How to Make App Folders on iPhone & iPad
Do you want to make folders to organize the home screen on your iPhone and iPad? Most of us have several applications installed on our iOS and iPadOS devices, and more often than not, the home screen is quickly a mess. In order to clean it all up, you’ll need to make use of the app folders functionality that iPhone and iPad has to offer.
For almost a decade now, iOS has had the ability to create folders for apps that are displayed on the home screen. This allows users to keep all their applications organized by sorting them into different categories. As a result, clutter is minimized in the home screen and users don’t have to waste time scrolling through pages of applications to open the app they want. You can organize your folders however you want, and rename them what you want to as well.
Let’s discuss how you can make app folders on both the iPhone and iPad. If you’re already familiar with quickly removing apps from the devices, you may already know what to expect.
How to Make App Folders on iPhone & iPad
Creating folders can be done right on the home screen of your iPhone or iPad in a matter of seconds with the help of a couple of gestures. Although this functionality has been available for years, the procedure may vary ever so slightly vary in iOS 13 and later, due to the fact that Apple has tweaked the way users navigate to the edit menu. Let’s take a look at the necessary steps.
- Long press any of the app icons in the home screen until you get a pop-up menu. If your device is running an older version of iOS, you won’t get the pop-up menu. Instead, you’ll need to hold the icon until the apps start to jiggle.
- Now, tap on “Edit Home Screen” in the pop-up menu. This will take you to the edit menu, which is indicated by the jiggling icons.
- You’ll need at least two apps to create a folder. So, decide the apps you want to use. Now, drag one of the two apps that you want to add to the folder and hover it over the other app. This will bring up the folder menu, as shown in the screenshot below. Just drop the app anywhere within the empty space.
- By default, iOS names the folder based on the genre of the apps you add to it. However, simply tap on the folder name in order to change it according to your preference.
- Tap anywhere outside the folder to go back to the home screen, and you’ll be able to see the newly created app folder.
That’s pretty much all you need to do. Now you know how to make app folders on both the iPhone and iPad.
Moving and keeping your apps organized is key when it comes to minimizing the clutter on your device’s home screen. You could sort apps that you use frequently or use a separate folder for all the social networking apps with the help of this built-in feature.
There’s an abundance of applications on the App Store, and several users install hundreds of apps and games on their iPhones and iPads. Users can store up to 135 apps in a single folder, so there’s plenty of room to keep everything sorted just in case you want to really cram a folder full of tons of stuff. You can even put folders inside of folders.
If you want to delete one of these folders at any point, you’ll need to follow a similar procedure and drag each app out of it individually. As you can tell, this is far from convenient, but perhaps there will be an easier way introduced by Apple at some point down the line.
Are you facing trouble looking for apps on your iPhone or iPad? You might be interested to try out Spotlight search, which lets you search your entire device for installed apps and even apps that are available on the App Store. This eliminates the need to scroll through multiple home screen pages to open that one app you want.
By the way, in case this wasn’t obvious, we’re talking about making folders on the home screens of iPhone and iPad to store apps. This is completely different from making folders in the Files app of iOS and iPadOS, which hold files. They’re both called folders, but they have a different purpose in iOS and iPadOS, whereas on the Mac folders can hold apps and files.
Did you manage to sort out all the applications on your iPhone and iPad with the help of folders? What do you think of this handy feature for keeping your home screen organized? Do let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments section down below.
Hello:
I wonder if there is a way to find where an app resides? One can search where an app visually is if it is on the home screen, but if it is in a folder, and one has many folders, how can that be done without having to open each folder and look into it.
Yes if you use Spotlight to search for an app, you’ll see the name of the containing folder shown where the app is located
I’m new to iPhones, have an 11 and have found if I long press and hold an app icon and drag it over to another icon I want in a “folder” with, the “folder” pops up, let loose of the icon you dragged over and BOTH will be together in a folder now. You will name it at this point. A whole lot easier than the long route posted above!!
“this is far from convenient, but perhaps there will be an easier way introduced by Apple at some point down the line”
Well, there _used to be_ that actual easier way to re-arrange apps on the iPhone. It was called iTunes. Oh, right, they killed that off.
Hi ChuckR, you are so right that it hurts. The new iTunes called music is close to useless.