Renaming a FLAC file

[Head Man]

Here's a 'techy' question from a 'non-techy' person.

I have a FLAC file that I want to burn to a CD but it appears to have an invalid file name. Can anyone tell me how I can rename it to a valid filename? When I right-click on the file the 'Rename' option isn't available. My operating system is Window XP.

[Tom Storer]

Are you talking about storing the FLAC file on a data CD, or making an audio CD out of it? As far as I know you can't make an audio CD directly from a FLAC file--you need to convert it to WAV first.

[Dan Gould]

Are you talking about storing the FLAC file on a data CD, or making an audio CD out of it? As far as I know you can't make an audio CD directly from a FLAC file--you need to convert it to WAV first.

That's actually not entirely true. My Nero burning program recognizes FLAC files and allows you to add them directly to the CD you are creating.

As far as renaming FLAC files, I don't really understand the question - why would you need to rename the file, unless maybe its got an extension that makes it "not" a FLAC file even though it is?

[Head Man]

Sorry if my explanation of the problem was a bit sketchy. Here's the 'full' version:

I have a number of FLAC files that I'm trying to burn to CD and all but one them converts OK to WAVE. When I look at the file description of the unconverted file I can see that there are several invalid characters present so what I want to do is to rename the file from 'xxxrubbish.FLAC' to 'xxxxnotrubbish.FLAC'. However when I right click on the invalid file I can't get the option to rename the file. This option is available for all the other valid FLAC files.

So my question is - 'How can I rename a FLAC file with an 'invalid' file name?'

[Kevin Bresnahan]

When you highlight the file and press the right mouse button, does "Properties" show up? If it does, click that and check that the file is not read-only or protected. You could also try copying the file to a different folder to see if that works. If that doesn't work it may be a stack error which could be anything.

Check your virus software's log to see if it found a virus in that file. Quarantined files can't be renamed.

Also, the file may be corrupted. You can run a scan of your hard drive to see if it can be repaired.

[Tom Storer]

Are you talking about storing the FLAC file on a data CD, or making an audio CD out of it? As far as I know you can't make an audio CD directly from a FLAC file--you need to convert it to WAV first.

That's actually not entirely true. My Nero burning program recognizes FLAC files and allows you to add them directly to the CD you are creating.

I guess I need to update my Nero. Is that just a feature of your version of Nero, or is it a plug-in?

Edited September 20, 2007 by Tom Storer

[Claude]

Is the FLAC file a CD Image that comes with a CUE-file? Then you need to make sure the file name indicated in the CUE file (a simple text file that can be edited with notepad) corresponds with the real name of the FLAC file. Very often when people rip CDs with EAC and then compress it with FLAC, the file name in the CUE-file has the .wav extension.

Edited September 20, 2007 by Claude

[Dan Gould]

Are you talking about storing the FLAC file on a data CD, or making an audio CD out of it? As far as I know you can't make an audio CD directly from a FLAC file--you need to convert it to WAV first.

That's actually not entirely true. My Nero burning program recognizes FLAC files and allows you to add them directly to the CD you are creating.

I guess I need to update my Nero. Is that just a feature of your version of Nero, or is it a plug-in?

Tom, its not a plug in, my updated version is 6.6.1.4

I'm so far behind in burning FLAC files from Dime that I ought to use the feature to just burn them all instead of taking the time to extract them as wav files and then check if any editing is needed. But I always find it too annoying when people put track indexes in the wrong spot or have really low levels.

[Head Man]

When I click the right button on the mouse the only options I get are: 'open', 'open with', 'play' and 'send to', none of which work with this particular file. It doesn't have a virus but has a very long file name with brackets in it.

I suppose what I'm looking for is some software that would allow me to rename any file regardless of its name or extension. If no-one can help then I'll give up and burn the CD without this particular track.

Thanks for all your help so far.

[Dave Garrett]

There are a bunch of freeware file renaming utilities available here. I suspect that if you try a few of them, you'll find one that solves your problem.

I had a similar problem a while back with a FLAC file that was bundled together with other FLAC files in one zip file - WinZip, my usual zip file tool, choked on this one file and would not extract it, claiming it was corrupted, even though I could play the file with the FLAC plugin for WinAmp. I finally found an alternate freeware zip/unzip tool that was able to successfully extract the file.

[Head Man]

Dave, many thanks for giving me the link. I've tried several of the programs but none of them seems to be able to read this particular file. One of them comes up with the message 'file does not exist' even though it looks perfectly OK in the list of files to be renamed. It seems there is a major problem with this particular file so I'll go back to Plan B - delete it!

Thanks once again to everyone who tried to help.

Edited September 21, 2007 by Head Man

[oktavian]

For anyone (else) who's found this thread after searching for the solution to the same problem, one thing you can do is rename the folders leading up to the file with, like, one-letter names. The directory has a character limit, so if you can shorten the folder names enough, the file will be freed up to move, rename, and edit. Keep record of the old folder names, of course, if they're complicated or important and you need to change them back exactly. This page has some more tips on deleting/renaming stubborn files: http://filext.com/faq/delete_or_rename_stubborn_file.php .

[Hardbopjazz]

Dave, many thanks for giving me the link. I've tried several of the programs but none of them seems to be able to read this particular file. One of them comes up with the message 'file does not exist' even though it looks perfectly OK in the list of files to be renamed. It seems there is a major problem with this particular file so I'll go back to Plan B - delete it!

Thanks once again to everyone who tried to help.

Does the file play in WinAmp. This media player supports flac files. If the file plays without issues then there maybe another issue. May the original file is 24 bit. I've had problems with some files that were originally 24 bit. I did find some software that corrected that problem. It is called dBpoweramp Music Converter. You can find the free version online to download and use.