# Rename folder by using date
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 25, 2023, 8:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483 "2023-03-25T08:19:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jerryfreak](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/jerryfreak)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 8:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/1 "2023-03-25T08:19:31Z")
i tried this and it was semi-successful
> [@Create Folders Name From Tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/create-folders-name-from-tag/17407/2):
>
> There are 2 more or less automatic ways to get a new files and folder structure with the help of MP3tag: If you already have the right amount of folders - only the have not yet got the correct name, then try something like this: Load the files, select them (you can load files from several albums at once). Create an action of the type "Format value" for \_DIRECTORY Format string: %artist% - %album% - %year% and "Bad" should become "Michael Jackson - Bad - 1991" provided, the fields are fille…
it did rename the subfolders, but the date format was not what i was looking for
they ended up as
Artist - Album (YYYY-MM-DD)
where the MM-DD was 01-01
not
Artist - Album (YYYY)
how do i control output format to YYYY for this purpose?
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 8:33am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/2 "2023-03-25T08:33:37Z")
Please show us the mask that you used and tell us which action you applied.
To remove anything non-numeric from a string, try $num().
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### Author:  [@jerryfreak](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/jerryfreak)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 8:53am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/3 "2023-03-25T08:53:11Z")
my problem is a lot of files were auto-downloaded with 'date' tag enabled, and the year fields show YYYY-MM-DD
is there a batch action to convert date from YYYY-MM-DD to YYYY? otherwise i am sorting them by year and manually editing each year by batch
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 8:53am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/4 "2023-03-25T08:53:59Z")
Have you tried the $num() function?
Which field contains the long date?
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### Author:  [@jerryfreak](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/jerryfreak)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 8:57am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/5 "2023-03-25T08:57:05Z")
year field
also using the
%artist% - %album% (%year%)
when there are non-music files like folder.jpg
it is putting the tracks into a new subfolder alongside folder.jpg
i want to rename the folder and leave everything intact
so it goes from
Artist - Album
-music fles
-folder.jpg
to
Artist - Album
-Artist - Album (year)
--music files
-folder.jpg
when i want
Artist - Album (year)
-music files
-folder.jpg
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 8:58am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/6 "2023-03-25T08:58:42Z")
> [@jerryfreak](#):
>
> %artist% - %album% (%year%)
Try
`%artist% - %album% ($num(%year%,1))`
---
### Author:  [@jerryfreak](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/jerryfreak)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 9:00am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/7 "2023-03-25T09:00:01Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> %artist% - %album% ($num(%year%,1))
its cool i want to manually fix the year tags first anyway. just need to keep the files together instead of making new subfolders fo rthe music files
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### Author:  [@jerryfreak](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/jerryfreak)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 9:20am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/8 "2023-03-25T09:20:10Z")
separate issue
where i have disc subfolders i have
Album - Artist
-Disc 1
-Disc 2
I want
Album - Artist (Year)
-Disc 1
-Disc 2
but its merging the disc 1 and disc 2 by tags, resulting in
Album - Artist
-Album - Artist (Year)
-misc non music files like folder.jpg
how do i only rename the top folder and leave disc folders intact?
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2023, 9:34am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/9 "2023-03-25T09:34:58Z")
You can only rename the current folder.
If this is the folder with the disc in the name, then this one will be renamed.
You could try an absolute path with
`d:\mymusic\ ...`
It could be, though, that the original folder without the YEAR is left over.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2023, 9:35am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-folder-by-using-date/60483/10 "2023-04-24T09:35:45Z")
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