How to automatically rename media files on Linux with FileBot

Have an extensive media collection on your Linux PC or Linux server? Need to organize a large amount of movie and TV shows but not sure how to do it in a timely fashion? If so, Filebot is the Linux app for you! It’s a simple GUI tool (and other platforms) that can scan and automatically rename media files on Linux. It works by scraping video files for keywords and consults with multiple databases to determine the right names for your media collection.

Note: Filebot is free, but the free version is limited. To get the most out of Filebot on Linux payment is required. It costs about 6$ to get all features for one year or 48$ for a lifetime unlock.

Install Filebot

Before working with Filebot, we’ll need to go over how to install it on Linux. To start, head over to the official website and purchase a license. Paying for Filebot isn’t necessary to complete this guide. However, we strongly suggest you do so, as renaming media files on Linux is much easier with the unlocked version.

Once you’ve gotten your copy of Filebot registered, download the release file to your computer. Then, follow the instructions to learn how to install the program on your PC.

Ubuntu/Debian

The developers of Filebot have a downloadable DEB package on the website that can be used to install on Ubuntu or Debian. To get it working, open up a terminal and follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Using the wget tool, download the Filebot DEB package to your Ubuntu or Debian PC.

wget https://get.filebot.net/filebot/FileBot_4.8.2/FileBot_4.8.2_amd64.deb

Step 2: Run the dpkg command and load up the package on your computer.

sudo dpkg -i FileBot_4.8.2_amd64.deb

Step 3: After installing the FileBot DEB package on your Debian/Ubuntu computer, you’ll need to correct any dependency issues that come up.

sudo apt install -f

sudo apt-get install -f

Arch Linux

FileBot developers don’t support Arch Linux, but it’s OK; there’s an AUR package available for download. To get the AUR package, open up a terminal and follow the step-by-step instructions.

Note: if you have issues installing the AUR version of FileBot on Arch Linux, consider installing the Snap version on your computer instead.

Step 1: Install both Git and Base-devel to your Arch Linux PC so that you can interact with the AUR manually.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel

Step 2: Using git, download the latest FileBot AUR snapshot.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/filebot.git

Step 3: Move the terminal window from the home directory (~/) to the newly created “filebot” folder.

cd filebot

Step 4: Generate and install FileBot on Arch Linux with the makepkg command.

makepkg -sri

Run into issues building FileBot from the AUR? Read the comments on the page. Other users may be able to help you solve your problems.

Fedora/OpenSUSE

Using Fedora or OpenSUSE and interested in using FileBot? Don’t bother trying to download the TarGZ archive. Instead, skip down to the Snap package instructions, as it’s the quickest way to get the program working on RedHat-based Linux distributions.

Snap instructions

FileBot is in the snap store. However, before you can install it, you must have the Snap runtime configured on your Linux computer. Not sure how to set up Snap on your Linux PC? Head over to our guide here. Then, once you’ve gotten the runtime working, open up a terminal and enter the command below to install FileBot.

sudo snap install filebot

Rename movie files on Linux

To rename a movie file in FileBot, start off by launching the program. Then, once the app is open, look to the “Original Files” pane on the left.

At the bottom of “Original Files,” find the “Load” button and click on it to bring up an open-file” window.

In the open-file window, browse for the movie file(s) you’d like to use with FileBot.

After FileBot is done parsing your files, they will appear in the “Original Files” pane. From there, click on the green “Match” icon in the middle.

In the Match menu, find “Movie Mode” and select the “TheMovieDB” option.

Let FileBot scan your Movie file(s) against the database. When it’s found a match, they’ll appear under the “New Names” pane.

To rename the movie file(s), click “Rename”.

Rename TV show files on Linux

Along with renaming movie files, FileBot can rename TV show files. Better yet, it’s possible to rename an entire series at one time, rather than one file at a time.

To do it, click “Load” under the “Original Files” pane on the left. Browse for the root folder of the TV show in which you’d like to rename (the main folder that holds all of the season folders).