Bulk edit media file Titles (not file names) or have them match their parent

  • I’m not sure if this is the right section to post this in, but I’m hoping the functionality is already possible somehow, probably in the form of a plugin that I’m unaware of.

    Here’s what I’m trying to do:
    I have a bunch of images, and by default when they are uploaded the File/Title becomes what was available in the exif data, or it’s simply the name of the file itself (IMG_20130127_115403.jpg -> IMG_20130127_115403)

    I want to be able to select images in the media library, (or have this be done automatically if the image is uploaded to a page/post) and have their titles match whatever post/page they’re attached to, their parent, or more simply enter in a new name manually and update those media files with the new name.

    The end result would be me being able to change a bunch of images titled “OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA” or “IMG_#######_######”, to whatever their parent is or my own custom name, e.g. “2013 Assorted Photos” or whatever.

    It would also be great if it updated the slug too, but ultimately the important bit would be the title.

    —

    Main reason I’d want this other than SEO reasons (alt tags) is when using lightbox or similar galleries, and you have the Title set to show… it shows the random media titles that were given to it either taken from exif or taken from the file name, and with the ability I’ve described above it’ll result in titles that match what the photos are actually about, and if I want to include a custom title or “caption”, I can edit individual images and write out the custom description of that image.

    For most images though, just having the title match the page title / gallery title / post title, whatever it’s attached to, would be sufficient and save me a lot of tedious editing.

    —

    If anyone has any idea how this might be achieved, or anything similar such as a plugin that simply allows me to batch rename the titles (I’ve seen plugins that let me rename the actual file names, but not the titles that wordpress uses in the database), I’d greatly appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

    Posting this thread because my own searches have come up short. I’m a bit new to wordpress so I’m hoping someone with more experience will be able to help me out.

    Thank you in advance!

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

  • Maybe you could try using Media File Renamer.
    I would suggest to backup your site (database & files) before doin’ anything.

    Thread Starter lasertits

    (@lasertits)

    Thanks for the suggestion, but I have tried Media File Renamer and that only renames the actual file (name.jpg), not the File (title) used in the wordpress database.

    These appear to do the same thing more or less as well:
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/media-rename/
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/rename-media-files/

    I need one that doesn’t bother touching the actual filename, but rather edits the file/title of the media. Even if it were just bulk edit and then I could enter my own new title, that would work and save me a lot of work & time.

    What about Media Library Assistant ?

    Thread Starter lasertits

    (@lasertits)

    I’ve been using that for other purposes but it appears it doesn’t do what I need in terms of renaming the media titles. Plenty of options on how to map the image data into wordpress but nothing that allows me to bulk edit the image titles or have them match their parent.

    Thank you again for suggesting a possible solution!

    Edit: Another idea that might work is a plugin that would allow me to replace the ALT tags with the post title and image caption if there is one.

    Something like “Replace all ALT tags with: %caption %title”

    %caption = caption of attachment
    %title = post title

    This would solve the SEO issues I was having with random file names being the alt tags, as well as any lightbox or similar viewers showing random file names as the titles. So I’d have my caption as “This is a caption – “. The end result would be something like “This is a caption – Assorted Photos 2013”, and if no caption existed: “Assorted Photos 2013”.

    I found “SEO Friendly Images” plugin and it does exactly this, the only problem is it only supports %title, %name (file name of media), %category, %tags. The %name is always “e” due to the gallery using a blank e.gif 1×1 pixel image for each gallery image and then a data value for the actual image, e.g.:
    src=”e.gif” data-original=”wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_20130127_123103-314×209.jpg”

    So the end result when trying to use %name %title is “e Assorted Photos 2013” or whatever. Right now I’m just using it with %title as simply having that is an improvment over what I had before, but it does eliminate the ability to define a caption for individual images which is something I need, so I guess this plugin won’t do.

    Something just like it, perhaps with more options though might be perfect.

    I’ve got some research to do!

    Thread Starter lasertits

    (@lasertits)

    Man that “SEO Friendly Images” plugin would work perfect if it ignored media files that had the “Alternative Text” field filled out. End result would be any image that had no alt text = %title, match it to the post title, but if the image had alt text already defined, ignore it. Unfortunately the plugin does not have this feature. I’m still looking for other options. Will update the thread if I’m successful.

    Edit: “SEO for images” does include an %alt option (the original alt of image (if exists)), however it has a bug where it shows “data src” for some reason, so it looks like this “This is custom alt text data src Post Title”

    Another issue is if no alternative text is defined for the image, it’ll just default to the file name, so it becomes “IMG_29389283_293829382 data src Post Title” instead of simply “Post Title” which is what I was hoping for.

    Looks like both “SEO Friendly Images” and “SEO for images” are close but no cigar.

    The search continues…

    Hi lasertits,

    Did you ever find a solution to this? I am in a similar situation?

    I’m having the same issue, also with the photos from my Olympus camera. For all other pics I upload (smartphone, etc.) this is not an issue.

    Luke

    (@lukejanicke)

    I too need a plugin that lets me select a bunch of images from the media library, and then let’s me quickly tab through their TITLE, CAPTION, ALT, AUTHOR etc.

    Manually opening a browser page for each image one-by-one is a PITA.

    So the Plugin above SEO Friendly Images has mixed results. The free version is reported as “no longer supported.” I installed it on my test blog and it did not work (the free version). The paid version is reported to still work (and has a lot of extra cool features) but costs $79.

    I found an alternative that is cheaper. Its available on Code Canyon for $17. The link is: https://codecanyon.net/item/editor-for-attached-images-titles-alts/1181714

    Hope that helps.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • The topic ‘Bulk edit media file Titles (not file names) or have them match their parent’ is closed to new replies.