Rename a project in Azure DevOps

• 07/08/2019
• 6 minutes to read
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Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2019 | TFS 2018 | TFS 2017 | TFS 2015

In this article, learn how to rename a project. A project rename updates all of your version control paths, work items, queries, and other project artifacts to reflect the new name. Projects can be renamed multiple times and older names can be reused. Post rename, there might be some actions required from team members. We recommend performing this action during off-hours to minimize any impact.

Open organization settings

Organization settings configure resources for all projects or the entire organization. For an overview of all organization settings, see Project collection administrator role and managing collections of projects.

Rename a project

Let your team know what they have to do

Now that you've renamed your project, your team must restart their clients and perform additional actions based on the features they use.

Restart your clients

Opened clients keep a cache of all project names in memory and this cache isn't automatically cleared after a project is renamed. To clear the cache, all that is necessary is to restart the client so it populates the new project name. If you don't restart the client, then operations that use the cached project name fails with a project not found exception.

For the following clients, save your work in each and restart:

• Visual Studio/Team Explorer

• Eclipse, if your team uses the Team Foundation Server plugin (Team Explorer Everywhere)

• Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, or Project, if your team uses the Team Foundation Server Extension for these Office products

• Any additional clients which use the .NET Team Foundation Server Client Object Model

Update your Git remotes

If your project uses Git, then your remote references for each repository from the renamed project need to be updated. This is due to the fact that the remote repository URL contains the project and the repository name. Git uses remote references to fetch and push changes between your local copy of a repository and the remote version stored on the server. Each member of your team must update their local Git repos to continue connecting from their dev machines to the repo in the project.

Get the new URL for the repo

Copy the repository URL to your clipboard.

Update your remote in Visual Studio 2015

1. Connect to the repo.

   

2. Open the project settings.

   

3. Open the repo settings.

   

4. Edit the fetch and push remote references and paste the URL that you copied from the remote repo.

   

Update your remote in older versions of Visual Studio from the command prompt

If you use an older version of Visual Studio or work with Git from the command prompt:

1. Open the Git command prompt.

2. Go to the local repository and update the remote to the URL you copied from the remote repo.

    git remote set-url origin {URL_you_copied_from_the_remote_repo}
   

Refresh Team Explorer

1. Refresh Team Explorer.

   

2. Team Explorer now shows the updated repo name.

   

Update your TFVC server workspaces

If your project uses TFVC with server workspaces, these workspaces need to be updated with the new project name. For the following clients, execute a get or check-in and the workspace mapping is corrected to use the new project name:

• Visual Studio 2015 (RC or newer)
• Visual Studio 2013
• Visual Studio 2012
• Visual Studio 2010 (Only supports server workspaces)
• Team Explorer Everywhere (2012 or later versions)

Update your TFVC local workspaces

If your team uses TFVC with local workspaces, these workspaces need to be updated with the new project name. For the following clients, execute a get or check-in and the workspace mapping is corrected to use the new project name:

• Visual Studio 2015 (RC or later versions)
• Visual Studio 2012 with Update 5 (RC or later versions)
• Team Foundation Server plugin Team Explorer Everywhere 2015

We recommend that you update your clients to the latest update or release, if possible. For all other supported Visual Studio versions, except for Visual Studio 2010 which only supports server workspaces, and Team Foundation Server plugin for Eclipse, you must create a new local workspace mapped to the new project name.

1. Shelve your changes.

2. Create a new workspace mapped to the new project name.

3. Unshelve your changes.

Since local workspaces are managed locally and not on the server, older clients without the updated rename logic are unable to update local workspaces to the new project name on the next get or check-in.