Did you know that you can rearrange apps on your Home screen? It’s surprising how many people don’t know how to do this! But with iOS and the new iPadOS, it’s easy to move, organize, and delete your apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with just a few simple steps.
With any iOS version, you can remove or move apps around your Home screen, put them into the Dock, or move them to other screens– but it’s a tad different in iPadOS and iOS 13+ versus earlier versions (ios 12 and below.)
So let’s start to rearrange your apps on your Home screen, organize apps into folders, and even move them to other screens, folders, or pages. Plus, you can reorder those screens too!
Contents
- 1 How to remove, rearrange, and move apps in iOS 13+ and iPadOS
- 2 Can’t rearrange or move apps in iOS 13+ or iPadOS?
- 3 Missing Apps on your iPhone’s home screen after iOS or iPadOS update?
- 4 How to delete and move apps in iOS 12 and below
- 5 It’s easy to create folders to organize your apps
- 6 Don’t like your iPhone, iPad, or iPod layout? Reset your Home screen and apps to their defaults!
Related articles
- You can now use Quick Actions and Peek on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 13
- How to Re-Arrange Apps on Your iPhone in iOS 11
How to remove, rearrange, and move apps in iOS 13+ and iPadOS
With iOS 13+ and iPadOS, removing apps or rearranging them has changed slightly. And that’s mainly due to the quick action menus that pop-up when you long-press an app!
Rearrange and move apps in iOS 13 and iPadOS
- Long-press an app icon (it can be any app icon)
- From the Quick Action menu tap Edit Home Screen (for earlier iOS.iPadOS versions choose Rearrange Apps)
- Depending on the app, you also see app-specific actions
- Depending on the app, you also see app-specific actions
- Move by dragging and dropping your apps to new positions, place them in the dock or in folders, or delete them by pressing the x in the corner
- Keep consistent pressure on the app as you move it. If you lift your finger, the app immediately returns to its original location. If it’s not working for you, press harder on the app icon and then drag and drop it!
- Press Done or the Home Button when finished
PowerTip
Tap an icon in the bottom row (not dock), wait for just a little, give it a quick pull to the bottom-right, release.
Boom! Instant wiggle mode in under a second!
Delete apps in iOS 13 and iPadOS
- Long-press an app you want to delete
- Choose Delete App from the haptic touch Quick Action menu or continue pressing even when the quick action menu appears–this takes around 2-3 seconds
- Wait until the quick action menu disappears and the apps start to wiggle, then release the long press
- Tap the x in the app’s corner to delete
- Confirm you want to delete the app–deleting an app removes its data from your device
- Press Done or the Home Button when finished
Delete apps directly from the app store with iOS 13+ and iPadOS
There’s another new way to delete apps–directly in the app store itself.
- Open the App Store
- Tap on your profile photo
- Scroll down to view available updates and recently updated apps
- Swipe left on an app and choose Delete
- At the confirmation, verify you want to delete that app
And of course, you can offload app or delete apps in your storage settings by going to Settings > General > Storage. 
Can’t rearrange or move apps in iOS 13+ or iPadOS?
If you can’t get your apps to stay their new locations, take a look at your zoom settings
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Zoom and turn it off
- Now try and move your apps again and see if they stay put
- Some readers discovered that disabling QuickPath’s setting for slide to type fixed the issue for them. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > toggle off Slide to Type
Missing Apps on your iPhone’s home screen after iOS or iPadOS update?
If an app you always use is not on your home screen after updating your iOS or iPadOS, swipe through all your app home screens to see if it was moved during the update.
When users update, iOS & iPadOS sometimes place Apple’s native apps (and especially any new Apple apps) on your home screen, thereby rearranging your custom app organization and design.
That rearrangement often results in some (or even all) of your apps (especially third-party apps) getting moved to another screen.
You usually find that iOS/iPadOS moved these displaced and missing apps to the last home screen.
How to delete and move apps in iOS 12 and below
- Lightly press and hold any app on the screen until the app icon starts to jiggle. Don’t press too hard or the apps might not jiggle around!
- To delete an app, tap the “x” in the left corner
- To move an app, drag its icon to a different location
- Another location on the same screen
- A folder on the same screen
- Move it to the Dock at the bottom of your screen
- Move to a different screen (or page)—drag the app to the right edge of the screen. You might need to wait a second for the new page to appear. The dots above the Dock show how many pages you have, and which one you’re viewing.
- For iPads without home buttons and iPhone X and later models, tap Done. For other models, press the Home Button
Let’s say that you want to move the Settings App to the Dock
- Just hold your finger down on the Settings App icon screen until all the icons start to shake
- Then drag that Settings icon to the Dock and drop it there!
- After you arrange the icon the way you want, press the Home button or Done button to save this arrangement
- The icons immediately stop shaking
It’s easy to create folders to organize your apps 
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a ton of apps!
That means grouping them into folders really helps clear the app clutter so finding apps is easy from your home screen or dock
- Press and hold any app on the screen until the app icons jiggle
- To create a NEW folder, drag one app onto another app–iOS and iPadOS suggest a name (you can change it later)
- Drag any other apps into the folder if you want
- Each folder can have multiple pages of apps
- To rename a folder, use a long press or 3D touch the folder name and choose Rename from the Quick Action menu OR tap the name field, then type in a new name
- Tap Done (iPad with no home button and iPhone X and later) or press the Home button
Move a folder onto your Dock
- Make sure there is space for another icon in your Dock
- Press and hold any folder on the screen until the folder icons jiggle
- Drag the folder icon to the Dock and drop it
- That’s it!
Want to delete an app folder from your home screen?
- Drag all the apps and any other content out of the folder first
- The folder is automatically deleted once it’s empty (no apps or content)
Don’t like your iPhone, iPad, or iPod layout? Reset your Home screen and apps to their defaults!
- Go to Settings > General > Reset
- Tap Reset Home Screen Layout
- iOS and iPadOS remove any folders you created,
- All downloaded apps are alphabetically ordered after the iOS/iPad OS native apps
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
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My icons will jiggle, but I cannot get them to move. Every time I try, they just go back where they were. This has happened after one of the later updates.
Following the upgrade to IOS13, a translucent window that reads “Zoom Enabled” appears at random on my iPad. I use zoom often, but do not want to see the notification pop-up. Is there any way to prevent its appearing on screen?
Not sure if you can remove that zoom enabled thing unless you stop using zoom altogether. That being said, we will explore if there is any other way to do this and let you know.