Do Rename Rules Affect Historical Transactions? [edited]

four o two

I have several Payees that I want to rename because they contain many "******" and then random numbers in their name, e.g.,

Acorns Invest Transfer *********nm2s
Acorns Invest Transfer *********g12s
Acorns Invest Transfer *********f42g

and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to set up a rule that works with this wonky software.

"Tools" -> "Renaming Rules"
"If Quicken Name contains"
"Acorns Invest"
rename to "Acorns Investing"

...this should catch all of the above-mentioned transactions, yes? Do it only catch future transactions? Do I have to go back and manually rename everything previously downloaded?

I've one-step updated, several times, signed out/signed back in, and all of my existing Payees still read with a bunch of asterisks and random numbers.

Is there no option to "Run Rules" on my current, displayed transactions?

splasher

Renaming rules only work against new transactions.  You would need to manually change all of the preexisting transactions.

Sort the register by Payee, select the range of transactions to change and right click on the selected range and pick "edit" from the dropdown list.  You can change the selected group that way.