How to rename a directory/folder on GitHub website?

Question

I was able to find a way on GitHub Website to rename a single file and did so with success.

I was also able to find a way to rename a whole repository and did that with success.

Does anyone know how to do this to a single directory without using command line? For reference, I am trying to change a directory named InterviewTesting (that contains src files, etc) to something else. I tried doing it the single file way.
But this didn't allow me to change the name of the directory (InterviewTesting), only the actual file name.

You should change your choice of correct answer, because @JonathasWalker is right. — NaN, Feb 09 '17 at 17:52
Is it still the correct answer? I cannot do it, it only creates directory. — Quidam, May 20 '17 at 02:56
Possible duplicate of [In a Git repository, how to properly rename a directory?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11183788/in-a-git-repository-how-to-properly-rename-a-directory) — Quidam, May 20 '17 at 02:58

score 191 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 21 '17 at 15:23

191

Actually, there is a way to rename a folder using web interface.

See https://github.com/blog/1436-moving-and-renaming-files-on-github

edited Nov 21 '17 at 15:23

Edward Anderson

12,971
4
51
47

answered Sep 16 '15 at 23:05

Jonatas Walker

12,572
5
49
79

61

Well, yeah, sort of, but that's not rename, just "mkdir", and will only move *one* file from the old dir to the new. You'd still need to piss blood moving all the other files there, too, I suppose. Smells horror to me. Nice animation though! :) – Sz. Jan 18 '16 at 17:26
11

Apparently, you cannot do that anymore – Dan Chaltiel Mar 27 '16 at 15:33
2

For me it does not work as well. Instead I create file "..filename.ext" – Vityata Sep 12 '16 at 14:53
3

What hard to see here is the keystroke sequence. This was a bit confusing for me. if you press ".." then "/", it will go up a directory. Type the folder name then "/", it will go down a directory. – Spencer Jan 31 '17 at 16:23
2

Don't forgot to type "/" after the ".." – Edward Anderson Nov 21 '17 at 15:23
6

Just put your cursor at the beginning of the filename (all the way to the left) and hit backspace :] – Trev14 Jul 30 '18 at 22:19
The web interface has COMPLETELY changed and there is no longer an edit button. – Joshua Robison Oct 29 '20 at 07:42
Still working in 2022 – aloisdg Feb 16 '22 at 09:56

score 60 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 28 '18 at 04:44

60

There is no way to do this in the GitHub web application. I believe to only way to do this is in the command line using git mv <old name> <new name> or by using a Git client(like SourceTree).

edited Dec 28 '18 at 04:44

Hossein

21,768
32
114
200

answered Aug 06 '15 at 17:13

Kevin Marin

753
5
8

4

It's true you can't rename a folder and all of its files directly in the UI. The accepted answer does work for individual files, though you have to edit every file in the directory, moving each to a new parent folder. When the last file is removed, the old directory will disappear. – Edward Anderson Nov 21 '17 at 15:27

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 18 '17 at 07:40

17

You can! Just press edit as per @committedandroider's original post and then hit backspace with your cursor at the start of the filename. It will let you then edit the folder. When done hit forward slash to then edit the filename again.

answered Oct 18 '17 at 07:40

Dean_CamDo

303
2
3

13

That only works in case you have one single document in that directory. If you have more, the others will remain in the previous directory. – Ignacio Alorre Jun 17 '19 at 07:57
This answered helped me out of a jam. Thanks! – James Hibbard Oct 15 '21 at 10:26

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 26 '18 at 20:42

12

I had an issue with github missing out on some case sensitive changes to folders. I needed to keep migration history so an example of how I changed "basicApp" folder in github to "basicapp"

$ git ls-files
$ git mv basicApp basicapp_temp
$ git add .
$ git commit -am "temporary change"
$ git push origin master
$ git mv basicapp_temp basicapp
$ git add .
$ git commit -am "change to desired name"
$ git push origin master

PS: git ls-files will show you how github sees your folder name

answered Apr 26 '18 at 20:42

Benaboki

131
1
3

yea i don't even remember why i asked this question. It's much easier to do this via command line – committedandroider May 04 '18 at 22:03
I want to rename my git repo, never used command line, what is the precedent procedures of getting there? can you elaborate with more details? Thank you. – Choix Jun 18 '18 at 00:49

Asef Hossain · Answer 5 · 2022-02-25T05:36:04.807

11

Open your github repo. Press . to open it with web vs code. Rename there. Stage and commit the changes.

This will work better than the other options, as it will do the rename for directories which contain multiple other directories i.e. directories with subdirectories within them.

edited Feb 25 '22 at 05:36

answered Oct 23 '21 at 14:23

Asef Hossain

111
1
3

1

This works very well and doesn't need coding – nayfaan Apr 12 '22 at 20:55
Best answer right there – infochip May 16 '22 at 18:53

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 06 '21 at 05:13

4

git mv <oldname> <newname>
git add <newname>
git commit -m "Renaming folder"
git push -u origin main

answered Jun 06 '21 at 05:13

Ahmad

7,430
9
60
105

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered May 29 '18 at 03:59

2

If you have GitHub Desktop, change the names of the directories on your computer and then push the update from your desktop to your github account and it changes them there. :)

Hope it helps!

answered May 29 '18 at 03:59

Nica

31
3

1

Ended doing this. Along with VS Code. Works fine & quick w/o the CLI stuff if you don't want that – Mehdi LAMRANI Feb 26 '20 at 19:58
1

it does not let me press commit. any ideas why? – M.Ionut Jun 03 '20 at 19:03
same here... renaming through system explorer does reflect the changes in the GIT HUB Desktop APP, but does not allow to commit – marcolopes Oct 03 '21 at 13:33

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 03 '22 at 06:10

2

Just edit a file inside the folder, click on file name and press backspace continuously. That will move to the cursor to the folder name and you can edit it. It can cause problems with hyperlinks.

answered Mar 03 '22 at 06:10

Ambu Vijayan

21
2

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 11 '20 at 08:02

You could use a workflow for this.

# ./.github/workflows/rename.yaml
name: Rename Directory

on:
  push:

jobs:
  rename:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - run: git mv old_name new_name
      - uses: EndBug/add-and-commit@v5.1.0

Then just delete the workflow file, which you can do in the UI

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 20 '22 at 21:26

If you want to try it with the Github web: (and don't want to move individual files manually)

Download the 'zip' for a directory. (Repeat for all directories/folders)
Unzip all the directories/folders on your pc. (don't touch the internal contents of these folders)
Rename these folders on your pc, such that, you precede the name of the folder name with '1. or 2. or 3. and so on' (in order that you want them to appear... eg: if u want some folder to appear first, change its name from 'xyz' to '1. xyz')
Upload all these directories back on Github Web.

By doing this, all the contents of your directories/folders will remain intact and in the same order as they were... just the Directories/Folders themselves will be ordered as per the number you used while naming it in Step 3.

I found this easier and quicker than moving all individual files from one directory to other.

Example - (how it would appear on Github Web)

Before : (alphabetically ordered)

abc
jkl
xyz

After :

xyz
jkl
abc

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 05 '21 at 06:20

For all I know, there is no way you can do this from the GitHub web interface.

Here is how I was successfully able to do it -

Step 1: Rename in your local. In your local path, give command $ git mv old-name new-name.

Now it will be renamed in your local path.

Step 2: Staging. Give command $ git add .

Step 3: Commit. Use command $ git commit -m "add your comment" https://github.com/repo-name/branch-name.git

Step 4: Push. $ git push
or
$ git push https://github.com/repo-name/branch-name.git branch-name

(Instead of everytime specifying the big URL, you can use the alias "origin" or whatever you like. But first you need to give this command in the beginning $ git remote add origin https://github.com/repo-name/branch-name.git )

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 03 '21 at 23:20

The best way to change the folder directory in GitHub is to work with GitHub Desktop. You can clone your repository using GitHub desktop. The folders will normally appear as Windows folders and you can play around with them (Like Renaming, Moving, Cutting, etc). Once done, commit and push the changes through GitHub Desktop, and it's done.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered May 01 '22 at 12:07

Now you can "open in github.dev editor" your repository. In repo page press Ctrl k to open command pallete and type > to show commands. First command are Open in github.dev editor. This will jump to MS Visual Studio Code in browser with opened this repository. Using file explorer you might rename files and folders and then commit changes.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered May 31 '22 at 03:02

Similar to previous answer by @AsefHossain, Github has a great extension using VS Code, simply hitting shift and . at the same time (on a Mac at least). This opens a new web page window with your repo in the file viewer. You can edit and commit code here. Note, that this will commit directly to your main development branch, works great.

score -1 · Answer 15 · answered Jun 01 '19 at 15:27

-1

Go into your directory and click on 'Settings' next to the little cog. There is a field to rename your directory.

answered Jun 01 '19 at 15:27

Xornack

1

1

Thats the whole repository...not a sub directory. There is no way to change the name of a subdirectory of the repository – rolinger Jun 14 '19 at 20:24

score -2 · Answer 16 · answered Nov 20 '18 at 16:34

As a newer user to git, I took the following approach. From the command line, I was able to rename a folder by creating a new folder, copying the files to it, adding and commiting locally and pushing. These are my steps:

$mkdir newfolder 
$cp oldfolder/* newfolder
$git add newfolder 
$git commit -m 'start rename'     
$git push                             #New Folder appears on Github      
$git rm -r oldfolder
$git commit -m 'rename complete' 
$git push                             #Old Folder disappears on Github

Probably a better way, but it worked for me.

Question is about Github website. – DreamFlasher Mar 16 '20 at 12:22 — DreamFlasher, Mar 16 '20 at 12:22

score -2 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 11 '21 at 07:58

-2

Go to that directory/folder and then click on the setting. In the section of "Repository name" simply rename it.

answered Feb 11 '21 at 07:58

user45297

7
3

You can only rename the entire repository that way – quest4truth Feb 11 '21 at 12:58

score -6 · Answer 18 · edited Oct 17 '16 at 21:02

-6

I changed the 'Untitlted Folder' name by going upward one directory where the untitled folder and other docs are listed.

Tick the little white box in front of the 'Untitled Folder', a 'rename' button will show up at the top. Then click and change the folder name into whatever kinky name you want.

See the 'Rename' button?

edited Oct 17 '16 at 21:02

alexander.polomodov

5,140
14
38
43

answered Feb 17 '16 at 03:34

Wenxiao Lu

1

1

No checkboxes and no Rename button either. – user3285954 Mar 18 '17 at 22:45
1

How do you that? I can't see those icons. – Quidam May 20 '17 at 02:55
Are you even using Github? – speedstyle Feb 24 '18 at 22:04
5

FYI: That's jupyter notebook – SilverMonkey Dec 31 '18 at 02:12

How to rename a directory/folder on GitHub website?

18 Answers18

Linked