The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes
Q. How can I create app folders on my iPhone? I want to organize my apps better and someone told me to make app folders but I don’t know how to do it.
A. Whether you have hundreds of apps or just a few, you may want to organize your apps into folders on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. By taking just a few seconds to create folders and arrange your apps, you can save lots of time and frustration later.
Benefits of App Folders
Organize Your Apps
The longer you have your iDevice, the more apps you tend to have. Your cousin’s best friend’s former roommate’s girlfriend recommends a “must have” app that becomes your new favorite. Or you find out about an exciting new app at The Wonder of Tech! Soon your well-organized screens become a jumble of icons.
Create app folders in categories, such as Weather, News, Puzzle Games, Word Games, Utilities. Put your apps in the folders, putting your favorite ones first.
Segregate Your Kids’ Apps
Your kids will be less tempted to mess with your iDevice if they know their favorite apps are in one folder. More than one kid? Make multiple folders, one for each child. You can only put an app in one folder so if your kids all like the same favorite app, this method of organizing your folders may not be your optimal choice.
Declutter
You can have have up to 11 screen of app icons on your iDevice. But swiping through 11 screens to peruse your apps may not be the most pleasant use of your time. By placing your apps into folders you can reduce the time you spend swiping through your screens. Congregate your apps into folders on fewer screens.
Hide Unwanted Apps
iDevices come with apps called “native” apps such as Game Center, Notes, Weather, Stocks, and Clock. You may find these useful or you may have found alternative apps that work better than native ones.
If you don’t care for native apps, well, bad news, you can’t delete them from your device. Instead, you can put unwanted native apps into a folder you name something like “Apps I Wish I Could Delete But Can’t” to clear up your screen. Banish that folder to the very last position on your last screen.
How to Create an App Folder
Making an app folder is simple and quick. Press your finger on an app until it jiggles like a Jello cube in the cab of a tractor trailer speeding over a bumpy road. Then drag the app on top of another app.
[warning]When an app is jiggling an X in a circle appears in the upper left corner of the icon. Pressing that X will delete the app from your device. You’ll be prompted to confirm your choice to delete the app so you don’t delete an app by accident. [/warning]
A folder will appear with a suggested title based on the category of apps. You can change the suggested title by pressing on the X in the title bar and then typing in your own title. Click “Done”.
The icons will still be jiggling so you can rearrange your apps in the order you prefer. When you’re done, either tap outside the folder or press your home button. You’ll return to the full screen with the apps still jiggling so you can make more folders or move more apps into your new folder. Press the Home button to stop the apps from jiggling.
[tip] If you need to drag an app across multiple screens, you’ll find it easier to put the app in the dock at the bottom of your screen. That way the app appears on all screens so you don’t have to drag it between screens. [/tip]
You can add up to 12 apps into a folder on an iPhone and iPod Touch and up to 20 apps into an iPad folder. In iOS 7, you’ll be able to add an unlimited number of apps into a folder.
To change the name of the folder after you’ve created it, open the folder, press and hold one of the app icons in the folder. The app icons will wiggle and the title bar will appear. You can edit the name of the folder, then press the Home button when you’re done.
Emoticons/Emojis
Your folder names may be fun or functional. You can use emoticons to make your folder names both fun and functional. If a picture says a thousand words, well an emoticon must say about 575.
You can use a magnifying glass for search apps, a sun for weather apps, an airplane for travel apps, a guitar for music apps, a football for sports apps, etc.
See, Emoticons: To for more information on using emoticons.
App Folder Tips and Tricks
• You can drag and drop folders to move them the same way you move apps.
• You can remove apps from folders by dragging them out of the folder.
• Can’t remember which folder you put an app into? Swipe the screens all the way to the right until you get to the first screen for Spotlight search. Type in the name of the app. When the app name is shown, the name of the folder in which it resides will appear.
• You can put folders in the dock so they appear on every screen.
• To delete a folder, drag all of the apps out of the folder. The folder will disappear.
• You can arrange app icons within a folder. Put your most used apps where you want them.
• You can’t put a folder in a folder.
• Newstand is a native folder. You can’t delete it and you can’t move it into another folder.
Your Thoughts
Do you use folders to organize your apps? How do you name your app folders? Do you have any tips and tricks for organizing your apps? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Hang w/ Comes to Android
Android users can now join in the fun with Hang w/, the live video streaming service. Grab the free Hang w/ app from Google Play and start hanging with the fun Hang w/ people.
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iPhone 5 Comes to Virgin Mobile
If you’ve been eager to get your hands on an iPhone 5 on Virgin Mobile, your wait is over. You can now get an iPhone 5 in either white or black in 3 sizes:
- 16GB — $549
- 32GB — $649
- 64GB — $749
The 16GB version is available at Radio Shack and at Virgin Mobile online. The 32 and 64GB models are only available from Virgin Mobile online.
Radio Shack is currently $50 off the price of the iPhone 5 if you trade in a working phone, bringing the price of the iPhone 5 down to $499 for the 16GB model.
Great instructions Carolyn and thank you so much for putting this post together. I was so thrilled when you told me we could make folders and I’ve had fun playing around with mine. There are several apps I never use and others I don’t view that often so why not group them together and get rid of them from my view.
Great instructions, thank you so much and I know others will find this just as helpful.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Thanks so much for bringing up the issue. I had this question from several other Wonder of Tech readers but I had never gotten around to writing about it. I’m glad you’re using folders now to organize your apps. So great you’re having fun with it! :-bd
Its another informative article, with easy steps, Me also like its but Carolyn i have a request please must help me, I have many massages on my Galaxy y for i was many try to transfer sms into PC but but i can’t get success because there are no any complete tutorial for How to transfer sms from Samsung galaxy to Computer please share this post .
Hi Mahendra, Great question! I haven’t tried it, but I found this article that may be helpful to you: http://www.recovery-android.com/transfer-sms-from-android-to-computer.html How to Transfer SMS from Android Phone to Computer
I hope this helps you!
Ha,ha- just wanted to confirm that yes, it’s entirely the fault of Wonder of Tech that I have so many apps!
Hi Ann, Lol, yes, it’s the least I can do, right? Since I’ve written about so many great apps, I really should write about how to organize them! 🙂
I have a few folders lumping my sports, social, news & mail together. However, I still have 5 pages of apps I need to consolidate some more or get rid of.
This will be the impetus to get me moving in the right direction.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Hi Bill, yes, every so often you may come across an app that doesn’t seem to belong in a category with any other apps. Of course you could always make a “Unique Apps” folder. 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
I would like to thank you for explaining this with so much ease….Loads of iPhone users will be able to get help from this article….though I already knew it, but I have to admit that If I were you, I would not be able to explain things with so much clarity….
Thank you, Aditya. I want people to be able to understand clearly how to handle tech. Tech can be very confusing to people so The Wonder of Tech is designed to clarify things for readers.
Thanks give me that article … really its very important for me because my GF sms , I can’t delete . Thank you so much
Hi Mahendra, I’m so glad that my help made both you and your girlfriend happy! Thanks for stopping back by to let me know.
Really good and clear instructions Carolyn and thanks for sharing that Hang w/ is now avaliable on Android. Will download it directly and install on my android tab.
Hi Johan, I think you’ll really like Hang w/. If you find some interesting people to follow you can quickly become addicted to Hang w/!
WOW! This is really an amazing and nice article to know how to create App folders on iPhone and iPad. This will definitely helps the group of people like me who do not know this feature.Thanks for sharing such a helpful article.
Hi Matthew, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad this article has been so helpful to you. Have fun organizing your apps!
I was really worry about it ! When I try to move apps in my iPhone so Apps doesn’t move in Folder it has just move on out of Folder & I be worry why This happen ?
Hi Maneesha, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! This can happen when your folder is full. You can only put a limited number of apps into a folder, 12 for the iPhone and iPod Touch and 20 for the iPad. In iOS 7, due out in the fall, you won’t have a limit on how many apps you can put into a folder.
Hi Carolyne,
You have done a nice job. I learnt how to create an app folder in iphone from your informative blog. I am using iPhone 4S for past one year, but still I was not aware of how to make a folder. I got helpful information from your blog post and really appreciate your work.
Hi Todd, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you were helped by this article. Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know.
Thanks for the great tips!
I was able to put all of my photo apps in one place and now they don’t take up so much space on all the pages, and I can find them more easily.
Hi David, That’s great! I’m so glad this article was helpful to you. Taking just a few minuts to create folders can help you keep your apps organized.
Hello Carolyn,
This is indeed a lovely post and very easy to understand. Wow! my iphone friends will be very happy to see this post. Thanks for the post and do have a great weekday 🙂
Hi Babanature, Yes, this is a helpful tool to help you organize your apps. So often we’re hunting for apps or forget that we’ve downloaded them. By organizing them into folders, your hunt is over! 🙂
Great tutorial. I can now finally create folder and managed my files.. As i keep my Iphone messy as my desktop 🙂
Hi Rob, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Good point, it would be great if cleaning your house were as easy as cleaning your iPhone screen! 🙂
I bought IPAD Mini few days back and after reading this article i will try it today. Really an amazing and nice article about folder creation for Iphone and Ipad and going to try it today.
Thanks
Regards
Hi Anonymous, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Congratulations on getting an iPad Mini. I bet you’ll find it very handy, especially with your app folders organized. 🙂
This post can really help those people who have numerous applications on the phones. Android users can still get an idea from this post.
Yes, Manny, this article only covers I,phone, iPad and iPod Touch. If someone want to find out how to create an app folder on Android devices, all they have to do is ask! 🙂
Nice blog on App folders using magnifying glass is little bit confused
Hi Smith, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you like the tutorial on creating app folders. I’m sorry I wasn’t more clear about using emoticons for app folder names. What I meant was that you can use symbols in the names of your app folders. You can’t see many characters in the names of app folders, especially on the iPhone so by using symbols, or emoticons, you can make your folders easier to find!
thanks for share… i learn something new today for my ipad…
Hi Ramesh, That’s great news! Check out more articles from The Wonder of Tech for other tips and tricks for your iPad!
Carolyn,
I figured the folder thing out really fast when I got my iPhone. I could not find anything with all of my apps everywhere. I have as few folders as I can and fit all of my apps in as I like to have everything on the main page but I am sure that I will have to expand soon.
Great post and really easy to follow for those who do not have folders or do not know how to make them.
Dee Ann
Hi Dee Ann, You’re right, it’s very challenging to find apps in folders which is why using Spotlight Search to locate apps in your folders. It’s great you can fit all of your apps onto your home page, but you’re right, I imagine you will expand beyond your home page soon!