Renaming Xcode projects is not intuitive or obvious. If you do it wrong, you can mess up your project. In this article you will learn how to safely rename your app and your project.

I recommend placing your project under version control or backing up your project before you rename it. If something goes wrong during the rename, you can go back to the way your project was before. Read the following article to learn how to put your Xcode project under version control:

Putting Your Xcode Project on GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab

Rename the Target to Rename the App

Most of the time when people want to rename their project, what they really want to do is rename their app. By renaming the app target, you can rename the app without having to rename the project.

Select the project from the project navigator to open the project editor and see a list of the app’s targets.

To rename a target, select it, press the Return key, and enter the new name. If all you want to do is rename the app, you’re finished.

Renaming the Project

Continue reading if you really want to rename the project. If you look at the screenshot from the previous section, you might think you could rename the project by selecting it and pressing the Return key. But you’ll discover that you can’t change the project name from the project editor.

Use the project navigator to change the project name.

Select the project file and press Return to change the name. A sheet will open.

Xcode is initially set to rename all the project’s targets to reflect the new name of the project. Deselect a checkbox next to any item you don’t want to rename. Click the Rename button to rename the project.

Clicking the Don’t Rename button will rename the project file but won’t rename anything else.