O365 Migration - Renaming File Names

Perform the Following Action No Later than Thursday September 15

If you do not perform the following actions properly or thoroughly, you will have missing files in Office 365 on September 27th. Those missing files will not be migrated for you.

All Archdiocese and Metropolis staff are to review the files names of documents in Google Drive and Dropbox (if you are a dropbox user) and ensure you are not using any of the following invalid characters in your file names:

& * : < > ? / \ |

You also may not have leading or trailing spaces in file or folder names. A leading space is a space before a filename begins. A trailing space is a space at the end of a file name. You may not use these characters for any file names going forward. Some examples of file names with invalid characters would be:

  • My "Archdiocesan Council" report.doc
    • You can change to: My Archdiocesan Council report.doc
  • *Ecumenical Contacts.xlsx
    • You can change to: 1-Ecumenical Contacts.xlsx
  • chapel/tour book.doc.
    • You can change to: chapel-tour book.doc
  • Staff agenda 5/31/19.doc
    • You can change to: Staff agenda 5-31-19.doc
  • Todo items?.doc
    • You can change to: Todo items-unfinished.doc

HOW DO I FIND FILES WITH INVALID NAMES?

Perform a search with each of the invalid characters and if any file names appear in the search results, change the name of that file to a valid character. In Google Drive:

  1. In Google Drive web interface, Select ADVANCED SEARCH next to the search bar.
  2. Select ADVANCED SEARCH and type in each of the invalid characters listed above (a separate search for each character) in the ITEM NAME field. 
  3. Change each invalid file name by selecting RENAME from the pop-up menu when right clicking on the file name.

HOW DO I RENAME A FILE OR FOLDER IF I AM USING GOOGLE
DRIVE OR DROPBOX APPS ON MY COMPUTER?

  • To rename a file or folder in Windows, select it and press F2. 
  • To rename a file or folder on a Mac, select it and press the 'return' key.