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My friend has a MacBook Air, about 2 years old. She called me to report that the names on her image files had been changed without her knowledge or input. Through some investigation, I found that on May 21, 2019, beginning at about noon, something proceeded to change the file names on all her image files (in multiple folders) from the descriptive file name she had created for each file to a long string of letters and numbers. There is structure to the new file names, but no meaning that I can determine. The process ran from about noon on that day, until nearly midnight, as can be seen from the modified by timestamp on the folders.
I checked the image file metadata for a couple of instances, and found nothing unusual. I also downloaded, installed, and ran Malwarebytes free malware scanner. It gave the system a clean, no malware found, report.
My friend backs up to an external HDD by copying folders from the computer to the eHDD. Of course, in the process, she has over-written the original files with the renamed copies.
Do any of you out there have suggestions for:
1. any potential causes for this behavior.
2. any way to recover the original file names.
TIA for any insights.
I checked the image file metadata for a couple of instances, and found nothing unusual. I also downloaded, installed, and ran Malwarebytes free malware scanner. It gave the system a clean, no malware found, report.
My friend backs up to an external HDD by copying folders from the computer to the eHDD. Of course, in the process, she has over-written the original files with the renamed copies.
Do any of you out there have suggestions for:
1. any potential causes for this behavior.
2. any way to recover the original file names.
TIA for any insights.