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When iTunes was updated to 12.7.x, the option to organize apps directly in iTunes was removed. This no longer an option. Management of apps is now relegated to your iPhone or iPad directly.
(If you want to let Apple know how you feel about this, you can provide feedback directly via this link: Feedback - iPhone - Apple)
I should point out that it is possible to go back to the previous version of iTunes where this feature still exists but it is a complex and risky procedure and means you will not get any future updates of iTunes so I haven't bothered to go into it here.
Interestingly no third party developer has produced an app for organizing/reorganizing your iOS apps. There is an app called Apple Configurator2 but it organizes apps on home screens only as a secondary function and not particularly well. In 2009 there was an app called AppButler which not only created folders and custom icons as well as page numbers and line breaks for your home screens but that fell by the wayside in iOS 3 and has not been heard of since.
So today with increased storage across iOS devices and an ever expanding range of apps available how do we reorganize and keep our iOS apps in a logical and orderly manner?
The answer is manually, on the device.
Anyone who has tried this knows that it is an awkward process. The apps all wiggle and move around, changing their order and positions as you drag the app across multiple home pages. If you let the app go accidentally it can change the content of that page pushing another app back to the previous page which if full will move another app back a page and so on. It can take some time to undo this, enough to put anyone off entirely. My wife uses the finder a lot, which is fine but it doesn't show you where the app is, it just opens it.
1. Hint number one here is never fill all of the empty spaces on any home screen. This little trick saves a lot of frustration and enables you to move apps from screen to screen without the unwanted automatic reshuffle. Personally I like to keep the bottom line of any page empty, (four spaces) even if that means having more screens. The limit is eleven, if you exceed that number the apps, although loaded and useable, will not be visible.
But this doesn't solve the basic problem; reorganizing all of your apps into some sort of intuitive order can take hours.
Apple provides a way to start in Settings > General > Reset > Reset Home Screen Layout.
This will put all of the Native apps on the first Home Screen and the rest in alphabetical order over the other screens. Be warned, it will also remove any folders you may have created.
Some might find that this is enough. After all alphabetical order is fine.
The above is how I started my reorganization. From that point I removed all Native apps I didn't use at all from the first home page to the last page eg. Stocks.
Then I replaced those with the other apps I used most.
I emptied the next page and began setting up "like function" apps in rows using Alexandre Levacher's method (The Startup) Medium
Once you start this method it's easy to build on it over time. So my second home page now looks like this;
This method works on the assumption that I have four or more apps in the same category and in a lot of cases this is true but like me you will find that in some cases you only have two or three. In this case I have used folders.
The bottom line here is that all this is difficult and time consuming, especially if you have eight pages of apps or more, I only had five.
Obviously it would be much easier on a larger screen where all of the home screens were visible simultaneously, using a mouse to drag and drop.
Do not despair, I contacted DigiDNA the developers of iMazing and suggested a function similar to the old iTunes method of screen management would be a popular addition to their already successful app and they replied, "it is one of the most requested features we have in development, so you can be sure that if it is possible, it will get released in one of the future updates."
(If you want to let Apple know how you feel about this, you can provide feedback directly via this link: Feedback - iPhone - Apple)
I should point out that it is possible to go back to the previous version of iTunes where this feature still exists but it is a complex and risky procedure and means you will not get any future updates of iTunes so I haven't bothered to go into it here.
Interestingly no third party developer has produced an app for organizing/reorganizing your iOS apps. There is an app called Apple Configurator2 but it organizes apps on home screens only as a secondary function and not particularly well. In 2009 there was an app called AppButler which not only created folders and custom icons as well as page numbers and line breaks for your home screens but that fell by the wayside in iOS 3 and has not been heard of since.
So today with increased storage across iOS devices and an ever expanding range of apps available how do we reorganize and keep our iOS apps in a logical and orderly manner?
The answer is manually, on the device.
Anyone who has tried this knows that it is an awkward process. The apps all wiggle and move around, changing their order and positions as you drag the app across multiple home pages. If you let the app go accidentally it can change the content of that page pushing another app back to the previous page which if full will move another app back a page and so on. It can take some time to undo this, enough to put anyone off entirely. My wife uses the finder a lot, which is fine but it doesn't show you where the app is, it just opens it.
1. Hint number one here is never fill all of the empty spaces on any home screen. This little trick saves a lot of frustration and enables you to move apps from screen to screen without the unwanted automatic reshuffle. Personally I like to keep the bottom line of any page empty, (four spaces) even if that means having more screens. The limit is eleven, if you exceed that number the apps, although loaded and useable, will not be visible.
But this doesn't solve the basic problem; reorganizing all of your apps into some sort of intuitive order can take hours.
Apple provides a way to start in Settings > General > Reset > Reset Home Screen Layout.
This will put all of the Native apps on the first Home Screen and the rest in alphabetical order over the other screens. Be warned, it will also remove any folders you may have created.
Some might find that this is enough. After all alphabetical order is fine.
The above is how I started my reorganization. From that point I removed all Native apps I didn't use at all from the first home page to the last page eg. Stocks.
Then I replaced those with the other apps I used most.
I emptied the next page and began setting up "like function" apps in rows using Alexandre Levacher's method (The Startup) Medium
Once you start this method it's easy to build on it over time. So my second home page now looks like this;
This method works on the assumption that I have four or more apps in the same category and in a lot of cases this is true but like me you will find that in some cases you only have two or three. In this case I have used folders.
The bottom line here is that all this is difficult and time consuming, especially if you have eight pages of apps or more, I only had five.
Obviously it would be much easier on a larger screen where all of the home screens were visible simultaneously, using a mouse to drag and drop.
Do not despair, I contacted DigiDNA the developers of iMazing and suggested a function similar to the old iTunes method of screen management would be a popular addition to their already successful app and they replied, "it is one of the most requested features we have in development, so you can be sure that if it is possible, it will get released in one of the future updates."