Folders

Folders group your notes, like folders in a file browser. A note is in one folder or in none. Deleting a folder never deletes its notes.

Creating a folder

Click the New folder button, next to the New note button at the top of the notes sidebar (hover a button to see its name), or press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N. Name the folder and it appears in the list. In the Picker layout, New folder is also at the bottom of the folder menu.

The shortcut works in the desktop and tablet apps, not in the web app.

Folders show in the Sidebar notes layout, and on phones (see On phones). With the Tabs layout they are hidden: your notes keep their folders, and a new note goes to no folder. Choose Sidebar in Settings, Appearance, Notes layout to see them again.

The sidebar

Click a folder to open it in place and see its notes under it. Click it again to close it. Each folder shows how many notes it has. Notes in no folder are listed after your folders, under Notes.

Folders look different in each of three layouts. Choose one in Settings, Appearance, Folders (computers, the web and tablets, with the Sidebar notes layout):

• Tree (the default): folders open in place, as above. Search looks through every folder and shows only the folders with matching notes.
• Sections: All notes, then your folders, sit above your notes. Click one to see only its notes. Search looks in the folder you’re looking at. Under All notes, each note in a folder shows its folder.
• Picker: a folder menu at the top of the sidebar. Search looks in the folder you’re looking at, and under All notes each note in a folder shows its folder.

A new note goes to the folder of the note you have open. In Sections and Picker, it goes to the folder you’re looking at.

Moving notes

• Drag a note onto a folder, with a mouse or trackpad (computers and the web on a computer). In the Picker layout, use Move to folder instead.
• Or open the note’s menu and choose Move to folder. In the sidebar, right-click the note, use its ⋯ button, or long-press it on a tablet (this is the way to move a note on a tablet). On a phone, use the ⋯ of the note in the notes list.

Choose No folder in Move to folder to take a note out of its folder.

Reordering, renaming and deleting folders

Drag a folder to reorder it, with a mouse or trackpad. Right-click a folder, or use its ⋯ button, to rename it, move it up, move it down or delete it. On a tablet, long-press a folder for the same menu: Move up and Move down reorder it.

Deleting a folder never deletes its notes: they’re kept, outside any folder.

On phones

Phones have no sidebar and no layout choice. Tap the title at the top of your notes to pick a folder. In that list:

• each folder’s ⋯ renames, moves or deletes it;
• New folder, at the top right, adds one.

A note’s ⋯ menu in the notes list has Move to folder, with New folder at the top right too. The round New note button (the pen icon) adds the new note to the folder you’re looking at.

Turning folders off

Don’t want folders? Turn them off with the switch in Settings, Appearance, Folders. It is there on every device. Your notes then show as one list. Your folders, and the notes in them, come back when you turn folders on again.

Sync

When you’re signed in, folders sync across your devices (see Plans, Accounts and Sync). A device with an older version of the app doesn’t show folders, but keeps each note in its folder.