characters are prohibited in Mac OS X file names. See "Mac OS X 10.4 Help: I can't use some characters in file and folder names."
• Likewise, if you plan to share files with PCs running Microsoft Windows, avoid Windows-prohibited characters in the file names: see "Mac OS X 10.4 Help: Copying files to a Windows computer from a Mac stops."
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Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

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How can I edit the file name of the home page?
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limit, the error appears). The deeper your file folder sub levels are, the more this problem will come up, especially when you copy to a subfolder of a subfolder/subfolder of another path ...adds to character limit)
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12.    Finally, copy the target destination files back to the source location (when you are certain all source location file folder locations are empty)

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@Goonies_2015 ,
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So what you can try is to go to the file where ever it is located. Copy the file then paste it. Then rename the file whateveryouwant.avi or .mpg. If this does not work then you may have edited it and saved the blank formatted file with no extension. If that is the case I am not sure if you can recover it.
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Thank you again for posting and have a great day.
Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
D5GR
I work on behalf of HP

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Will they survive a passive journey
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if I actually open them with something, such as all my music files if I have them in SoundJam?
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(46719)

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Edit Long file names

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