How do I change app categories in App Library?

johnmd50 wrote:

Sincere apologies, I should have said Disgraced (OED to put down). However, this really isn't the place for this dialogue. I have said already I have posted to Apple so won't be adding further to this chain. Incidentally, how do you find time to type a Billion posts?

Very quick fingers and use copy and paste. 😎

greenmind wrote:

They obviously didn’t miss it. It’s just another useless & space filling update, to make our current phones obsolete.

I understand that you don’t like the feature. Frankly, as of now, I have no use for it either. But having the App Library on my phone does not keep me up at night. Saying that it makes your phone obsolete doesn't even make sense. Stop and think about that remark again. How does it make the phone obsolete?

The library is worthless if you can’t move the apps out of the wrong category. When a restaurant is automatically put into a different category and you can’t move it makes the entire library unusable if you can’t rely on finding your apps. So confused on why this was released before it’s usable.

You realize that you can simply enter the app name at the top of App Library screen and sects for your apps that way, don’t you? As soon as you tap in they search field, all of the apps are listed in alphabetical order as well.

How is that not being able to find your apps? Once again, I understand why people have no use for it or don’t like it or don’t have full control over it, but to say you can’t find your apps in the App Library is an argument that just isn’t true.

That’s not the point. The ability to swipe down and search for an app has always been available.

The thing that folks are questioning now is the effort that went into adding an App Library with folders that is basically useless. It just takes up space on the phone.

it’s much better to continue creating our own folders and organize as we have been doing and ignore the me App Library.

gwennie17 wrote:

That’s not the point. The ability to swipe down and search for an app has always been available.

Yes, it has and you can still do that.

The thing that folks are questioning now is the effort that went into adding an App Library with folders that is basically useless. It just takes up space on the phone.

Not really, those are just shortcuts to the apps that take up no storage space on the phone. The App Library uses a screen that you do not have to go anywhere near, but the apps don’t take up storage space.

it’s much better to continue creating our own folders and organize as we have been doing and ignore the me App Library.

So just go ahead and so that.

Here’s a counter argument for why the library is bad...

I wasn’t aware that if you remove apps from the Home Screen and send them to the library, you can’t easily go back. So after having custom folders and knowing where all my apps are, I tried the library and realized after the fact, you can’t go back. While I can move apps back ONE AT A TIME, they don’t disappear from the library so I’ll go back to the library to move another app out and forget which ones I already moved. Why can I move an entire page of apps to the library but I can’t go backwards if I don’t like it? Had I read this thread prior to trying the library I would have never removed my folders. Now I’m basically stuck unless I want to make a list of all my apps, and move them out of the library one at a time, crossing them off my paper list as I go so I know which ones I still have to move.

second, searching for apps is fine if you remember all the apps you have and what they’re called. Sometimes you have apps you use infrequently and are named oddly so I just lost those apps as they’re buried in some library I’m not sure of, versus my folders that I had previously set up.

finally, the biggest issue with the library is miscataloging apps, and the fact the libraries are in a random order. Why aren’t the libraries alphabetical? Why do they seem to move around so I can’t just remember “it’s the bottom one?” There’s no rhyme or reason.

so if Apple added a way to revert back to how I had it with folders then I wouldn’t care about the library, but now I’m pot committed and have to accept it in all its flaws

Thank you.... totally agree.

when a folder has a title and the apps in that folder are not in that category you’re better off using your own folders as we have been able to do. The app library looks good but without the ability to personally organize it is just not the easiest way to find your apps.

greatzipper wrote:

Here’s a counter argument for why the library is bad...

Funny, I don’t recall saying anywhere that it is a good thing or something that I am in favor of using myself.

I wasn’t aware that if you remove apps from the Home Screen and send them to the library, you can’t easily go back. So after having custom folders and knowing where all my apps are, I tried the library and realized after the fact, you can’t go back. While I can move apps back ONE AT A TIME, they don’t disappear from the library so I’ll go back to the library to move another app out and forget which ones I already moved. Why can I move an entire page of apps to the library but I can’t go backwards if I don’t like it? Had I read this thread prior to trying the library I would have never removed my folders. Now I’m basically stuck unless I want to make a list of all my apps, and move them out of the library one at a time, crossing them off my paper list as I go so I know which ones I still have to move.

I have previously suggested here and in other discussions that the user has very little control over the App Library. I acknowledge that.

second, searching for apps is fine if you remember all the apps you have and what they’re called. Sometimes you have apps you use infrequently and are named oddly so I just lost those apps as they’re buried in some library I’m not sure of, versus my folders that I had previously set up.

Sorry, but if you don’t know which app you are looking for in the first place, I don’t see how have the App Library impacts that at all.

finally, the biggest issue with the library is miscataloging apps, and the fact the libraries are in a random order. Why aren’t the libraries alphabetical? Why do they seem to move around so I can’t just remember “it’s the bottom one?” There’s no rhyme or reason.

I have acknowledged that the user has almost no control over the App Library. I get that. I don’t use it myself, but I don’t lose sleep over it or make a big deal out of what it is. I sent feedback about it when it first came out in iOS 14.

so if Apple added a way to revert back to how I had it with folders then I wouldn’t care about the library, but now I’m pot committed and have to accept it in all its flaws

You never had to change your folders at all. All you had to do was to ignore the App Library like I have been doing.

Correct in that I could have ignored it. However I think having no way to go back once you destroy your folders is a glaring oversight since this wasn’t apparent initially. One might suspect you can move multiple apps from the library to the home screen at once since you can do that in reverse. So had I known I wouldn’t have bothered using the library.

as to not knowing the app name, I did know where it was. It was the utility thingy that does weeble wobble. And so I’d go to my utilities folder to find it and recognize it by icon. It’s currently in other, so I’ll have to retrain my brain.

I think Apple should have included a simple way to revert back to your folders after you make the mistake like I did to try the library instead of folders. Why didn’t I leave folders and use library? Because it was on my 4th screen. I now have two screens which is better, but because it’s discombobulated I am more confused than if I left it alone

I was not inferring that you could not by searching find your app. Searching is always an option. My issue was that your apps are not under the correct category. If you have to search the category and then after you don’t find your app go and search for it this is definitely not a timesaver. From the App Library I go to “finance” to start my car😂

this is a problem! For me as it is the app library is useless. The app looks good and I like the idea so I hope Apple improves the way it can be used in the future. For now....I will be ignoring it.

To those who are under the impression you cannot reverse the move of deleting your old pages of Apps, well you can, and it's easy peezy. On empty page, press and hold down finger till those Apps at the bottom start shaking, and you'll also note a little grey circle with a dot in it in the centre just above. Click on that and you will see all your old pages of Apps (greyed out with a little circle underneath) under a heading Edit Pages. All you have to do is click each of the circles and your pages are restored.you don't have to move them from App Library or reinstall.

As for my post about the App Library, to clarify. All I want is Category Names of my choosing, into which I choose the Apps to go in, and in which order the Categories are shown. I don't see why I should have to accept Names Arbitrarily chosen by Apple, and what Apps then go into the Categories. Is that to much to ask. And yes I do know I can search for the Apps, and yes I do know I can drag down and get a list.

I must not have destroyed my pages correctly because I only have one page of apps. I cannot go to a blank page, it’s either my Home Screen page 1 or the App Library. When I wiggle the apps, and tap on the pages icon I get my first page of apps only. There’s no hidden page or pages I can check again to bring back. So in fact the only way to restore my apps is one at a time. I guess Apple should have warned me to only disappear pages at a time when I switched to the library or I was screwed.

johnmd50.... agree with you 100% in how the app should work. For me... totally worthless as it is now. Apps listed in the wrong categories and unable to move is not the “Apple” standard that we are accustomed to.

if you can’t, which appears to be the case, it’s a huge oversight. For me, it affects parental control capabilities: many of my kids’ games are placed in the education category! (The exact opposite!) When I assign screen time limits, they are lumped together, defeating the purpose of being able to allow some apps when blocking others after a certain time limit.