The Notes app offers checklists to keep your to-do lists and jotted-down ideas close at hand. If you use Notes checklists often, you may want to consider changing your settings so that Notes automatically sorts checked items to the bottom.
Why You’ll Love This Tip
- Set Notes to automatically sort items to the bottom of the list when you check them off, or set it back to manual if you want to move things around yourself.
- Use Notes checklists that automatically sort, so it’s easy to see which items you still have to complete.
How to Enable Sorting in Notes App Checklists
System Requirements
This tip works on iPhones running iOS 13 or later, and was tested on an iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 26.4. Find out how to update to the latest version of iOS.
It can be much easier to have entries sort automatically instead of manually when using a checklist in the Notes app. Here's how to change Notes app settings to move completed checklist items to the bottom of the list when you check them off.
- Open the Settings app.
![open the settings app]( "open the settings app")
- Tap Apps.
![tap apps in settings]( "tap apps in settings")
- Scroll down and tap Notes.
![tap notes in apps settings]( "tap notes in apps settings")
- Scroll down and tap Sort Checked Items.
![tap sort checked items]( "tap sort checked items")
- Tap Automatically to enable automatic sorting of completed checklist items.
![tap automatically in sort checked items]( "tap automatically in sort checked items")
Now your Notes app checklists will be much easier to navigate. If you ever need to switch back to sorting things by hand, simply follow the above steps again and select Manually instead of Automatically.
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