# Renames

[← Documentation index](../index.md) · [Guided first pass](../first-pass.md)

![The rename plan preview](../images/renames.png)

**What it is for.** Applying approved album names to the actual folders — the first
stage that changes your filesystem.

**What you decide.** Whether to apply the plan, after reading it. The confirmation
names the plan, its version, and its checksum, so what you approve is what runs.

**What it changes.** Folders move. For each operation: the intent is journaled
*before* the disk is touched, the move is made, `assets.current_path` is updated by
id in one transaction, the old path is closed and a new one opened in path history,
the result is verified, and only then is the operation complete.

**What it refuses.** A plan is invalid — not merely warned about — when a source is
missing or changed, two operations target the same destination, a destination already
exists, a path would leave the library or enter `_IGNORE/`, or a source is a symlink.
Case-only renames and cross-filesystem moves are allowed but flagged, because they
take a different, staged route. A plan whose checksum no longer matches is refused
rather than reinterpreted.

## Reading the preview

Every operation shows both full paths, the kind of move (`rename`, `case-only
rename`, `cross-filesystem move`), how many photos it affects, its journal state, and
any issue with its severity. The plan can be exported as JSON before you commit to it.

**A run cannot be stopped part-way.** It can be interrupted — by a crash, a power
cut, a killed container — and interruption is recoverable, but there is no cancel
button once it starts. That is stated on the confirmation, not hidden in a manual.

## After an interruption

The recovery panel lists each unresolved operation with a verdict read from the
journal *and the disk*: resumable, safely rollbackable, or needing a person. It never
guesses from a missing path alone. Until it is resolved, unrelated mutations are
refused with `409 rename_recovery_required`.

Rollback is recovery, not undo. A completed operation is terminal — the button only
appears for operations that are actually reversible. See
[recovery](../recovery.md).

Next: [upload](uploads.md).