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Mass Rename Clears Selection

Posted: 2021 Sep 13, 13:38
by pj
I was performing mass renaming on many files in a very large directory and noticed the renamed files were unselected after being renamed. I needed to cycle through the mass renaming multiple times to get the file set properly named so this became problematic.

I guess I can understand how this might happen if the selection is strictly tied to the filename property.

Is there any way the selection can be maintained after changing only the filename of the directory entry?

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PJ in FL

Re: Mass Rename Clears Selection

Posted: 2021 Sep 13, 13:55
by nikos
when you rename a handful of items then they stay selected, but if you rename too many, then xplorer2 does a generic refresh of the entire folder, so you lose the selection. I would suggest using MARK > SELECTION > STORE menu command but that won't work once items get renamed

Re: Mass Rename Clears Selection

Posted: 2021 Sep 13, 15:23
by pj
What's "too many"?

I might be able to limit the number of files being renamed if I knew the range that kept it under the threshold.

Alternately, is there a setting to prevent x2 from performing the refresh until explicitly performed (ctrl-R)?

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PJ in FL

Re: Mass Rename Clears Selection

Posted: 2021 Sep 13, 17:24
by nikos
you could turn off autorefresh from VIEW menu
but i don't understand why you need the selection, does the rename fail?

Re: Mass Rename Clears Selection

Posted: 2021 Sep 17, 19:07
by EMathews3
This would probably be a multi-stage rename operation, eh?

To get the desired result, more than one pass through the Mass rename wizard is either necessary or easier to deal with conceptually. That's why preserving the selection is useful, even when the selected files have been renamed, including more than once. Selection is usually not based on a filespec/wildcard, so it does not matter that renamed files no longer match a wildcard spec.

I understand Windows has a unique identifier for every file or maybe every directory entry? A GUID-type of pointer. Maybe this part of the filesystem is below Windows' radar, like in the NT kernel. Wondering if that might be useful for persisting a file-selection group across renames, re-sorts and refreshes.

Re: Mass Rename Clears Selection

Posted: 2021 Sep 18, 05:47
by nikos
that's an interesting idea, I will look into it

Re: Mass Rename Clears Selection

Posted: 2021 Oct 01, 09:34
by nikos
I've added it for the forthcoming v5.1