# Clean up filenames
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/clean-up-filenames/69947
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 8, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/clean-up-filenames/69947 "2025-10-08T12:05:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mamyllyn](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mamyllyn)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/clean-up-filenames/69947/1 "2025-10-08T12:05:30Z")
Hello,
I did use lot of this program back in the past and remember that there was some function to “clean all filenames”. So let’s say that you had a filename that was wrong like this:
”01-W.A.S.P. -Love Machine” and it should be “01 - W.A.S.P. - Love Machine” it did correct every filename with a regular impression. With this function it was easy to clean the whole library at once.
Is this function still available as I can not find it?
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 12:14pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/clean-up-filenames/69947/2 "2025-10-08T12:14:29Z")
> [@mamyllyn](#):
>
> every filename with a regular impression
I would use Convert\>Tag-Filename and rewrite the filename in toto with e.g.
Format string: %track% - %artist% - %title%
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 12:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/clean-up-filenames/69947/3 "2025-10-08T12:18:16Z")
> [@mamyllyn](#):
>
> some function to “clean all filenames”.
Are you referring to the `$validate` function?
From the [String functions](https://docs.mp3tag.de/scripting/#string-functions) part of the documentation:
> `$validate(x,y)` returns the given file name/path x with all invalid characters `/?*"<>|:` replaced by the string y.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 12:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/clean-up-filenames/69947/4 "2025-10-08T12:23:43Z")
> [@mamyllyn](#):
>
> ”01-W.A.S.P. -Love Machine” and it should be “01 - W.A.S.P. - Love Machine”
If you want to replace a single hyphen with "space hyphen space", then a simple "Replace" should be enough.
Also, see here:
> [@Add hyphen in filename for all tracks](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/add-hyphen-in-filename-for-all-tracks/69346):
>
> Hello, I have quite basic question but let´s see what is the best way to do this. My tags are ok but the filename is like this: 01 W.A.S.P. - Never Say Die I would like to rename all filenames like this: 01 - W.A.S.P. - Never Say Die If I use quick action to replace the empty space in the start with - it adds this to every empty space. How could I make it so that it adds the hyphen only after the track number?
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### Author:  [@mamyllyn](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mamyllyn)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 12:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/clean-up-filenames/69947/5 "2025-10-08T12:55:20Z")
Thank you once again for good hints!
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2025, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/clean-up-filenames/69947/6 "2025-11-07T12:56:00Z")
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