Here’s something I can’t figure out: When using dired to manage files, let’s say I have a top level directory with a ton of subdirectories, each with a GoPro video inside (unique name/time/date for each file name). How do I move them all at once to that top level directory for easier management/renaming? I don’t want to have to go into each directory and move them one at a time with R. Let’s say all of the files are MP4 or HEVC.

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I can think of two options:

  1. M-x find-dired RET RET RET (or adjust query): which will list all files recursively in dired. You probably don’t need to copy them elsewhere for renaming. Use M-x dired-toggle-read-only (or C-x C-q), rename in-place, and commit (toggle again C-x C-q). https://xenodium.com/batch-renaming-with-counsel-find-dired-and-wdired
  2. dired-subtree: enables drilling down to multipe subdirectories from the same dired buffer. Expand the subdirectories needing management, and edit like 1. (via C-x C-q) https://xenodium.com/drill-down-emacs-dired-with-dired-subtree

Edit: markup

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I’ll give it a try. Thank you Xenodium. Everyone seems to have pointed me in this direction. I knew Dired would have something like this.

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