# Shorten filename to variable number of characters
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-filename-to-variable-number-of-characters/5336
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [August 21, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-filename-to-variable-number-of-characters/5336 "2007-08-21T19:55:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kf\_man](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/kf_man)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-filename-to-variable-number-of-characters/5336/1 "2007-08-21T19:55:33Z")
I don't know if this has been requested before, but would it be possible to shorten the filename to a variable number of characters instead of just 64? My cell phone can only handle files with up to 32 characters in the name and there doesn't appear to be a simple way to do this in mp3tag.
Thanks for your consideration.
-Kyle
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### Author:  [@kf\_man](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/kf_man)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-filename-to-variable-number-of-characters/5336/2 "2007-08-21T20:59:48Z")
It's really not as simple as all that after all. I ended up making a very custom set of actions for what I wanted. One thing to consider though is what happens if you shorten the title and there is already a duplicate name. I'm still wrestling with that one.
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### Author:  [@Sebastian\_Mares](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Sebastian_Mares)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-filename-to-variable-number-of-characters/5336/3 "2007-08-22T19:10:13Z")
No idea how to deal with duplicates right now, but shortening names can be done by using $left(%field%,number\_of\_characters\_allowed), where %field% can be any field like %track%, %artist%, %\_filename%, etc. and the second argument being the number of characters you want to have - in your case 32.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:20pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-filename-to-variable-number-of-characters/5336/4 "2026-02-09T12:20:27Z")