Emojis that are safe to use in filenames

Share & showcase
1

I like to use emojis in file names to make certain notes stand out more.

However, not all emojis can be used if you want to sync with a mobile device that uses Android. If you use emojis that are not in the “basic” pane, then this will prevent that note from being synced, and may even prevent other notes from being synced. The former is due to Android not supporting these characters in filename so it is hard to fix (maybe by re-encoding them as html entities in the mobile app would work). The latter seems to be a bug that should be fixed (not sure, maybe it is already fixed as of now).

Anyway, the thing I want to share here is a list of “safe” emojis that can be used even if you sync with Android. Unfortunately, they are only few.

:white_check_mark: :ballot_box_with_check: :negative_squared_cross_mark: :eight_spoked_asterisk: :x: :no_entry: :loop: :curly_loop::recycle: :o: :star: :sparkles: :interrobang: :question: :exclamation: :infinity: :atom_symbol: :yin_yang: :phone:
:zap: :warning: :heart: :heavy_heart_exclamation::coffee: :umbrella: :white_large_square: :black_large_square: :white_circle: :black_circle: :writing_hand: :point_up: :v: :hammer_and_pick:
:golf: :parasol_on_ground: :snowflake::sunny: :cloud: :partly_sunny: :open_umbrella: :comet: :shamrock::radioactive: :biohazard: :frowning: ♢ ❖ :fleur_de_lis:
:hotsprings: :balance_scale: :medical_symbol: :alembic: :pick:✎ :pencil2: ✐:black_nib::heavy_check_mark::watch: :hourglass: :alarm_clock: :stopwatch: :timer_clock: :hourglass_flowing_sand: :m:
:arrow_left: :arrow_up: :arrow_down: :arrow_right: :arrow_heading_up: :arrow_heading_down: :arrow_backward: :arrow_forward: :information_source: :arrow_upper_left: :arrow_lower_right::leftwards_arrow_with_hook::arrow_right_hook:
:eject_button::rewind::fast_forward::arrow_double_up: :arrow_double_down::next_track_button::previous_track_button::play_or_pause_button: :pause_button::stop_button::record_button:
☚ ☛ ☜ ☞ :point_up: ☟

I have put these in a special note so that I can copy and paste them.

5 Likes
2

Just a quick follow-up on this posting, as I’ve seen conflicting information about this. According to Dropbox, the rule is this: only emoji of “less than 4-bytes” work in filenames; some work, but most don’t.

Here is an explanation, and as of today (2023-06-10) this is correct:

You can see a list of emoji with less that 4 bytes here: Emoji's sorted by byte-size · GitHub

But I’m not sure whether it’s complete.

2 Likes