Title: Clean Filenames
Author: Samuel Aguilera
Published: <strong>February 17, 2011</strong>
Last modified: April 14, 2025

---

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This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/sanitize-spanish-filenames.svg)

# Clean Filenames

 By [Samuel Aguilera](https://profiles.wordpress.org/samuelaguilera/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames.1.2.4.zip)

 * [Details](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/#installation)
 * [Development](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/)

## Description

#### Features

#### It takes the following steps for getting cleaner and safe to use filenames

 * Removes or replace special/international characters that can make your filenames
   not compliant with servers that don’t have support for international locales 
   and filenames, or third-party services. (e.g. ‘España.png’ will become ‘Espana.
   png’, ‘prüfen’ will become ‘prufen’).
 * Replaces any ‘+’ in the filename with ‘-‘ (e.g. ‘A+nice+picture.png’ will become‘
   A-nice-picture.png’).
 * Replaces any ‘.’ character before the one used for file extension with ‘-‘(e.
   g. ‘A.nice.picture.png’ will become ‘A-nice-picture.png’).
 * After running all character replacement filters, a filter is applied to ensure
   that the filename only contains letters, numbers, underscores, dashes, and dots.
   Any other character will be removed from the filename.
 * And finally all letters in the filename are set to lowercase to prevent issues
   with case insensitive systems.

This reduces problems with some servers, services, plugins… That may have problems
handling filenames with special or international characters.

The plugin does its job during file upload process, so it’ll change only filenames
for files being _uploaded after plugin activation_.

It supports a large number of international characters, including but not only, 
characters from belarusian, cyrillic alphabet, czech, german, hebrew, hungarian,
russian, polish, spanish, ukrainian, and some other special characters (e.g. №, @,
$, etc.).

If you have any questions or need support, please check FAQ for additional information
before asking.

#### Requirements

 * WordPress 3.0 or higher

## Installation

 * Simply install from your WP dashboard or upload it using FTP. No configuration
   needed.

## FAQ

### Will change filenames for files uploaded before activating the plugin?

No. The plugin does its job just after a file is uploaded and before it’s saved 
to your server, so it’ll change only filenames for files being uploaded after plugin
activation.

### I would like to do additional changes to the filename, is that possible?

Since 1.2.2 version, you can use the scf_friendly_filename filter to perform additional
changes to the filename after all the changes done by the plugin.

Example:

    ```
    add_filter ('scf_friendly_filename', 'first_character_uppercase', 10, 1);
    function first_character_uppercase ( $friendly_filename ){
        // Make sure first character is always uppercase. 
        $friendly_filename = ucfirst( $friendly_filename );      
        return $friendly_filename;
    }
    ```

### My language is not listed in the plugin description, will it still replace my language characters?

Probably. Simply give it a try and see how it goes. This plugin doesn’t store anything
in your site or anywhere, and makes no permanent changes to the site, disabling 
the plugin is enough to go back to WP default filename handling. Therefore trying
and uninstalling the plugin if it doesn’t fit your needs it’s a completely safe 
and clean task.

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cbc33fc10c68c21e407ca110e036f6917856d292727d6c3ebd214c45d7ab438f?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Works very well out of the box](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/works-very-well-out-of-the-box-3/)󠁿

 [Ishko](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ishko/) April 15, 2021

Very useful and clean, strips every non standard character of all your filenames
when uploading. Just activate and forget 🙂 Thanks to the dev for keeping the plugin
updated, great job !

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/11f8061cf38aa7d0c315a4d17d311e2d100807bb3a2e41ba686a49cf16d9c56d?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Looks Nice but supports Turkish ?](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/looks-nice-but-supports-turkish/)󠁿

 [yasindedo1](https://profiles.wordpress.org/yasindedo1/) August 29, 2019

If you answer this review i will appreciate it. I dont ask for Turkish translation,
as the plugins supports spanish and some other langs then i ask about Turkish. Does
the plugin support Turkish characters like ĞİÜÇŞıÖ ?

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/facae177939e38e2270c4df6ff6c9b388ce00947ee05104e41e433b886623d9d?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Muy útil!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/muy-util-93/)󠁿

 [Elías](https://profiles.wordpress.org/eliasgdj/) May 20, 2019

Previene problemas con tildes, así como homogeneiza los nombres de archivos que 
a veces se muestran en el frontend, como con el plugin WP Better Attachments.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/24f38c8792ba93eb509f1a100936c974102f6dd5274c935c7bf2bd9d975ecfeb?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-7477/)󠁿

 [floydik](https://profiles.wordpress.org/floydik/) December 18, 2017

This plug-in do exactly what I except and there is no problem with Czech diacritics.
If I was uploaded file name "příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy.jpg" I'v got
filename: /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/prilis-zlutoucky-kun-upel-dabelske-ody.jpg
and Title příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy. Great job.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/02ba25a6e28011bd59821fd25e7782e829db1362462df062a101302bfa7d7200?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Very nice! Only renames filename, not media title 🙂](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/very-nice-only-renames-filename-not-media-title/)󠁿

 [Bjarne Oldrup](https://profiles.wordpress.org/oldrup/) October 24, 2017

As others, I need my filenames to be simple for plugins, backup, different OS'es
etc to work without a hiccup, but my title I'd like left alone. So if I choose to
upload a file called "Test æøå ÆØÅ +(plus) !(udråbstegn).txt", I want a sane filename,
but the original title where I insert the media… This plugin does that perfectly,
where others also changes the title… Tested with Danish letters, works great 🙂

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/345025fc3fcb9b613af3175f40c2c7cd692225038d2472a95b1dd75e49ca785d?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Does exactly what it says it would, safety net included](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-exactly-what-it-says-it-would-safety-net-included/)󠁿

 [Larzans](https://profiles.wordpress.org/larzans/) March 26, 2017

Very good character replacements (ä->a, …) and to be safe a final filtering of the
filename to prevent unwanted (and unknown) characters from being used. I tried a
few plugins of this type, and this is definately the best.

 [ Read all 8 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Clean Filenames” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Samuel Aguilera ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/samuelaguilera/)

“Clean Filenames” has been translated into 4 locales. Thank you to [the translators](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/contributors)
for their contributions.

[Translate “Clean Filenames” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sanitize-spanish-filenames/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/sanitize-spanish-filenames/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/sanitize-spanish-filenames/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/sanitize-spanish-filenames/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.2.4

 * Changed priority for Gravity Forms integration.

#### 1.2.3

 * Added additional support for files uploaded using single upload Gravity Forms
   fields. Thanks to my buddy David Smith! 🙂

#### 1.2.2

 * Added filter scf_friendly_filename to allow additional changes to the filename
   before returning it to WP.
 * Minor changes to make code 100% compliant with WordPress Coding Standards. This
   doesn’t means any change in the plugin functionality, it’s just code cosmetic.

#### 1.2

 * Added remove_accents() WP core function as first step instead of previous own
   custom replacement array for accents.

#### 1.1.1

 * Minor coding standards improvements.

#### 1.1

 * Fixed bug introduced in 1.0.9. Thanks to Edu from etmsoft for reporting it.

#### 1.0.9

 * Added: All letters in the filename are set to lowercase to prevent issues with
   case insensitive systems.

#### 1.0.8

 * Added support for Hebrew (letters will be replaced, puntuation and ligatures 
   will be removed). e.g. ‘א’ will be replaced by ‘a’, and ‘װ’ will be removed from
   the filename.
 * After running all character replacement filters, a last filter is applied to 
   ensure that the filename only contains letters, numbers, underscores, dashes,
   and dots. Any other character will be removed from the filename.

#### 1.0.6

 * Plugin name changed from Sanitize Spanish Filenames to Clean Filenames to better
   reflect actual purpose of the plugin (originally it was created only for spanish
   characters).
 * Changed readme content and language.

#### 1.0.5

 * Added: Replaces any ‘.’ character in the filename except for last one (for file
   extension) with ‘-‘.

#### 1.0.4

 * Added: Replaces any ‘+’ in the filename with ‘-‘.

#### 1.0.3

 * Many more characters and some symbols added. Cleaning not only spanish characters
   but from other languages too.

#### 1.0.2

 * Fixed a little bug that causes ‘º’ replaced by ‘a’ instead of ‘o’, and same problem
   for ‘ª’.

#### 1.0.1

 * Added characters ü Ü º ª that will be replaced with u U o a

#### 1.0

 * Initial release.

## Meta

 *  Version **1.2.4**
 *  Last updated **1 year ago**
 *  Active installations **3,000+**
 *  WordPress version ** 4.9 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.7.10**
 *  PHP version ** 5.6 or higher **
 *  Languages
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/), [French (France)](https://fr.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/),
   [Spanish (Chile)](https://cl.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/),
   [Spanish (Colombia)](https://es-co.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/),
   and [Spanish (Spain)](https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/).
 *  [Translate into your language](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames)
 * Tags
 * [filename](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/filename/)[sanitize](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/sanitize/)
   [upload](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/upload/)[utf-8](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/utf-8/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://zgh.wordpress.org/plugins/sanitize-spanish-filenames/advanced/)

## Ratings

 4.6 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  6 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  1 4-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  1 3-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/reviews/?filter=1)

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Samuel Aguilera ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/samuelaguilera/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sanitize-spanish-filenames/)