A page can usually be renamed if the existing title is incorrect or needs to be changed; this is done by moving a page (also commonly referred to as performing a move).
Any autoconfirmed users can perform a proper page move by following the instructions at §How to move a page in almost all circumstances. If you expect the page move to be controversial, or if you encounter a technical barrier preventing you from performing it yourself, you can request that someone else move the page at Wikipedia:Requested moves.
However, do not perform a page move by creating a new page and then cutting and pasting the content over to it. Doing so will instead cause two page locations to exist side-by-side regarding the exact same subject, each with its own revision histories and content, and where any changes that are made to one location do not "synchronize" or "update" the other (or vice versa). Files can only be moved by administrators and file movers, but file moves can be requested. Category moves should be investigated and planned before they are initiated.
The name of the subject of the article has been changed and the new name has come into majority use.
The title has been misspelled, does not contain standard capitalization or punctuation, or is misleading or inaccurate.
It needs to be disambiguated in some way to avoid confusion with an existing, similarly named topic, or it exists at a disambiguated name but should not because it is the primary topic.
It is an article at a descriptive name and the scope of the article has been reduced, extended or otherwise changed.
It is an article that has been created as a subpage of a Wikipedian's user or user talk space for development purposes and it is ready to be moved to the mainspace or to draft space.
It is a draft article that has been created or edited in draft space for development purposes and is ready to be moved to the mainspace.
If you believe your proposed move would benefit from wider community input
Do not move or rename a page by copying and pasting its content, because doing so fragments the edit history. Wikipedia's copyright license requires acknowledgement of all contributors, and editors continue to hold copyright on their contributions unless they specifically give up this right. Hence, it is required that edit histories be preserved for all major contributions until the normal copyright expires. See also Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia.
Click the "Move" option, and fill in the details of your move.
In the first text box, enter the new name of the page (and its namespace).
Give a reason for the move, which is like an edit summary. Although this isn't required, it will decrease the likelihood of the move being challenged.
Keep the option to also move the page's talk page enabled, except in certain circumstances. (It only appears if the page has a talk page.)
Click the Move page button.
You did it! If the move is successful, the page will be moved to the new title and you will see a message saying "The page has been moved to ...". The old title will become a redirect, so links to the old title will still go to the new page. Successful moves are recorded in the move log at the old title only, not the new one; if there had been a discussion about the move, it can be useful to copy the automatic move summary in a new comment in the discussion.
If a page already exists at the target name, you can move to that target only if it simply redirects back to the present name and its page history has only one entry (i.e., the creation of the redirect). The most common case in which this applies is that of re-renaming a page back to its original name.
After successfully moving a page, you should perform a number of resulting clean-up tasks, such as updating the article prose to use the new name and updating any navigational templates to link directly to the new title rather than via a redirect.
Whether any one of the below clean-up tasks is required will depend on the circumstances of the move. Some of the most involved clean-up tasks are limited to moves that introduce a change in "topic structure", for example when an article is moved to a title which previously referred to a disambiguation page.
Update the article's prose: In most cases, the running text of an article will refer to the article subject by the title term, and will begin with a bolded instance of the title. Using Wikipedia's "find and replace" function may be helpful here, though it should not be applied blindly. For example, if the old name occurs in a direct quote, a name, or the title of a reference, it should not be replaced. For example, if the article Chocolate bar were moved to the title Candy bar, the opening paragraph:
Fix talk page archives: All talk page archives should be moved to correspond with the new name, including any that have been manually created. If the talk page is archived automatically by a bot, the {{User:MiszaBot/config}} or {{User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis}} templates contain hardcoded page names that need to be updated as well (example). In some circumstances, this involves moving a hard-coded bot subpage.
Update DEFAULTSORT and DISPLAYTITLE keys: If there are any DISPLAYTITLE keys at the top of the page, they should be removed or updated to reflect the new title, otherwise they will throw an error. In certain cases, default sort keys may also need to be updated. For example, if moving Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam, then {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Cat}} should be replaced with {{DEFAULTSORT:Islam, Yusuf}}. Conversely, if moving Lady Gaga to Stefani Germanotta, then {{DEFAULTSORT:Germanotta, Stefani}} should be added.
Editnotices: If a page with an editnotice is moved, the editnotices should move with it. Currently, this requires the technical assistance of an administrator, template editor or page mover. A few pages may be accompanied by editnotices in the Template namespace that warn editors about specific issues for the page. For example, the editnotice for 0.999... is at {{Editnotices/Page/0.999...}}. Sometimes, a page may be accompanied by a group editnotice (example), or more rarely, a protection editnotice (example).
Cleaning up after a change in topic structure
A change in topic structure occurs when a page previously referred to a topic and after the move refers to a different topic. This most commonly occurs when an article is promoted to be the primary topic for a name or vice versa, such as moving Mercury (planet) to Mercury. In rare cases, one topic may have its name usurped by a different topic. For example, in 2018 an article about a retail company was moved from Shinola to Shinola (retail company) and the previous article became about a completely unrelated brand of shoe polish.
Fix mistargeted wikilinks: When an article, such as Venus, is moved to a disambiguated title, such as Venus (planet), the previous title will usually become a disambiguation page and other articles which used to link to the article about the planet will instead link to a disambiguation page. These links should be replaced with [[Venus (planet)|Venus]], so that they keep pointing to the correct destination. If there are many wikilinks to fix, consider using semi-automated tools such as DisamAssist or AutoWikiBrowser. (Disambiguation pages with more than 30 incoming links are automatically tagged with {{Incoming links}}, which attracts interested editors.) Fair use rationales in the File namespace should also be fixed so that the image is not marked for deletion as orphaned.
Update disambiguation pages: A topic should be linked at the top of a disambiguation page if and only if it is the primary topic. If your moves have the effect of demoting a page from or promoting it to a primary topic, the corresponding disambiguation page should be updated accordingly.
Update hatnotes: Add or remove hatnotes to allow users to navigate between topics that share a name. For example, if moving Mercury (planet) to Mercury, a {{Other uses}} hatnote should be added so that readers could navigate from that page to Mercury (disambiguation). On the other hand, if the opposite happens, it may render existing hatnotes on the page redundant.
You arer account isable to perform a round-robin swap. Most users arenot able to perform this process. Please visit WP:RM/TR for help swapping pages.
Most users lack permission to move pages in the category namespace, as only administrators, page movers, and bots can move Category pages. For these users, the Move button is not displayed.
Users follow the procedure at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion §Speedy renaming and merging and let a bot handle it, especially for complex cases. Moving a category manually is possible, but it requires significant post-move cleanup and can be time-consuming. A category move is not complete until the old category contains only the soft redirect and no pages.
To move a category manually:
Move the category page. (Description wiki markup)
Change all of its subcategories. (Change the category of each subcategory to the new category.)
Change the category on every page where it is explicitly specified. (This could be hundreds or thousands of pages.)
Change the template code for every template that assigns pages to the old category. (It may be necessary to purge or perform a null edit on every page that transcludes the templates.)
When pages are listed in a category that is not shown in the wiki markup, this most likely means that a template placed on those pages is adding the category. When the category is moved, the template must also be changed. After the template is updated with the new category, the pages with the template are automatically placed into the job queue and will eventually be updated with the new category. If there is a very large number of pages transcluding the template(s), the process of updating all pages through the job queue may take days, weeks, or even months to complete. Protected pages or templates may require elevated privileges to accomplish the change. In such cases, the normal protected edit request process should be followed. Depending on the number of templates and articles that require elevated privileges to edit them, it may be more appropriate to involve an administrator from the beginning of the process (see Wikipedia:Categories for discussion).
Administrators or file movers can move pages in the file namespace. When such a page is moved the associated file is moved as well. The move leaves a redirect that functions like the file itself. For instance, the image can be displayed by linking to a redirect to it. In non-controversial cases you can request a file to be moved by adding the template {{rename media}} to the description page of the file. Files should generally only be moved for one of nine reasons. You can also use a script to add the rename request. Twinkle or LuckyRename (specialized for this job) can do this. For more information about appropriate names for pages in the file namespace, see Wikipedia:File names.
Place {{rename media|new name|reason}} on the page of the file. A file mover or administrator will move it if it conforms to the guidelines.
Files uploaded to Wikimedia Commonscannot be moved by Wikipedia administrators or filemovers. c:Commons:File naming describes how Commons files should be named. In general, Commons aims to provide stable file names as there might be external file clients and file moving involves significant human and computing resources. Thus renaming should be used with caution. To request the renaming of a file at Commons, follow the instructions at Commons:File renaming.
When moving a page, the talk page is automatically moved as well. A talk page may include subpages, such as archives, to-do pages, good article nominations, and the like. To ensure that these subpages are moved, check "Move all subpages, if applicable" during the move process. Talk subpages can be moved along with the move target. A list of talk page subpages is visible in the "Special:MovePage" form.
If subpages were not moved, they will show as redlinks on the new talk page. To locate lost subpages, use Special:Prefixindex; enter the name of the old article page followed by a "/" and set the namespace to Talk. Move individual subpages as needed.
On some occasions, one might inadvertently move a talk page incorrectly assumed by the MediaWiki software to be a talk subpage of a different article. For example, Talk:A/B testing is the talk page for A/B testing, but not technically a subpage for Talk:A. If a mover uses move-subpages on Talk:A, the move operation would incorrectly moveTalk:A/B testing. (This is not an issue for the article mainspace, as it does not have subpages enabled.)
Administrators and page movers are also given an option to move up to 100 subpages. They can also use the Mass move tool by adding the following line to their common.js page, which will add a "Mass move" link to their tools menu on the left of the page:
A portal consists of a main portal page plus tens, sometimes hundreds, of interconnected subpages. To rename a portal efficiently, post at Wikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests to ask for an administrator to move the page and its subpages, and once that is done, post at Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks to ask for an AWB user to scan all the portal pages to fix the outdated links. You may also need to visit Categories for Discussion to have a category renamed, if the portal's pages have been placed in a category; and Template talk:Portal, if the {{Portal}} template does not recognise the new name.
A page that is a redirect can be moved like any other page, although it is rarely useful because it has the same detrimental effect on page history as copy-pasting content to a new page, and making the old page a redirect: when moving a redirect page to a new page name, the redirect on the old page (now directing to the new redirect page) will have to be altered to avoid double redirects. So the content of the old page will no longer redirect to the page containing the history of that old page. The effect is that the whereabouts of the page history of the old page (now seemingly a "recently created page") are a bit trickier to find, while on the other hand the new page has a history attached to it not clarifying why it would need to be a redirect page. However, if a redirect page has to be evacuated (for example, to reuse its title), but contains a valuable edit history, then it should be moved (unless merging of history is suitable).
If a redirect page does not redirect to the page it would need to be redirecting to, then the only viable strategy that respects page histories is to adapt the redirect on that page, without moving the page.
Usurping a page title is the process of moving an existing page to a new title followed by creating a new page (such as a new article or a disambiguation page) on the old title, or redirecting the old title to a different destination. Once the move of the original page is completed, the old title instantly becomes a redirect, and the redirect can then be edited to become a separate, possibly unrelated article, disambiguation page, or some other type of page.
If in doubt, discussing such a move following the instructions on the requested moves page is recommended. If you wish to create the new page initially before a decision is made from a discussion, you can create it using a different, unused title for the new page you wish to create, and then usurp the title once this is agreed.
It is permitted to usurp a page title for a new article, and it generally does not require administrative assistance, though good judgment should be used in determining if these are the best positions for both pages. Before boldly usurping a title, it is strongly recommended that you check all incoming links and fix them as necessary. To do this, while on the new page bearing the old title, click on "What links here" below "Tools" in the menu on the left. This will list all the pages linking to the old title. Once you reach this list, check the incoming links on each of these pages and if necessary, modify them to point to the new title of the old page. For more information, see Help:What links here and Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links.
If there are so many pages linking to the old title that you feel you cannot make all the changes yourself, place the template {{Converted}} at the top of the new page you created on the old title. This will let others know that the move was recently made and that all these changes are necessary.
Move pageB to the titleA (allowed because A is evacuated) without creating a redirect
Move pageC to the titleB (allowed because B is evacuated) without creating a redirect unless it is useful as a redirect to B
This sequence is sometimes called a "round-robin move" and does not require deletions as it relies on the redirect-suppressing (red move) feature, available to administrators and page movers. The classical sequence has an advantage that it relies only on conventional operations such as WP:G6. Help with this task can be found at Wikipedia:Page mover §Round-robin page moves.
The same sequences, but with only two moves, can be used for half-swapping (chain shifting) two pages (such that A would become C and B would become A)
To undo a move from pageA to pageB, simply move pageB back to pageA. However, if someone intervened in the A→Bredirect, then the move cannot be fixed without special privileges, in which case the guidance about undiscussed moves at the "requested moves" page may be helpful.
Note that the usual "undo" link on history or diff pages does not work on moves. An easy way to rename the page back is clicking "View logs for this page" from the history page, typing in the previous page name that you want to revert to and then "revert" link from the corresponding record in Special:Log.
The software requires that the redirect point to the page you're moving it from. Therefore, if a user moved pageA to pageB and then to pageC, you cannot simply move C to A. If a bot has not "fixed" the doubleA→Bredirect yet (see above), then you have to:
Move pageC to pageB
Move pageB to pageA
If pageA has subsequently been edited, or the move software is behaving weirdly, only an admin can sort things out:
Delete pageA (make sure it has no useful history– you may wish to add an explicit author credit on a talk page to compensate)
Move pageB to pageA
Delete pageB (should be a history-free redirect to pageA)
"Move wars" are highly unproductive, and leave vast numbers of pointless redirects littering the place, which some poor soul will have to fix.
After undoing a move, if you do not need B as a redirect, tag it for deletion (using the appropriate process on the wiki you're using, for instance 'speedy deletion' or list it at 'redirects for discussion'), or (administrators only) just delete it.
Move restrictions
To be able to move pages yourself, you must be logged in and you must have an autoconfirmed account (i.e., generally you must have had the account for four days and made at least ten article edits with it). With a few exceptions, autoconfirmed users have the technical ability to move any page.
Administrators can protect pages from moves, so that only administrators can move them. If a page is protected from moves only, the "Move" feature will be hidden. Pages that are protected from editing are implicitly protected from moves. If the old page was protected, its protection settings will generally be automatically copied to the new page, and thus be recorded in the protection log (against the new page name). If pending changes were enabled, the pending changes settings would also be moved and logged in the pending changes log against the new page title (since December 2016).
Page histories
Moving a page preserves its entire edit history before and after the move in one place, as if the page had always been named that way. The move itself is recorded in the edit histories of both pages with an edit summary of the form: "user name moved page old name to new name".
You should never perform a page move by simply cutting all the text out of an existing page and then pasting it into a new one; doing so will cause old revisions, notes, logs, attributions, and linked pages (such as the associated talk page) to become fragmented and split between more than one location and hence much harder to keep track of. If a "cut-and-paste" move occurs or is discovered, administrators can usually fix this fragmentation by performing a history merge. If you find a "cut-and-paste" move that needs to be merged and fixed, please follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Requests for history merge to create a report, and an administrator will take care of it.
Technical details
Some technical restrictions prevent page names from beginning with a lowercase letter, containing certain characters, and using formatting such as italics. There are templates to fix or signal these restrictions:
Title changing or correcting templates + magic word
Indicates that the title is in the foreign language specified by the parameter and sets the text to italics. Preferable to {{Italic title}} for foreign titles per MOS:FOREIGNITALICS
The Boy Bands Have Won, and All the Copyists and the Tribute Bands and the TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture to Be Shaped by Mimicry, Whether from Lack of Ideas or from Exaggerated Respect. You Should Never Try to Freeze Culture. What You Can Do Is Recycle That Culture. Take Your Older Brother's Hand-Me-Down Jacket and Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It to the Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don't Just Regurgitate Creative History, or Hold Art and Music and Literature as Fixed, Untouchable and Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try to 'Guard' Any Particular Form of Music Are, Like the Copyists and Manufactured Bands, Doing It the Worst Disservice, Because the Only Thing That You Can Do to Music That Will Damage It Is Not Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It's Over, Then It's Done, and the Boy Bands Have Won.
After moving a page, the MediaWiki software marks the old one as a new page, as the entry in the page table connects a new page name to the page ID. The revision table just gets entries about the move, nothing else, because the relation between page ID and revision IDs remains the same. This model avoids "changing the history", a kind of "historical revisionism".
More moves back and forth are possible, and the page history of the current title always shows all moves, and that of the other title only contains the edit line of the latest move. The move log was introduced in MediaWiki 1.5 in 2005, so pages moved before MediaWiki 1.5 do not have an entry in their move logs. The oldest moves recorded in the move log date to June 28, 2005.
Before the release of MediaWiki 1.28/wmf.16 in August 2016, information about a redirect overwritten by a moved page was lost. Starting with that version, deletion of the redirect has been added to the deletion log; this is the only way that non-administrators (i.e., page movers) can insert entries in the deletion log. If the deletion was the result of an earlier move of the page that is now moved back, that information is still available in the history of that page.
There was a bug in earlier versions of MediaWiki that caused inaccurate dates in edit histories. In these versions of the software, if a page was moved over a redirect, the edit history of the newly created redirect would show the latest move with the correct user name, but with the date and time when the overwritten redirect was created. The date and time of the actual page move were therefore lost (though it appeared in the recent changes list). See a demonstration of this bug.
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