iOS Notes - Duplicating vs Moving Checklist Items

I too find it annoying. Thought it was haptic. But it’s not. If you’re in edit mode in the note (says DONE on top right) it duplicates, if you tap out of edit mode (top right is 3 dots) then it’s a move of the checklist item.

This works reliably for me. You can either copy and paste, or move.

COPY & PASTE happens whenever editing a note, which is activated by typing anything anywhere in a note. Press the circle in front of the checklist item you want to copy, the item will “lift” and you can drop it wherever you want. The item is duplicated.

MOVE happens when you first open a note, or when you press “Done” top right hand corner while editing. Press the circle in front of the checklist item you want to move, the item will “lift” and you can drop it wherever you want. The item is moved.

Oh, I get it.

If you tap once anywhere on your list, you enter "Edit Mode." (Indicated by the word "Done" in top right corner.) If you then press, hold, and drag the circle next to a given list item, it will always be duplicated – no matter how long you hold it, or how hard you press it. (Out of frustration and blossoming anger, no doubt.)

If you do not tap your list first, I guess you're just in "View Mode" or something. (Indicated by the absence of the word "Done" in top right corner.) In this mode, you can check and uncheck list items, but not type anything. More importantly, when you press, hold, and drag the circle next to a list item, it will be moved instead of duplicated.

I can kind of understand the logic here, but still; thinking of the amount of time and energy I have wasted deleting duplicate lines fills me with a rage so potent it could charge my iPhone for a year.

I had the same issue but what ended up working for me is that by tapping and holding on a line a bit longer before moving, it keeps it in « move » mode. Whenever I start moving « too fast », it duplicates the line instead of moving it.

It doesn’t work 100% of the time but it’s much better using that method.

Thanks Zack.

There’s one more thing. I used to be able to easily delete an item from the list, but it doesn’t always work. Now I’ve figured out, you just need to be in edit mode as described by Zack, and then you can easily select a whole list item — entire line — by pressing and holding on the checkbox, and then deleting by pressing the delete key. (Also handy if you accidentally duplicate a line, ha.)

Why is there NO information on this feature anywhere (& why can’t anyone here reply)?

Clearly, it’s a feature created by Apple to allow either MOVING or DUPLICATING an item in a checklist, and I’m finding it very useful. But the performance is very subtle and unpredictable; it appears to be related to haptic touches, where either different pressures OR different lengths of touching before moving, determine which action is performed.

Can anyone please provide some absolute clarity?

What a frustrating "feature". I can't find any information at all, or pattern or at least a way to cancel the "green plus" icon when it's in duplication mode.

I never needed any checklist item to duplicate. Never. This should be exclusively a toolbar option.

Brilliant artee127!

I can not believe I’ve been struggling with this essential feature for so long and hadn’t picked that up!

It certainly illustrates how non-intuitive the feature is, and underscores Apple’s neglect to educate us. But more importantly, who in their right mind determined that you’d only want to MOVE an item when you WEREN’T editing the text? Surely, you’re either ‘working with your checklist’ or not.

PLEASE Apple, amend this essential feature so that it functions intuitively (haptic OR length of press) whatever mode you’re in…

Hello Travellin,

Could you explain some more about what is happening? Per the article Use Notes on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support, you can create folders and move notes between folders. It also explains the new formatting options like creating checklists.

Please let us know more details and we'll go from there.

Cheers!

I too have the same issue regarding checklists in notes. If you hold and drag a line to rearrange, sometimes it moves the line and sometime it duplicates the line (whilst showing a small green circle with a plus sign). I would like a way to prevent the line duplicating. Any ideas…

Wow!

thanks, you're my hero of the day!

and Apple: please reprogram this "feature" it's not even intuitive.

my suggestion: mark the word and with the context menu "cut, copy..." add duplicate.

once done, one can move the duplicate.

🤷🏻‍♂️

I don't know how you got this information - it seems to be like some kind of puzzle that Apple wants us to solve - but THANK YOU for posting this. Especially that bit at the end there ... I laughed right out loud since I share your rage.

I'm still trying to figure out the use case for copying an element from a list. It continues to elude me.

Sadly I don’t think Zach’s answer is exactly right. I’ve actually been trying to duplicate an item for an hour and I can’t make it happen. Best I can tell is Apple somehow knows when you don’t want a duplicate and that’s when it works. It’s the most annoying feature I can think of on my phone.

I’ll agree - there have been times where I’ve duplicated an item even though I felt confident I wasn’t in edit mode. Still, I’ve found Zack’s answer to be way more correct than any other explanation I’ve seen. It has restored a level of pseudo-predictability that has freed me to work within the Notes app to sort items again.