Filename Cleanup Rules | Bulk Image Downloader

The names that come out of URLs are rarely clean

When filenames are derived from source URLs, they tend to carry baggage: a repeated CDN prefix on every file, query-string leftovers, double underscores, encoded characters, or a vendor tag you do not want in your folder. The Filename Constructor can build a good base name, but real-world URLs still leave clutter behind. That is what filename cleanup is for.

Cleanup runs as the final naming step inside Bulk Image Downloader From URL List, right before a file is written. It is a find-and-replace pass over the filename, and crucially you are not limited to a single fix — you can stack as many rules as the names require.

Adding rules, one fix at a time

You turn cleanup on within the constructor for a task, then use Add rule to create a cleanup step. Each rule handles one transformation, such as:

Stripping a prefix that appears on every file — a domain tag, a folder slug, an export label.
Replacing characters — swapping spaces, underscores, or stray symbols for something consistent.
Removing URL junk — the messy fragments that ride along when a name is pulled from a link.

Because you can press Add rule as many times as you need, the feature scales to genuinely messy sources. One rule kills the prefix, a second cleans the separators, a third removes a trailing tag — and they apply in sequence to every filename in the task. You build the cleanup once, and it runs across the whole batch.

How it fits with the rest of naming

Cleanup is the last thing that happens to a name before it hits disk. Whatever the constructor produced — a token pattern, a sequence, or names from an uploaded CSV — the cleanup rules then tidy the result. That ordering is what makes it reliable: you can build the structure you want first, then scrub away anything the source dragged in.

Think of it as the difference between deciding what a file is called and making sure that name is actually clean. The constructor decides; cleanup polishes.

A typical setup

Say you are pulling product shots and the source names all arrive as cdn-prod_SKU1234__main.jpg. You might add one rule to strip the cdn-prod_ prefix, another to replace the double underscore with a single dash, and a third to drop the __main tag. The batch then saves as clean, readable names with zero manual editing.

The payoff shows up most on large or repetitive jobs, where the same junk repeats across hundreds of files. Set the rules once on the task, run the download, and the folder you open afterward is already clean — no bulk-rename tool, no second pass, no regret.