Over the course of a few years, it is incredibly easy to download dozens of games, productivity tools, banking apps, and social media platforms to your iPhone. Because new apps are automatically appended to the very end of your Home Screen, your layout quickly devolves into a chaotic, disorganized mess spread across seven different pages. If you can no longer find anything, you do not have to spend an hour manually dragging 80 apps into folders. iOS includes a nuclear option that instantly resets the entire grid and perfectly alphabetizes every third-party app you own.
How to Reset the Home Screen Layout
This process will not delete any apps, and it will not erase any of your app data or passwords. It strictly resets the visual arrangement of the icons.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap on General.
- Scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the page and tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.
- Tap the button at the bottom labeled Reset.
- A menu will slide up from the bottom of the screen. Tap Reset Home Screen Layout.
- A final confirmation warning will appear. Tap Reset Home Screen to confirm.
How the Alphabetized Grid Works
Return to your Home Screen to see the immediate transformation. The iPhone enforces a very strict logic when resetting the layout:
- Page 1: The very first page of your Home Screen is restored to the exact factory default. It will only contain Apple’s built-in, core applications (Messages, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Weather, etc.) in their original default arrangement.
- Page 2 and Beyond: Starting on the second page, every single third-party app you have ever downloaded from the App Store will be arranged in perfect, strict alphabetical order from A to Z.
All of your customized folders will be destroyed and unpacked, and all of your widgets will be removed. Your phone is now perfectly organized by name, allowing you to easily find any app by simply scrolling to its corresponding letter.