---
title: Convert hundreds of files at once on a Mac in one drag
source: https://arazioformac.com/docs/many-files-at-once
---

# Many files at once

The gesture does not change. Select four hundred files instead of one, drag the
selection, hold a modifier, let go. That is the entire feature.

## Try it

Select several photos in Finder — click the first, shift-click the last. Drag
the selection, hold <kbd>⇧</kbd>, and release toward **JPG**.

Every file is converted. The results land beside their originals, each keeping
its own name.

## A mixed selection

Drag a photo, a video and a PDF together and the ring shows what they have in
common. Often that is nothing, in which case the formats ring is empty — there
is no format that is sensibly both a JPEG and an MP4.

The <kbd>⌃</kbd> actions ring does not have this problem, because AirDrop,
Copy and Move do not care what a file is. A mixed selection is exactly when
that ring earns its place.

## How long it takes

Converting four hundred photos takes about as long as exporting four from
Preview, because the slow part of Preview is you, finding the dialog.

Arazio converts in parallel across your Mac's cores and shows progress in the
menu bar. You can carry on working; it is not modal and it does not take over
the screen.

## If one file in a batch fails

The rest still convert. A failure does not abandon the batch — you get the
files that worked, and a notification naming the one that did not and why.

The usual cause is a file that is not what its extension claims, which happens
more than you would think with things downloaded from the web.

## Folders

Dragging a folder works. Arazio converts the files inside it that it can
handle, and leaves the rest alone. It does not go into sub-folders unless you
turn that on in [Settings](/docs/make-it-yours).

## Next

[The Shelf](/docs/the-shelf) — somewhere to put files mid-thought.