How to Batch Rename Photos by Date Taken on a Mac

Cameras and phones name photos like IMG_4027.jpg. To sort a trip or a shoot, you usually want names that start with the day each picture was taken, such as 2026-07-14 Iceland 2026 01.jpg. The Finder can rename many files at once, but it cannot read that date. Here is why, and how to do it on a Mac with Folia Files.

The short answer: in Folia Files, select the photos, choose File › Batch Rename…, add an Add Date rule set to Taken (EXIF), pick a format such as yyyy-MM-dd, check the new names in the preview, then rename. ⌘Z puts every name back.

Why the Finder can't rename photos by the date taken

Select several files in the Finder, Control-click them and choose Rename: you get three modes, Replace Text, Add Text and Format. They are handy for names, and Format can add a number or a date, but none of them reads the date the camera stored inside the photo.

That matters because a photo has two kinds of dates:

• File dates (created, modified) are kept by the file system. They can change when photos are copied, downloaded, synced or exported, and they often tell you when the file reached your Mac, not when you pressed the shutter.
• The date taken is written by the camera or phone into the photo's EXIF metadata (the DateTimeOriginal field). It travels inside the file, so it stays right whatever happens to the file around it.

To name photos after the moment they were taken, you need a renamer that reads EXIF.

Rename photos by date taken with Folia Files

The Batch Rename tool of Folia Files chains rules, from top to bottom, and shows every new name before anything changes on the disk.

1. Choose the photos

Select the photos in a pane and choose File › Batch Rename…, or Control-click them and choose Batch Rename n Items…. You can also open Tools › Batch Rename, then drop a folder on it or click Pane Selection.

The tool opens in its own tab. The files are on the left: a folder you add brings its files, subfolders included by default. Under Selection Options, type jpg, heic in Extensions to keep only the photos, so the videos and other files of the folder are left alone. You can also untick single files.

2. Add the date the photo was taken

In the Rules column, click Add and choose Add Date. The rule has three settings:

• the source of the date: Modified, Created or Taken (EXIF). Choose Taken (EXIF);
• the format: yyyy-MM-dd (2026-07-14), yyyyMMdd, yyyy-MM-dd HH.mm.ss, yyyyMMdd_HHmmss, dd-MM-yyyy or yyyy-MM;
• the separator (Sep., a space by default) and the position, at the beginning or at the end.

Put the year first if you want the Finder, or any list sorted by name, to show the photos in the order they were taken. A file without an EXIF date (a screenshot, an image saved from the web) gets its creation date instead.

In the screenshot, the rule is set to Taken (EXIF) and yyyy-MM-dd, with _ as the separator, at the beginning: the preview shows IMG_4021.jpg becoming 2026-07-12_IMG_4021.jpg.

3. Add a name and a number

The date alone is rarely enough: every photo of the same day would get the same name. Each rule works on the result of the one above it, so a good combination is:

1. New Name (Template) with {parent} {n}: the name of the folder and a number (Iceland 2026 01, Iceland 2026 02…);
2. Add Date, Taken (EXIF), yyyy-MM-dd, at the beginning.

IMG_4027.jpg becomes 2026-07-14 Iceland 2026 01.jpg. Templates also know {name} (the current name), {ext} and {date}. Careful: {date} in a template is the modification date of the file. For the date taken, use the Add Date rule.

Drag the rules to change their order, or turn one off with its switch to compare the results.

4. Check the preview, then rename

The Preview column shows the Current Name and the New Name of every file, and counts the changes. A name that would clash is flagged, never overwritten: Same name as another item when two photos would end up with the same name, Already exists when the folder already has a file with that name. Those files are skipped; add a Number rule or the {n} token and the warning goes away.

When the list looks right, click Rename n Item(s)… (or press ⌘↩), check the summary of old and new names, and confirm.

Undo it, or rename copies instead

The whole batch is one action: ⌘Z right after puts every name back. Later on, the rename is still listed in the history of the Operations button of the toolbar, where it can be undone as well (more on safe file operations).

If you would rather keep the camera names, choose On copies, next to the originals instead of Change the originals under the preview: Folia Files creates renamed copies and leaves the originals untouched. On copies, in a subfolder and On copies, in a folder of your choice work the same way.

Tips for naming photos by date

• Year, month, day. 2026-07-14 sorts in date order everywhere; 14-07-2026 does not.
• Add the time for busy days. With yyyyMMdd_HHmmss, each name says when the photo was taken to the second. Burst shots can share the same second, so keep a number.
• Keep RAW and JPEG pairs together. A numbered template gives the RAW file and the JPEG of the same shot two different numbers. Use only the Add Date rule instead: it keeps the current name after the date, and 2026-07-14 IMG_4027.jpg stays next to 2026-07-14 IMG_4027.CR3.
• Check the camera's clock. The date taken is whatever the camera's clock said. If two people photographed the same trip, date and time names put both sets in shooting order, as long as both clocks were right.
• Rename before you share or archive. Once the date is in the name, it no longer depends on the file dates of wherever the photos end up.

Batch Rename is in both editions of Folia Files, the one from foliafiles.com and the one from the Mac App Store.