# problem with renaming
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/problem-with-renaming/2563
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 1, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/problem-with-renaming/2563 "2005-12-01T17:04:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@theVoosh](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/theVoosh)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/problem-with-renaming/2563/1 "2005-12-01T17:04:22Z")
i searched the forum for a bit to see if this had been resolved before, but every time i came close, the technical jargon just confused me. ☹
anyway, i have somewhere around 9,000 mp3s, and when i try to rename them all at once via the convert \> tag - filename option, around 2,000 of them can't be renamed. i've looked at a few of them that couldn't, and i figure it could possibly be that it would either name the filename too long, or the tag includes funky characters that wouldn't be allowed in a filename.
is there a solution to this?
thanks in advance,
dan.
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### Author:  [@Sebastian\_Mares](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Sebastian_Mares)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/problem-with-renaming/2563/2 "2005-12-01T17:59:00Z")
You can use $validate() in the formatstring for replacing illegal characters with a dash or an underscore for example: $validate(%artist% - %title%,\_).
As for the long names issue, that is a Windows problem. It also depends which file system you are using (FAT32 or NTFS).
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### Author:  [@theVoosh](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/theVoosh)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/problem-with-renaming/2563/3 "2005-12-01T18:21:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> As for the long names issue, that is a Windows problem. It also depends which file system you are using (FAT32 or NTFS).
>
> \<{POST\_SNAPBACK}\>
yeah, i realize that. but is there any way in mp3tag to tell it to just cut the text after the allowed number of characters?
edit: thanks, by the way
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### Author:  [@barny](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/barny)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/problem-with-renaming/2563/4 "2006-01-15T18:36:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> yeah, i realize that. but is there any way in mp3tag to tell it to just cut the text after the allowed number of characters?
$left(FILENAME FORMAT, 255)
where 255 is the max path you want
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/problem-with-renaming/2563/5 "2026-02-09T12:19:32Z")