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How do you rename a note in Notes?

There seems to be no way to rename a note.

Does anyone know how?


Contrary to what has been claimed in a previous thread (that is now dead), you cannot simply change the top-most bold text heading to rename the note.


e.g. if I have a note that is called "Shopping List", and I then change the top heading to "Test", a shortcut (created in Shortcuts app) that previously referenced "Shopping List" will still display "Shopping List" --and it will still open the original note that is now supposedly called Test. Hence the note name is not simply the first heading in the note, although Notes does display that heading as a pseudo title... Apple manages the actual reference or file name or whatever under the hood and we don't get to access that, it seems.

MacBook Air, macOS 13.0

Posted on Mar 17, 2023 11:10 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Sep 19, 2023 4:57 AM

When the note is created as a New Note, there is no title line that can be changed by typing over it.

22 replies

Mar 18, 2023 2:02 AM in response to bojack_horseman

bojack_horseman wrote:

Hence the note name is not simply the first heading in the note, although Notes does display that heading as a pseudo title... Apple manages the actual reference or file name or whatever under the hood and we don't get to access that, it seems.

That's possible I suppose. You could always delete your shortcut and create a new one that reflected the word "Test".

Mar 18, 2023 5:09 AM in response to bojack_horseman

It has nothing to do with the format of the text. It is the first line.

Shortcuts may use some other reference to the note. For instance, an alias in Finder will continue to resolve if you move or change the name of the original. Since notes are indexed in a database, the reference ID for the note is likely a uniqueID and not the shown name (first line).

Aug 9, 2023 11:13 AM in response to Desert Lady

Played around with it a bit more = = finally figured out how to add text to the top of the note ahead of the imported item = so that seems to have solved the issue


BUT - what do you do if there is no first line? If we bring in a photo or a document/pdf from somewhere == there's no 'first line' to work with - I just tried to add one and couldn't = might not be doing it right but I don't want to redo the document, just have a name put to it

How do you rename a note in Notes?

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