I've got a huge collection of zip files extracted from my late sister's Apple account. The problem is, some of the files have filenames containing unsupported characters and even leading or trailing spaces, making it difficult to manage them on Windows. I want to delete or rename these files, but I keep hitting errors like 'Cannot find this item.' I'm searching for a solution that allows me to unzip these Apple files and then handle the resulting files (read, search, move, delete, etc.) without having to correct each filename manually. Any advice would be appreciated!
5 Answers
I appreciate all the suggestions, but jumping into a Linux VM or Python scripts isn't really my thing. I really just want a straightforward way to fix the file names or learn how to do it in 7-Zip without diving into new tech skills. If anyone can help point me in the right direction, that'd be great.
Have you checked out 7-Zip? It can automatically replace incompatible characters with Unicode replacements during extraction. Just extract the files with 7-Zip and it should take care of most of the issues.
I'd recommend writing some simple Python scripts to fix the filenames. You can create one to remove trailing spaces or identify all problematic filenames. It can automate the process for you! If that's too much, maybe using iOS in a virtual machine could help, though I get that's a bit more complex.
Based on my experience, using 7-Zip with ‘extract here’ or ‘extract to folder’ could help. It usually sanitizes filenames by replacing invalid characters with underscores. Good luck!
You might want to try using a quick Ubuntu virtual machine to extract those zip files. Unix filenames tend to be more forgiving, so it could save you some hassle. Just boot it up, run the extraction, and then you can sort everything out from there.
I just updated 7-Zip to v26 and I couldn't find the settings you mentioned. I'll poke around a bit more, but if you have any tips on where to look, that'd help!