# Shorten / Trim / Truncate Filenames to 32 Characters.

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-trim-truncate-filenames-to-32-characters/3955
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 24, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-trim-truncate-filenames-to-32-characters/3955 "2006-10-24T18:57:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![SirCasey](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@SirCasey](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/SirCasey)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-trim-truncate-filenames-to-32-characters/3955/1 "2006-10-24T18:57:29Z")

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I'm running into an issue where I want to shorten/truncate/trim the filenames of my mp3s to 32 characters, or 28characters+.ext. It's for my cell phone, an LG VX8100.

I think it would be awesome if one of the default options is 'shorten file names to x characters rather than just 64.

Until that happens in an update, how do I make my own formatting string to do this? I've tried looking at all the Help and FAQ's, but I'm not seeing a quick and easy way to do it.

Can anyone help me out with this?

Thanks!

~SirCasey

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### Author: ![Sebastian\_Mares](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/sebastian_mares/32/9285_2.png) [@Sebastian\_Mares](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Sebastian_Mares)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-trim-truncate-filenames-to-32-characters/3955/2 "2006-10-24T19:04:25Z")

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[Truncation of comment field to 256 characters](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/2768/1)

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### Author: ![SirCasey](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@SirCasey](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/SirCasey)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-trim-truncate-filenames-to-32-characters/3955/3 "2006-10-24T19:52:20Z")

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So does that mean I could use:

Action type: Format value  
Field: \_FILENAME  
Formatstring: $left(%filename%,28)

?

I can't seem to get that to work.  
Or this.  
$left(%FILENAME%,28)  
Or this.  
$left(\_FILENAME,28)

But I did get this to work:  
$left(%artist%-%track%-%title%,28)

Yay! Thanks!

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### Author: ![dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/dano/32/6_2.png) [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-trim-truncate-filenames-to-32-characters/3955/4 "2006-10-24T20:06:44Z")

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Too bad you missed the right one: $left(%\_filename%,28)

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### Author: ![SirCasey](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@SirCasey](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/SirCasey)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-trim-truncate-filenames-to-32-characters/3955/5 "2006-10-24T20:35:05Z")

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And I was so close!

I'll use that next time... Thanks again!

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### Author: ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-trim-truncate-filenames-to-32-characters/3955/6 "2026-02-09T12:19:57Z")

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