How do I rename files on Android?

Last reviewed: September 23, 2026 · Markdown version

Renaming one file is a few taps; renaming two hundred is not something Google's help for its own file manager describes at all. That gap is the real question behind most of the searching.

One file, in Files by Google

Google's steps (Rename a file, read 23 September 2026):

"On your Android device, open Files by Google."
"Tap a category or a storage device."
In grid view, "Press and hold the file. Tap More." In list view, "Next to the file, tap More."
Tap Rename, "Enter a new name", tap OK.

Google notes that "Files by Google works on Android version 8.0 and up" (How to use Files by Google, read 23 September 2026). Other phone makers ship their own file managers; Samsung's support pages that we read cover moving, copying and creating folders in My Files, but not renaming.

Nothing documented for batch renaming

Google's help page is titled "Rename a file" — singular — and says nothing about doing several at once. We found no Google instructions for it, so if you need to rename a hundred holiday photographs to a consistent pattern, plan on a third-party app or a computer.

Before installing something for it, be clear about what the pattern is for. A rename that encodes a date or a category into the file name is a way of making files findable — and there are two other ways of doing that which do not touch the names at all.

Careful with the extension

The extension is part of the name, and Android keeps a table linking extensions to file types: its developer reference describes MimeTypeMap as a "Two-way map that maps MIME-types to file extensions and vice versa" (MimeTypeMap — Android Developers, read 23 September 2026). So when you rename, keep the last few characters as they were. Renaming report.pdf to report or report.jpg leaves the file's contents unchanged but gives apps the wrong clue about what it is.

When renaming is the wrong fix

If the reason you want to rename is "I cannot find anything in Downloads", the names are a symptom rather than the cause. Two hundred files in one folder are hard to use whatever they are called, and a naming scheme you have to maintain by hand is, in our experience, a scheme that does not last.

The alternatives are structure — putting things in folders by kind — and search. Why Downloads fills up in the first place.