Different (randomly changing) Icon sizes in iPad OS14

From my personal experience the problem only seems to happen with the iPad Pro series, although a couple of people who have more modern iPads seem to be seeing it as well. This could be an issue associated with the GPUs in the A series processor and certain iPad models have different ones that do not do this.

For me when I accidentally clicked on the Wallpaper setting and closed the settings app, the problem immediately appeared. Even after updating to iPadOS 14.0.1 on both iPad Pro 9.7" and 11", it still exhibits the bug, so the problem is not solved with iPadOS 14.0.1.

As a test, I even reset the settings of the iPad Pro 11", but the issue still persists. This could be similar to the problem some on us face with the Home app being stuck on the Loading Accessories and Scenes screen, in that it is completely random who is affected. From the posts I have read, the problem seems to be associated with the iCloud settings held on the Apple servers. I say this based on the fact that I have that problem on different iPad's that are associated with the same iCloud account and local iPad resets don't solve that either.

But getting back to the problem at hand, from the responses on this post, it seems that anything that is not an iPad Pro or reasonably new iPad seems to be immune from the issue. As for the iPhone series, I am not sure what is causing the factor because quite a selection of models seem to have the problem, but again in a random basis. Again on iPhone series it could be a GPU chipset series issue.

The work-around that appears to solve the problem is that if you need to use the wallpaper setting, follow the points below.

1) Close the Settings app.

2) If the problem shows up, reboot the iDevice.

After a reboot, I have not seen the problem appear unless I revisit the Wallpaper Setting.

Other than that, we'll have to wait for Apple to solve it. However, I wouldn't hold my breath as Apple have been known to be glacial when it comes to solving certain problems. For instance the Zombie Apps problem associated with Inter App Audio was introduced back in iOS 7 and it has never been addressed.

Someone suggested that long pressing on a small icon while in “edit screen” mode changes it to a large Icon. I tried this, and it worked, but then they changed back to the small size. I went back and tried again, only this time I went all around my iPad finding every small icon, including inside individual folders and in the new widgets, and long pressed on each one while in edit screen mode… Once I changed every small icon to the larger size while in edit mode, they stayed large. It’s been two days now and I don’t have any small icons anywhere on my home screen or in the folders.

I hope this helps, I’m sure it’s a glitch that Apple will fix, but this temporary fix seems to be working for me.

iPadOS 14.0.1 (production) resolved the problem for the majority of users.

I fixed my smaller icons this way...

Pick a small one and touch and hold it until you enter edit mode. Move it around to a different location then back to where you want it. Lift finger and tap somewhere else to exit icon edit mode. Do this for all others. Seems to work even after powering off and on.

Fingers crossed!

Have you update to iOS 14.0.1? Supposedly that’s resolved it for *most* users. I’m sure they’re working on it for the rest.

It seems to be affecting lots of iphones and ipads. It also appears to have something to do with wallpapers and how they are causing it when you change them.

i can confirm that is the case, as it only happens when I adjust or change the wallpaper.

here is another discussion on the problem.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-14-different-icon-sizes-on-ipad-and-iphone.2255112/

Holy ***t. Have you tried the obvious i.e restarting. Also, have you tried calling Apple support. I did and they made me Reset certain chosen settings - please note, not the entire device - and it seemed okay for a bit. Then it started again. Then I restarted the device and it’s been okay for a few hours now. I know this is probably useless info, but, just reporting in case it’s useful. Will know better if it remains okay for a week or two. Another option - worst case - might be a factory reset. But it all depends on how much data and config you have on your iPad. And even then it’s not guaranteed.

I can also confirm this interminable icon inconsistency intermittently occurs on my iPad (5th generation) model MP2F2LL/A running iPadOS 14.0.1.

I submitted a bug report via the feedback page and would encourage other affected individuals to consider doing so as well... https://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Looks normal to me. You can change the app icons by going to Settings app > Home Screen& Dock

My 2018 iPad Pro only started doing this after the 14.0.1 update. Didn’t notice the issue with the original iPadOS 14 install

14.0.1 seemed to fix it on mine too, but just for a few days. It soon started up again.

It started happening on my 2020 iPad Pro when I changed the size of the icons. Next update should fix it

iOS 14.2 hasn't been release publicly so if you're using Beta, report to them.