Possible to make the numbers in the filename higher than 9,999 on Mini 3 Pro?

[wrybread]

My Mini 3 Pro names the files like "DJI_0023.MP4" for example, and now that I have more than 9,999 files I'm getting repeating filenames. On the SD card those are separated into multiple folders, but now I have rename the files when adding them to my "keepers" folder to avoid repeating a filename. I know I can have multiple folders, but that breaks my system.

I'm wondering if there's some way to increase the numbering to 100,000 or something so this doesn't happen?

 

[66427cobra]

It appears that DJI has maintained and 8.3 file naming convention (8 character file name, a dot, and 3 character file type) for backward compatibility with MS-DOS FAT although I can't imagine why. Maybe it goes back to their early drones.

Since the filename is created by the software in the drone, I doubt you can do anything to increase it beyond 9999.

You might be able to use the command prompt to globally rename the files. Something like "ren DJI_????.MP4 DJI_????_00.MP4" (without the quotes) should get you what you want. That should append the suffix of "_00" to the end of each file 0000 through 9999. I used the underscore character to separate the new suffix to make it easier to read (DJI_0000_00.MP4). You can use alpha characters if you want or eliminate the underscore.

Just be careful. Global renaming can create a mess because it acts quickly without prompting and there is no undo function. Copy your files to a separate 'test" directory and play around with the command to see if it works the way you need it to. Don't try it on the only copy of your files.

If it works, you can use it to rename your first group of 0000-9999 files. Newer files will still be limited to 9999 but the renaming process going forward will be much quicker.

Post a reply after you have tested it and let us know how you made out.

If that doesn't get you what you want, Google something like "global rename command". That will get you hits on several ways to do it along with some utilities (cost?) that may work.

After a quick scan of search results it looks like the command I suggested will work. You may be able to replace the "????" with "*" if you choose.

 

[Meta4]

My Mini 3 Pro names the files like "DJI_0023.MP4" for example, and now that I have more than 9,999 files I'm getting repeating filenames.

Are you sure that your camera numbers image files up to 9999?
I wish mine did.
Since 2015 all the DJI cameras I've seen only number up to DJI_0999.

On the SD card those are separated into multiple folders, but now I have rename the files when adding them to my "keepers" folder to avoid repeating a filename. I know I can have multiple folders, but that breaks my system.

Apart from manually renaming image files, there's nothing you can do.
But perhaps the main problem is your system.

 

[brett8883]

My Mini 3 Pro names the files like "DJI_0023.MP4" for example, and now that I have more than 9,999 files I'm getting repeating filenames. On the SD card those are separated into multiple folders, but now I have rename the files when adding them to my "keepers" folder to avoid repeating a filename. I know I can have multiple folders, but that breaks my system.

I'm wondering if there's some way to increase the numbering to 100,000 or something so this doesn't happen?

As already mentioned you probably can’t change the numbers but as many clips as you are accumulating you really do need a better file system than this. You’ll be really thankful later that you made a better system now.

If you have Adobe Lightroom Classic you can use that to copy over files, batch rename them, organize, and tag the videos. You can use color tags, keywords, and ratings to keep track of them. You can also view previews of the videos from within Lightroom Classic if you ever have to go searching. I would never use Lightroom Classic to edit videos but does do a good job of ingesting media and keeping things organized.

The nice thing about Lightroom Classic is it uses your normal file system on the computer to store your videos as opposed to regular Lightroom which tucks them away in Lightroom program folders. This more easily allows you to find your video using your system file explorer and means you can easily use removable drives to store videos.

There are other ingest programs specifically for video that might work better but since most people that have the volume of files you have already have at least an Adobe Photography subscription and know the basics of Lightroom it would be “free” and pretty easy to follow even if you don’t already use Lightroom classic.

 

[wrybread]

It appears that DJI has maintained and 8.3 file naming convention (8 character file name, a dot, and 3 character file type) for backward compatibility with MS-DOS FAT although I can't imagine why. Maybe it goes back to their early drones.

Since the filename is created by the software in the drone, I doubt you can do anything to increase it beyond 9999.

You might be able to use the command prompt to globally rename the files. Something like "ren DJI_????.MP4 DJI_????_00.MP4" (without the quotes) should get you what you want. That should append the suffix of "_00" to the end of each file 0000 through 9999. I used the underscore character to separate the new suffix to make it easier to read (DJI_0000_00.MP4). You can use alpha characters if you want or eliminate the underscore.

Just be careful. Global renaming can create a mess because it acts quickly without prompting and there is no undo function. Copy your files to a separate 'test" directory and play around with the command to see if it works the way you need it to. Don't try it on the only copy of your files.

If it works, you can use it to rename your first group of 0000-9999 files. Newer files will still be limited to 9999 but the renaming process going forward will be much quicker.

Post a reply after you have tested it and let us know how you made out.

If that doesn't get you what you want, Google something like "global rename command". That will get you hits on several ways to do it along with some utilities (cost?) that may work.

After a quick scan of search results it looks like the command I suggested will work. You may be able to replace the "????" with "*" if you choose.

Good idea on the batch script. I made a Python script to do it, I posted it here in case it's useful to anyone else:

0filename_fixer.py

GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

- it adds 1,000,000 to the file number. So for example "DJI_0010.JPG" becomes "DJI_1000010.JPG" and "DJI_0011 - part 2.JPG" becomes "DJI_1000011 - part 2.JPG".

- by default it runs on the files in the same directory as the script, so I can just keep thge script in the SD card folder with the pics and videos (on mine that's currently "101MEDIA") and run it to update any new pics and videos

- it's smart enough to know if a file has already been renamed, so it won't add 1,000,000 to a file with a number that's already higher than 1,000,000.

Still a work in progress, I'll update it as needed, but working well for me so far.

Crazy that this is necessary at all, but it's easy enough to just keep the script on the SD card and run it before importing the files.

-

 

[wrybread]

Oops, after using the script for awhile I noticed that the Mini 3 Pro doesn't keep track of it's file numbers, so it will roll back the numbers whenever I clear out the DCIM folder on the SD card. Pretty ridiculous. Anyway I made a new version of the script that keeps track of the file number:

0filename_fixer-v2.py

GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

I keep it in the DCIM folder on my SD card and run it before importing the pics and videos.

 

[Robert Prior]

When I import files I rename them to "yyyy-mm-dd location index" where yyyy-mm-dd is the date I took them, location is the general location (maybe just "mountains", maybe more specific) and index is a generated number starting at 1 and incrementing within the batch.

I means I never have duplicates names.

If I'm in a hurry, I copy the SD card into a folder named "yyyy-mm-dd location" and sort the files later.

 

[wrybread]

When I import files I rename them to "yyyy-mm-dd location index" where yyyy-mm-dd is the date I took them, location is the general location (maybe just "mountains", maybe more specific) and index is a generated number starting at 1 and incrementing within the batch.

I means I never have duplicates names.

If I'm in a hurry, I copy the SD card into a folder named "yyyy-mm-dd location" and sort the files later.

That's an awesome idea, I can't believe I didn't think of it. I just changed my script so it prepends the creation date of the file. I should probably just remove the DJI file number entirely, since it's pretty much useless, and use the time of day. Hmm.

 

[Robert Prior]

I should probably just remove the DJI file number entirely, since it's pretty much useless, and use the time of day. Hmm.

If you take pictures there can be several images taken in the same second, especially if you shoot panoramas (saving originals) or bracketed. (Or hyper lapse saving originals.)

 

[wrybread]

If you take pictures there can be several images taken in the same second, especially if you shoot panoramas (saving originals) or bracketed. (Or hyper lapse saving originals.)

Aha, thanks for that. This version prepends the time and date to all files that begin with "DJI_" and preserves any text that was added to the filename. So for example "DJI_0999 - mountains.MP4" created on May 5, 2023 at 11:05am becomes "2023-05-23-110530 - mountains.MP4". And "DJI_0999.MP4" becomes "2023-05-23-110530.MP4".

And it checks to see if that file already exists, and if so adds an extra number ("2023-05-23-110530 (2).MP4", "2023-05-23-110530 (3).MP4" etc.).

0filename_fixer-v3.py

GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com