How do I completely rename an Xcode project (i.e. inclusive of folders)?

Vatsal Manot picture Vatsal Manot · Oct 27, 2015 · Viewed 165.9k times · Source

I have a project named XXX. I want to rename this project to YYY.

Note that XXX is an extremely common term (for e.g. "data", or simply "project"), and thus a simple RegEx search-and-replace is not possible, out of risk of corrupting the project configuration files.

My current project directory contains the following items:

  • XXX
  • XXXTests
  • XXX.xcodeproj

and I want to rename them to:

  • YYY
  • YYYTests
  • YYY.xcodeproj

... respectively, with the necessary changes being reflected in my project file.

How can I accomplish this without having to manually create and populate a new project?


Edit: It is absolutely ridiculous that this has become my most upvoted question.

Answer

Luke West picture Luke West · Feb 19, 2016

Step 1 - Rename the project

  1. Click on the project you want to rename in the "Project navigator" in the left panel of the Xcode window.
  2. In the right panel, select the "File inspector", and the name of your project should be found under "Identity and Type". Change it to your new name.
  3. When the dialog asks whether to rename or not rename the project's content items, click "Rename". Say yes to any warning about uncommitted changes.

Step 2 - Rename the scheme

  1. At the top of the window, next to the "Stop" button, there is a scheme for your product under its old name; click on it, then choose "Manage Schemes…".
  2. Click on the old name in the scheme and it will become editable; change the name and click "Close".

Step 3 - Rename the folder with your assets

  1. Quit Xcode. Rename the master folder that contains all your project files.
  2. In the correctly-named master folder, beside your newly-named .xcodeproj file, there is probably a wrongly-named OLD folder containing your source files. Rename the OLD folder to your new name (if you use Git, you could run git mv oldname newname so that Git recognizes this is a move, rather than deleting/adding new files).
  3. Re-open the project in Xcode. If you see a warning "The folder OLD does not exist", dismiss the warning. The source files in the renamed folder will be grayed out because the path has broken.
  4. In the "Project navigator" in the left-hand panel, click on the top-level folder representing the OLD folder you renamed.
  5. In the right-hand panel, under "Identity and Type", change the "Name" field from the OLD name to the new name.
  6. Just below that field is a "Location" menu. If the full path has not corrected itself, click on the nearby folder icon and choose the renamed folder.

Step 4 - Rename the Build plist data

  1. Click on the project in the "Project navigator" on the left, and in the main panel select "Build Settings".
  2. Search for "plist" in the settings.
  3. In the Packaging section, you will see Info.plist and Product Bundle Identifier.
  4. If there is a name entered in Info.plist, update it.
  5. Do the same for Product Bundle Identifier, unless it is utilizing the ${PRODUCT_NAME} variable. In that case, search for "product" in the settings and update Product Name. If Product Name is based on ${TARGET_NAME}, click on the actual target item in the TARGETS list on the left of the settings pane and edit it, and all related settings will update immediately.
  6. Search the settings for "prefix" and ensure that Prefix Header's path is also updated to the new name.
  7. If you use SwiftUI, search for "Development Assets" and update the path.

Step 5 - Repeat step 3 for tests (if you have them)

Step 6 - Repeat step 3 for core data if its name matches project name (if you have it)

Step 7 - Clean and rebuild your project

  1. Command + Shift + K to clean
  2. Command + B to build