Hi all

I'm currently going through my mods and stuff for the sims 2 and some of the .package file are named to long, the .package is repeated three or four times, and my explorer program can't copy them, I have to copy them one at a time.

So, I was just wondering, is there a way to safely rename them? I know that you're not suppose to rename them because renaming will probable corrupt the file, but if there is a way, I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me that I'm an idiot and that there is no way to do it. And sorry if this is in the wrong thread.

Renaming packages is perfectly safe, just keep the .package extension.

You can do it manually by clicking in the name and replacing the text, or removing unwanted bits.
You can use the Sims2Pack Clean Installer, by right clicking on every item you want to rename and selecting "Rename" in the right click menu.

You can even, like many of us do now, use a batch renaming program, see here:
http://modthesims.info/t/546736

It has become a necessity since most CC creators nowadays are clueless when it comes to computers, and will name their files something like:
[~D@fl33500~]276-recolors of ¤Sentate's¤awesome-dre$$ {in all of A¬lia''s-colors & with-Pixycat's b°°ts}@my-§imblr.package

(I use Bulk Rename Utility myself.)

Thank you so much!!!

I thought I'd have to copy the files one by one every time I shift stuff around. Thank you again, you saved my sanity. :D

Just make sure you rename your files sensibly. Spaces and various other characters (except froma-z, 0-9, - and _ and the last . before a file extension like ".package") often count as several extra characters in the file path (a space is encoded as %20 in a html address, and spaces in a file path adds quotation marks), and some of the older operative systems can even struggle to read them, ending up with skipping over the file. Not long ago a creator came to me wondering why their own files didn't show up, and no wonder since they had named their files something like "1.red.package", "2.green.package" - showing why you should never put extra punctuation marks in files (the file may think everything after the first punctuation mark is the file extension).

For renaming you don't have to use a program. If it's only for a few files, you can rename the files while in a folder. If you're renaming several files, or removing certain characters from several files, the bulk renaming comes in handy, though.

There is a small number of files you shouldn't rename, but it's mostly special mods/hacks and a few defaults, or files that need to be loaded last to work (often with ZZZ at the front of the name). Most CC files can be renamed without anything bad happening in your game, and sometimes renaming files can even fix problems. If you use subfoldering (folders within the Downloads folder, having as few in a row as possible is a good thing. Try to keep to an absolute max of 2-3 subfolders (Downloads/Subfolder/Subfolder/Subfolder/file.package) and give those folders short names with as few special characters as possible.