Which characters are unsafe in filenames?
Characters such as slashes, backslashes, colons, asterisks, question marks, quotes, angle brackets, and pipes are invalid or problematic on common operating systems.
File
Filename Sanitizer
Clean unsafe or incompatible filenames directly in your browser. Remove invalid characters, normalize spaces, and create portable filenames.
Tool
Filename Sanitizer
Clean unsafe or incompatible filenames directly in your browser. Remove invalid characters, normalize spaces, and create portable filenames.
This tool runs in your browser. Your input is processed locally and is not uploaded.
About this Tool
Use this free Filename Sanitizer to clean filenames for safer use across Windows, macOS, Linux, websites, cloud storage, and file transfers. Remove reserved characters, normalize spaces, replace unsupported symbols, trim trailing dots, and create a more portable filename. The transformation runs directly in your browser.
Examples
- Invoice: July/2026.pdf → Invoice-July-2026.pdf
- My File Final.txt → My-File-Final.txt
- photo?.jpg → photo.jpg
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the file extension be preserved?
Yes. The sanitizer can clean the filename while preserving the final extension.
Are filenames uploaded?
No. Filename cleaning runs locally in your browser.