Organize Your Apps
Ten ways to get your apps in order.
D o you have questions about how to manage apps on your iPhone or iPad? Whether you're wondering how to find a specific type of app, how to delete apps you no longer need, how to organize your Home screen so you can easily find the apps you're looking for, or even how to fix an app that's frozen or crashing, we've got a roadmap for you. Here's a roundup of tips to help you get the most out of your apps. 1) How to Find Apps
If you've just started out with your device, you may be wondering how to download apps. Whether you're looking for games, recipes, shopping and coupons, or ways to boost your productivity and stay on top of tasks, you'll find it in the App
Store. Be prepared, though; there are almost two million options currently available!
You may be wondering: where exactly is the App Store? I'm never going to judge a person who asks this question, because I had to ask Google when I got my first iPhone. Luckily, it's easy to find once you know where to look. The App Store comes pre-loaded on your Phone and iPad; just scroll through your Home screen pages and tap the blue app icon with white tools criss-crossed in the foreground (figure 1) when you find it. Once opened, you'll find five tabs located along the bottom of the app. Under Today (figure 2), you'll find new featured apps and games every day as well as articles, developer interviews, and app tutorials. Games has its very own tab. Scroll left to find the latest updates, limited-time offerings, pre-orders, and editors' choice. Scroll down to find trending downloads, popular new titles, and categories like role-playing games (RPGs). The Apps tab features a mixed bag of recommendations that highlight a variety of genres including streaming, top free and paid, Apple Watch, and many, many more. The Updates tab shows you every app you've downloaded that has an update available. You can set your device to automatically update apps, but if you'd rather take care of this yourself, this is where to do it manually. Search is the last tab (figure 3). If you have an app in mind already, tap the Search tab, and enter your query in the search field.
2) How to Download Apps
Before you get started downloading all those apps you've found, you'll need to make sure you have an Apple ID. If you've set up your Apple ID but can't remember the password, it won't take more than a few minutes to reset. Next, make sure you have an up-to-date billing method associated with your Apple ID; once this step is taken care of, you're ready to download free or paid apps.
Once you've found the app you'd like to download in the App Store, tap Get (or the price if it's a paid app) to the right of the app name (figure 4). Confirm your installation as directed by your device, whether that's double clicking the Side button, using Touch ID, or entering your Apple ID passcode. Wait for your app to finish downloading, then tap Open to begin exploring and using it (figure 5). Any time you'd like to open and use your new app in the future, tap the app icon on your Home screen. 3) How to Free Up iPhone Storage by Offloading Apps
If you've monopolized a lot of your iPhone storage with apps, it's possible to offload them. Offloading frees up storage the app is using while keeping documents and data associated with it. The app icon will remain on your Home screen with a download icon next to it, so you can easily reinstall the app later by tapping the App icon.
To offload apps, open the Settings app on your device and tap General. Tap iPhone Storage. Here you'll see a chart of how your storage is being used, and how much of it is left (figure 6). Below this, you'll see a list of all your apps and how much storage each is using, ordered from greatest to least amount used. Tap on any of these apps, and you'll see the option Offload App (figure 7). 4) How to Delete Apps
If you aren't satisfied with an app, you can remove it from your device. If the app in question has a subscription associated with it, you'll also need to cancel the app subscription, or you'll continue to be billed. To delete an app, lightly touch and hold the app you'd like to delete. A menu will appear; keep holding comma and then the app will begin to wiggle (figure 8).
Tap the X, then tap delete when your device asks you to confirm (figure 9). The app you just deleted will disappear from your screen, tap Done at the upper right corner of your screen if you're finished deleting apps.
That's it! If you change your mind and would like to retrieve any apps you've deleted, you can always go back to the App Store and download them again (but you will have lost your app data unless you created an account with the app that you can log back into). If you paid for the deleted app, you won't need to pay again as long as you're downloading it to a device signed in with the same Apple ID that you originally purchased the app under.
5) How to Cancel an App Subscription
App subscriptions can add up pretty quickly. To view the list of your subscriptions, open the App Store and tap your profile at the upper-right corner of your display (you'll find it in all the tabs except search). Tap Manage Subscriptions. You'll see a list of all Active and Expired app subscriptions (figure 10). If there's a subscription you'd like to cancel or change, tap it and you'll be taken to a screen where you can update these settings (figure 11). Tap Done when you're finished updating your subscription settings. 6) How to Move Apps
Before you start downloading apps, your iPhone will have just two partially filled screens of native Apple apps. As you add to your app collection, your iPhone will automatically add more Home screens to accommodate them.
To move an app to a different place on the Home screen or from one page to another, just touch and hold the app you want to move until a menu appears. Tap Rearrange Apps, the app will begin to wiggle. Drag the app to its new location on the Home page. To move it to another Home screen, drag the icon to the right or left edge of your display until a new screen appears (figure 12 & 13). As before, tap Done or press your Home button to finish moving apps. You can have a maximum of 15 screens. If you're ever unsure of how many screens you've created, just check the bottom of your screen underneath your app icons for a row of dots.
The number of dots equals the number of pages, plus the Today View (found to the left of the first Home screen), and the highlighted dot indicates where the page you're currently on is located in that sequence.
7) How to Add Apps to the Dock
The iPhone Dock can hold up to four apps or folders containing apps and remains at the bottom of your display no matter which of your Home screens you're viewing. Because of this, the Dock is a great place to put your most frequently used apps. It's easy to move apps in and out of the Dock. First, remove apps from the Dock to make room. Touch and hold the app you'd like to remove until a menu appears. Tap Rearrange Apps, and your app will begin to wiggle. Drag the app upward onto the Home screen, then release it; press Done on iPhone X or later, or the Home button on iPhones 8 and earlier.
Now you have space to add a different app to your Dock. Touch and hold the app you'd like to add until the menu appears again. Tap Rearrange Apps, and the apps will begin to wiggle (figure 14). Drag the app into your Dock, and release it (figure 15), and tap Done on the iPhone X or later or the Home button on the iPhones 8 and earlier.
8) How to Organize Apps Alphabetically
How you arrange your apps will depend on how you use your phone, which memory tricks work best for you, and your aesthetic preferences. There's no wrong way to organize your apps, whether by frequency of use or by colors of the rainbow, as long as the system is helpful to you,
If you've experimented and are not pleased with the new organization of your iPhone's Home screens, it's possible to restore your apps to their original layout. Taking this step will remove all your folders and arrange your native Apple apps first, followed by your third-party apps, alphabetically organized. To do this, open the Settings app and tap General, then tap Reset (figure 16). Tap Reset Home Screen Layout (figure 17), then confirm that you want to Reset Home Screen. 9) How to Make Folders
If you have a large collection of apps, you may want to create some folders to sort them into. To make a folder on your iPhone, touch and hold an app until a menu pops up, then tap Rearrange Apps. Once the app wiggles, drag it onto another app that you'd like to have in the same folder and let go (figure 18). A folder will automatically be created; if you don't like the folder name your iPhone suggests, tap on the folder, then tap the x in the title box and enter a new name (figure 19). Add more apps into this folder by touching, dragging, and dropping them in. Tap Done or press your Home button when finished creating your folder. If you'd like to move a folder, just touch and hold, then move it in the same way you would a single app.
10) How to Switch Between Apps
The App Switcher lets you easily switch from one open app to another or quickly close one or more apps. To access the App Switcher on the iPhone X and later, swipe up from the bottom of your screen, stopping in the middle. All of your apps that are currently open will appear in a stack; swipe right and left to see previews of all the apps you currently have open (figure 20), tap on one to use it.
On the iPhones 8 and earlier the process is the same, except that you need to double-click the Home button to make your open apps appear. If one of your apps keeps unexpectedly crashing, freezing, or won't open, you can try force closing the app. To do this, just open the App Switcher and swipe up on the preview of the app that's been giving you problems (figure 21).