How to Move Bones to Bone Collections in Blender

Moving bones to different bone collections in Blender is an essential practice for keeping complex armatures organized, controlling bone visibility, and streamlining your overall rigging workflow. Introduced in Blender 4.0 to replace the legacy bone layers system, bone collections allow you to group bones by function, such as FK controls, IK controls, or deformation bones. This article explains the fastest methods to assign, move, and manage bones within bone collections using shortcut keys and the Blender interface.

Method 1: Using the Keyboard Shortcut (Fastest)

  1. Select your armature object and enter Edit Mode or Pose Mode by pressing Tab or using the mode dropdown menu in the top-left corner.
  2. Select the bone or bones you want to move.
  3. Press M on your keyboard to open the Move to Bone Collection menu.
  4. Click on the name of the bone collection you want to assign the selected bones to.

Note: Holding Shift while selecting a collection from the M menu will assign the bone to that collection while keeping it in its current collections, allowing a bone to belong to multiple collections simultaneously.

Method 2: Using the Bone Properties Tab

  1. Select the bone you want to move in either Edit Mode or Pose Mode.
  2. Navigate to the Properties Editor on the right side of the screen.
  3. Click on the Bone Properties tab (represented by a green bone icon).
  4. Expand the Collections panel.
  5. You will see a list of available bone collections. Click the checkbox next to any collection name to assign or remove the selected bone from that specific collection.

Method 3: Using the Armature Data Properties Panel

  1. Select your armature in Edit Mode or Pose Mode.
  2. Go to the Armature Data Properties tab (represented by a green stick-figure armature icon) in the Properties panel.
  3. Expand the Bone Collections panel to view all existing collections in the armature.
  4. Select the target collection from the list.
  5. Select the desired bones in the 3D Viewport.
  6. Click the Assign button located below the bone collection list to add the selected bones to the highlighted collection.

To remove selected bones from a collection using this panel, select the collection in the list and click Unassign.