# How do I rename files on Android? — Adinand Auto File Sorter Last reviewed: September 23, 2026. HTML version: https://adinandsorter.com/answers/rename-files-on-android **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*](https://support.google.com/files/answer/9746888), read 23 September 2026):

  1. "On your Android device, open Files by Google."
  2. "Tap a category or a storage device."
  3. In grid view, "Press and hold the file. Tap More." In list view, "Next to the file, tap More."
  4. 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*](https://support.google.com/files/answer/9848742), 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*](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/MimeTypeMap), 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.](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/where-do-downloads-go-on-android)

Related: [Create a folder on Android](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/create-a-folder-on-an-android-phone) · [How to move files on Android](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/how-to-move-files-on-android) · [Sort files by type and date](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/sort-files-by-type-and-date) · [How to use the Google Files app](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/how-to-use-the-google-files-app)