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How to rename or delete a label on many Confluence pages

A label is misspelled, a team has retired a tag, or a label now sits on hundreds of pages. Confluence’s label documentation describes no rename and no site-wide delete. Here is what Atlassian says, how to do it by hand, and where that stops.

Hullspark · updated 2026-10-30

Short answer

  • No rename. Atlassian’s page on labels does not mention renaming one [1]. A rename is an add plus a remove.
  • Delete means remove everywhere. The page says that to delete a label across a site you remove it from all the pages, live docs and attachments it appears on [1].
  • Removal is per item. You remove a label with the x next to it in the Details panel [1].

Do it by hand

  1. Open the site label list: on Atlassian’s labels page, select labels from all spaces [1].
  2. Open the label to see the pages that carry it.
  3. On each page, open Details. To rename, type the new label (anyone who can edit the page can add labels) and then select the x next to the old one [1]. To delete, just select the x.
  4. Remember the naming rules: labels are lower case and take no spaces, and a typed space becomes a hyphen [1].
  5. Repeat for attachments and live docs that carry the label.
  6. Purge deleted content from the space’s trash if the label still shows, because deleted content can keep its labels [1].
  7. If a template adds the old label, fix the template, or new pages will bring it back [1].

Where it gets hard

For a label on a handful of pages, the Details panel is quicker. The work only becomes a chore at scale.

Rename or delete in one pass

I make a Confluence Cloud app for this, Label Sweep by Hullspark. As the current code describes it: the Labels tab lists every label with its usage count. Rename takes one label and a new name (lower case, no spaces; characters Confluence does not allow in labels are rejected). Delete takes one or several labels and only removes them. Both start with a dry run that writes nothing and lists the affected pages and blog posts, up to 500 in the preview, with the total count. Nothing changes until you press Run, and the confirmation says plainly that it cannot be undone. On each page a rename adds the new label first and then removes the old one, so an interrupted job can leave a page with both labels but never without one; Resume continues it, and the Jobs tab keeps a log. It covers pages and blog posts with global labels; attachment and space labels are not handled. Starting a change needs a Confluence administrator and an active license; the list, search and dry run are open to everyone.

Questions

Can I rename a label in Confluence?

Not in Atlassian’s label documentation, which describes adding and removing labels and does not mention renaming. By hand a rename is an add of the new label and a remove of the old one on every page.

How do I delete a label from the whole site?

Atlassian’s page says that to delete a label across a site you need to remove it from all the pages, live docs and attachments it appears on. You may also need to purge deleted content from the space trash before the label disappears.

Why does my label still show after I removed it everywhere?

Atlassian notes that deleted content can keep its labels. Purge the deleted content from the space’s trash and check the label list again.

Can I undo a rename or delete done with Label Sweep?

No. The confirmation says so, which is why the dry run comes first: it lists what would change and writes nothing.

Does it change attachment labels or space labels?

No. It covers pages and blog posts with global labels, so labels on attachments remain to be removed by hand.

Do I need a license to look?

No. Listing, search and the dry run work without one. Rename, Merge and Delete need an active license and a Confluence administrator. The Marketplace listing has the current pricing.

Sources

Read on 2026-10-30. Atlassian changes its screens and articles, so check the steps against your site. The app details come from its source code.

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