Clean Invalid Characters

File names full of brackets, extra spaces, and messy hyphens? Clean them all up with one click.

What This Feature Can Help You With

• Downloaded files with bracket markers: Downloaded file names have (1), [Share], {Backup} tags attached, and you want to batch remove them
• Extra spaces look annoying: File names have Project Document (multiple spaces), and you want to unify them into one
• Too many hyphens: Report---Final___Draft with repeated - or _, and you want to compress them into single characters
• Before migrating to other systems: Preparing to transfer files to NAS or other platforms, and you want to clean up special characters to avoid compatibility issues

Quick Start (3 Steps)

1. Click "Add Rule" button → Select "Clean"
2. Choose what you want to clean:
   • To remove brackets, check (xxx) [xxx] {xxx}
   • To clean spaces, check "Remove consecutive extra spaces"
   • To clean hyphens, check "Remove consecutive extra _- keeping one"
3. Click preview first to see the effect, then apply if everything looks good to avoid accidentally deleting important information

Specific Examples

Example 1: Remove All Bracket Content

❌ Original file: Report(Final)[Under Review].docx 😫 Problem: The (Final) and [Under Review] in brackets are temporary markers that are no longer needed

✅ Action:

• Check both (xxx) and [xxx] options
• Check "Ignore extension" (checked by default)

✅ Result: Report.docx

Why this setup: Checking a bracket type removes that type. You can check multiple bracket types to remove them all at once. "Ignore extension" ensures .docx won't be accidentally modified.

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Example 2: Only Clean Spaces and Hyphens, Keep Brackets

❌ Original file: Project---Plan___ V1 Draft.txt 😫 Problem: Too many repeated spaces and hyphens, want to unify the format but keep the text content

✅ Action:

• Don't check any bracket types
• Check "Remove consecutive extra spaces keeping one space"
• Check "Remove consecutive extra _- keeping one"

✅ Result: Project-Plan_ V1 Draft.txt

Why this setup: Without checking bracket types, the rule only processes spaces and hyphens. Multiple - compress to one -, multiple _ compress to one _, and multiple spaces compress to one space.

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Example 3: Clean Everything

❌ Original file: 【Repost】Article Title (Author Name) -- 2024.txt 😫 Problem: Files downloaded from forums have all kinds of messy markers and extra symbols in the title

✅ Action:

• Check all three bracket options: (xxx) [xxx] {xxx}
• Check "Remove consecutive extra spaces keeping one space"
• Check "Remove consecutive extra _- keeping one"

✅ Result: Article Title - 2024.txt

Why this setup: Checking all options cleans brackets, spaces, and hyphens all at once, making file names clean and simple. Note: Both Chinese brackets 【】 and English brackets [] will be removed.

What to Fill In

Basic Settings

• Remove content inside brackets including brackets Select the bracket types you want to remove, you can select multiple:
  • (xxx): Remove English parentheses and their content (also removes Chinese parentheses （）)
  • [xxx]: Remove English square brackets and their content (also removes Chinese brackets 【】)
  • {xxx}: Remove curly braces and their content (Selecting none = don't remove any brackets)

Advanced Options (You Can Skip This, Defaults Are Good Enough)

• Fix Besides removing brackets, you can also clean up other redundant symbols:

  • Remove consecutive extra spaces keeping one space Not checked by default. When checked, it changes Project Document (two spaces) to Project Document (one space)

  • Remove consecutive extra _- keeping one Not checked by default. When checked, it changes Report---Draft to Report-Draft, File___Backup to File_Backup

• Ignore extension Checked by default. Only cleans the file name, doesn't touch suffixes like .txt .docx. If you really need to clean content in the extension (very rare), you can uncheck this.

FAQ

❓ Nothing changed?

Check if you've selected any options. If no options are selected, the rule won't make any changes.

Solution: Select at least one bracket type, or check the space/hyphen cleaning options.

❓ What if I want to keep some bracket content?

This rule removes the entire bracket along with its content. It cannot remove only the brackets while keeping the content inside.

Solutions:

1. Method 1: Only check the bracket types you want to remove, don't check the ones you want to keep
2. Method 2: First use the Find & Replace rule to move important information out of brackets, then use this rule to clean other brackets

Example 1 (Method 1): File name Report(Important)[Draft].txt, want to keep "Important" but remove "Draft"

• Only check [xxx], don't check (xxx)
• Result: Report(Important).txt

Example 2 (Method 2): File name Report(Important)[Draft]{Backup}.txt, want to keep "Important" but remove all brackets

• First use Find & Replace: Change (Important) to -Important, becomes Report-Important[Draft]{Backup}.txt
• Then use this rule: Check all bracket types, result Report-Important.txt

❓ Extension got changed?

Make sure "Ignore extension" is checked (it's checked by default).

If you unchecked it, the rule will treat the extension as part of the file name and clean it, which may cause the file to lose its association.

❓ Will both Chinese and English brackets be removed?

Yes. Checking (xxx) removes both English () and Chinese （）, checking [xxx] removes both English [] and Chinese 【】.

Advanced Tips

• ✅ Combine with "Find & Replace": First use Find & Replace to move key tags (like version numbers) outside brackets, then use this rule to clean remaining brackets
• ✅ Combine with "Case Conversion": First clean up messy symbols, then use Case Conversion to unify file name style
• ✅ Combine with "Insert Text": After cleaning, use Insert Text rule to add uniform date or batch number prefixes

What to Look at Next?

• Find & Replace: Replace specified text in file names
• Remove Text: Remove part of file names by position
• Case Conversion: Unify the case style of file names