iPhone app layout question

[jp1]

As anyone who owns one will probably agree, iPhones come with a whole bunch of apps that can't be deleted but for which I have no use. I recently read an article that suggested making an app folder and moving all the unneeded apps to that folder to make the screens less cluttered/more functional. That part worked great and I was super pleased with myself. Then I synced my phone with my computer to imortalize the change in case I ever need to restore my phone. And my app layout reverted to the 'before useless folder hiding apps' layout. Does anyone have any idea where I went wrong?

[Tradd]

I don't sync my iPhone OR iPad with my computer. Maybe don't do that? I think there is a setting you can check on the iTunes menu about syncing for it to NOT make any changes.

[CathyA]

Maybe I don't understand........which is entirely possible........but can't you just press on the app icon (holding it down) until it wiggles, and then x it out?

[jp1]

I don't normally sync regularly anymore, not since podcasts started downloading directly to the phone via wifi. But I'm probably going to upgrade to iOS 9 a week or two after it comes out, so I'll want to sync before I do that in case something goes wrong and I have to restore. I've rearranged apps before and don't remember ever having this problem.

[jp1]

Maybe I don't understand........which is entirely possible........but can't you just press on the app icon (holding it down) until it wiggles, and then x it out?

You can with regular apps, but not with apple apps like apple maps or passbook.

[Tradd]

What exactly do you want to back up? Are you using iCloud?

[jp1]

Really the only thing that would be tragic if lost are my contacts. My music all exists on my computer already, my photos all go to dropbox. I have a work ipad that I've never synced with anything. There's nothing on it that would matter if it was lost.

[Tradd]

You can easily back up your contacts in iCloud. What email are you using? If it's something like Gmail, all your contacts are in Gmail, anyway. I back up things to Google Drive, iCloud, and Dropbox. Nothing like redundancy, eh? ;) I especially like iCloud for the pics I take with my iPhone, since everything syncs between iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.

[jp1]

You are clearly more organized than I am... :-) My problem would just be phone contacts that aren't in gmail.

[Dhiana]

I have a couple of pages of Apps so those undeletable apps are all moved to their own last page which I never look at.

Most of the other pages aren't full, not even the first page as I organize them by task & how often used.

I don't sync my phone either.

[SteveinMN]

In a recent appearance on Stephen Colbert's new show, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple is working on a way to be able to delete the built-in apps a user does not want. But that's part of an undefined future update.

For right now, "hiding" the apps is the way to go. I've rearranged the icons on my iPhone(s) and have backed up/synced successfully with iTunes keeping the icon positions, folders, etc. intact.

In fact, if I remember correctly, iTunes even will let me rearrange the icons on my Apple laptop and sync that to the iDevice. Keep in mind I'm doing this on iTunes 12.x for Macintosh (not for Windows) but I've done it on earlier versions. But when I connect the iDevice to my Mac and iTunes opens, I can click on the iDevice icon in the upper left of the iTunes window. Under Settings, one of my choices is Apps. When I select that, I get a list of the apps on my iDevice on the left and thumbnails of my screens on the right. Double-click on the screen you want to change and you'll be able to move icons around or even to other screens. I will note that folders somehow merit their own thumbnails, but that does make it a little easier to work with.

Hope that helps.

[jp1]

Thanks Steve, I'll have to try that.