It isn’t straightforward as you might think. I installed the plugin Renamer from Jordy Meow and renaming files is simple.
He offers AI integration if you download another one of his plugins. I use his excellent Database Cleaner to keep my WordPress database clean of junk and it has been wonderful. One-click, or with advanced options if you know what you are doing. It has worked great.
I am not selling this just sharing what I find useful. I thought that Renamer made changing the file names easy. Why would I care about the names of the media that are attached to posts? For several reasons. One, I can reuse some of them since I don’t want to just have to find a new image for every story like I am doing now. Two, it looks nicer when I am scrolling through the media library. Three, helps me understand and remember the images that I have. It’s a review/audit of what I have. That always reduces waste when you know what you have. Four, it helps your SEO ranking and improves it.
Earlier readers might remember that I reached out to Mr. Meow for help with one of his plugins. I thought it was misbehaving, but it was an unsupported feature of a website that I was confused about. He responded and offered to help but by that time I had figured it out myself. He was very pleasant and I appreciated him being so quick to respond to a non-paying customer. When I need a plugin I look through his stuff first. I will buy something from him when I need it, to support the great work he has already done.
The other nice thing about his plugins is that he frequently updates them. You won’t need to worry about it becoming obsolete. He updates them so much that sometimes I get tired of seeing the updates. However, with WordPress auto-update, it really takes the pain away so it’s more of an informational thing than a real issue. What is the downside of his plugins? I can’t think of any real issues.