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iOS Home Page icon Placement

When I try to place Home Screen icons on my iOS devices the screen goes nuts and moves all of the icons in a way that makes it impossible to place things where I want them to be. Icons swirl around and end up in nonsense places or pop to the next screen so I have to chase after them and bring them back to the screen I was working on. Is there a method to move ONLY the icon that I want to move without the wacky screen dance happening every time?

Thanks,

Pete D.

iPad Air, iPadOS 17

Posted on Oct 3, 2023 6:32 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 4, 2023 11:21 AM

I don't think the way that the icons do a doe-see-doe around each other is necessary. That, along with the cutsie animation is just annoying (to me).

What I want to happen is for the icon I'm moving to simply replace the app in the target position. Just swap places. This would allow me to deal with one thing at a time.

The rolling around of all of the icons changing positions of the "non-involved" icons is baffling, unnecessary, and overly silly looking (again, to ME).

I want the icons I've aligned to the left and right side of the screen (for example) to remain there when I move icons that don't involve them.

When a full screen is involved the swapping of icons between screens would be addressable and outside the scope of what I'm addressing here.

I would really prefer the conduct of the icons to be a user selectable item.

Thanks for discussing,

Pete D.

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10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 4, 2023 11:21 AM in response to B123code

I don't think the way that the icons do a doe-see-doe around each other is necessary. That, along with the cutsie animation is just annoying (to me).

What I want to happen is for the icon I'm moving to simply replace the app in the target position. Just swap places. This would allow me to deal with one thing at a time.

The rolling around of all of the icons changing positions of the "non-involved" icons is baffling, unnecessary, and overly silly looking (again, to ME).

I want the icons I've aligned to the left and right side of the screen (for example) to remain there when I move icons that don't involve them.

When a full screen is involved the swapping of icons between screens would be addressable and outside the scope of what I'm addressing here.

I would really prefer the conduct of the icons to be a user selectable item.

Thanks for discussing,

Pete D.

Jun 1, 2024 4:22 AM in response to Phil0124

You guys really need to try an android phone. I just used a new google pixel for 6 months…with android you can organize your home screens in any way you’d like. For example, I organized mine in a hotshot pattern so I could see my kid’s faces in the background photo. I came back to iPhone because of the issue with iMessage group chats (see justice department case against apple for anti-consumer behavior). Home Screen on apple could be done much better…very frustrating for me as a returning apple user

Oct 3, 2023 7:03 AM in response to Pjd813

The icons move in a very specific way to accommodate the icons you are moving around.

When you move icons, other icons, need to get out of the way to make room for the icon you are moving. There's no way to move an icon and not have others around it move to make room for it.


If a specific line of icons is already full when you move an icon to it, then the icon closest to the right edge will move to the next line when you drag the new icon over that line, pushing the icons on the next line off by one. Not sure how else you expect it to work? There's has to be room to drop the icon somewhere and if there's no room, then the icons need to move to make room.


If the icons move such that the last line is also full, but needs to accommodate another icon, then yes, the right-most icon on the last line will move to the next page.


Not sure what exactly you expect, if icons don't move then you would have nowhere to drop the icon you are moving.


It can't be static and still accommodate a new icon, if there's no room for it.


You can alleviate this, by having the last space on the last line of every page always be empty. Then moving an icon around will not cause the last icon to move to the next page.

Oct 3, 2023 7:15 AM in response to Pjd813

Not sure what you expect, but you can’t put an app where there isn’t room for it. The icons move to accommodate the change. Apps are restrained to a grid-like pattern, trying to place an app in between other apps will not work and your device will snap the app into place and intelligently move other apps out of the way. Apple devices are designed to be clean, and placing apps between other apps, outside of the grid would not be very practical. Additionally, if you are attempting to move apps like on an Android, where apps can be placed floating around without gravitation, then this is normal as on an iPad this isn’t possible, as all apps are gravitated towards the top left corner in columns. Please elaborate on what you mean, as there is only so much I can try to do for you with this limited information. So far, this seems normal to me.

Jun 2, 2024 12:29 PM in response to Phil0124

“Apple and its employees and contractors do not accept, review or consider any unsolicited ideas, works, materials, proposals, suggestions, artwork, content or the like, including for advertising campaigns, promotions, products, services, technologies, product enhancements, processes, marketing strategies, product names, content or creative materials (all of the foregoing “submissions”). Please do not send or provide any submissions in any form to Apple or any of its employees or contractors.”


oh well. guess we’ll just have to live with it

Jun 12, 2024 8:56 AM in response to pjkpjkpjkpjk

pjkpjkpjkpjk wrote:

You guys really need to try an android phone. I just used a new google pixel for 6 months…with android you can organize your home screens in any way you’d like. For example, I organized mine in a hotshot pattern so I could see my kid’s faces in the background photo. I came back to iPhone because of the issue with iMessage group chats (see justice department case against apple for anti-consumer behavior). Home Screen on apple could be done much better…very frustrating for me as a returning apple user

Go look at the recording of WWC 2024. The link is on Apple's main page. Changes are coming.

iOS Home Page icon Placement

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