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User profile for user: Richard Girton
Richard Girton Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

iPhone folders disappeared!

Just today (with iOS 4.1 in place since the date of its release), after updating an app (Speed Test) and rebooting the iPhone, all my folders were gone! What I ended up with was 7 pages of apps in alphabetical order, with Apple's apps on the first page.

I tried looking for any preference settings that might allow one to turn on and off folders in iTunes and in iOS 4.1 and found nothing. I opted to try for a restore, hoping that my previous backup (with the folders) would be restored. That didn't work either.

It looks like an hour or two of fun re-establishing my folders from memory for some 115 apps or so!

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks, in advance.

MacBook x 2, eMac, iBook G4, iPhone 3GS x 2, iOS 4

Posted on Sep 14, 2010 6:02 PM

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29 replies
User profile for user: Carolyn Samit
Carolyn Samit
User level: Level 10
165,673 points

Sep 14, 2010 7:22 PM in response to Richard Girton

HI Richard,

Next time you download an app, check Customer Ratings first.

Launch iTunes. Go to the SpeedTest for iPhone app. Scroll down to: Customer Ratings

There's contact information here for the developer. http://www.appstorehq.com/jeffwettstein-28322/developer

That's a frustrating situation especially if you can't restore from a backup.

If you haven't tried, reset your iPhone. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.

If that didn't help, Rrset iPhone settings. From the Home screen choose Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. All your preferences are reset, but no data or media is deleted.

I hope resetting helped...







Carolyn 🙂
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User profile for user: ifarlow
ifarlow
User level: Level 1
95 points

Sep 16, 2010 6:40 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Um, Carolyn, did you actually read what the OP put? What does checking ratings in iTunes have to do with folders disappearing after a reboot of the iPhone?

To the OP: I just had this happen to me this morning on my iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.1. I always reboot after installing or updating an app, and this morning was no different. I updated OmniFocus and rebooted. When the phone came back to life, all my folders were gone any my apps were scattered across multiple pages. What a frustrating mess.

I have never had this happen before, and hopefully won't have it happen again, but who knows...
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User profile for user: Richard Girton
Richard Girton Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Sep 17, 2010 2:05 AM in response to ifarlow

ifarlow,

Thank you for your response. You describe exactly what happened to me, kind of an unpleasant surprise. Nice to know that I am not alone. Also nice to know that it was not something specific to the particular app that I updated. I hadn't seen anyone post on this anywhere else so that is why I initiated this thread. Hopefully others will chime in with their folder loss stories as well? Misery does love company!

Anyway, as I posted earlier, I decided that with flaky behavior, a complete restore was in order and so I let iTunes have its way with the iPhone, wiping it and then reinstalling the iOS and then the apps and content, all from the backup. So far, after recreating all the folders like I had them before, things are back to normal.

I haven't a clue as to why this happened or how to prevent it in the future... I'm wondering about doing intermittent (perhaps every 3 months or so?) prophylactic restores to prevent flaky glitches in the future. It's really not all that painful to let iTunes do everything and just walk away for a while and if I can avoid pain by doing that every now and then, then perhaps that should become a regular practice for me. What would be the downside or risk of this type of practice, as long as your backup is current?

I would certainly be interested in your feedback and/or those of others that might be reading.

To be continued, the discussion at least (hopefully)...
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User profile for user: ifarlow
ifarlow
User level: Level 1
95 points

Sep 17, 2010 4:21 AM in response to Richard Girton

I don't plan on changing my routine... that is, I will continue to reboot after updating or installing new apps. However, I'm not sure that a restore from iTunes on a regular basis is needed. I suppose it couldn't hurt, but might be a bit much. Heck, rebooting after updating or installing new apps might be a bit much!

Like you, I have no idea what happened. It could be that there is something lurking in 4.1 that's a bit flakey, or it could just be one of those things that won't ever happen again. It wasn't the end of the world, but it was shocking to see everything messed up like that. I was concerned that I was going to find so much more that was wrong after the folders disappeared, but luckily the folders issue was the only thing I could find that was wrong.
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User profile for user: ErnieD1
ErnieD1
User level: Level 1
30 points

Sep 17, 2010 6:18 PM in response to ifarlow

I also do a reset after installing anything. The question that I have for you is where are you building the folders? If you are doing it on the iPhone, this may be part of the problem. The reason I say this is simple. I now have 9 folders with an average of 5 apps per folder plus numerous apps that are not in folders. I have these on 3 home screens. I built these folders and arranged the screens in iTunes and then synced them to the phone. Through numerous updates, both of the apps and iOS, I have not had a problem with the setup. It stays as I built it in iTunes.
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User profile for user: nyetowl
nyetowl
User level: Level 1
0 points

Sep 19, 2010 5:43 PM in response to Richard Girton

The same thing happened to me just now. I have not updated my phone recently or purchased any new software since I last turned off the phone. I noticed that a couple of apps were no longer on the page where they were normally found, so I just turned off my phone and turned it back on. That's when all of the folders that had been on my iphone 3gs (just 2 minutes before) disappeared and I had numerous pages of apps. Too weird! No one seems to have an answer so far.
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User profile for user: Mark215
Mark215
User level: Level 1
0 points

Oct 4, 2010 11:00 AM in response to ifarlow

I've had this happen to me also. Been looking for a solution but to no avail. It is extremely frustrating dealing with an unorganized phone right now. I've had several pages set up perfectly with folders then I goto update an app via the app store and all my folders get wiped and only displays my apps in alphabetical order. Apple fix this!
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User profile for user: jstrickphoto
jstrickphoto
User level: Level 1
8 points

Oct 8, 2010 8:09 AM in response to Mark215

I just had this happen this morning while downloading an app. Usually while downloading an app, I'll drag it to it's appropriate folder as part of my organization efforts.

Before the app was finished downloading, the phone's screen went black for a second or two. When it came back, just as you all have described, the apps were alphabetically sorted, all folders were gone and the 4 icons at the bottom were reset to factory settings.

I found THIS thread through a Google search. Based on the comments above, I called Apple Support. They have no record of this happening so I encourage you to call and report this.

I referenced this thread and the support guy DID say they'd look into it.

But, his advice for now was simply restore the phone from the most recent backup then re-download any new apps that are not contained in the backup.

Jamie
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User profile for user: varuscelli
varuscelli
User level: Level 1
8 points

Oct 18, 2010 8:49 AM in response to Richard Girton

This just happened to me, too. I had just finished removing an app and had added another app and moved it to the folder where I wanted it to reside. I hit the sync button in iTunes, and the next time I looked at the screen (both on my monitor and the iPhone itself), I had no folders and all of my apps were spread over several screen pages.

Not knowing an easy way to fix this (perhaps from some kind of manually done backup?), I went from memory of my different folders and apps in them. I have enough apps that this was not an easy or quick exercise, but I got it done. However, it's not something I'd care to repeat if there is a way of avoiding this situation entirely.

For lack of better ideas (I'm a relatively new iPhone user), after I put everything back into place, I went through my iPhone and did screen captures of all my app screens and app folder contents, so I'd have a least some kind of visual reference if I need to reconstruct again. I'm sure this isn't the most efficient solution, but it's at least some kind point of reference I can use.
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User profile for user: EJ8
EJ8
User level: Level 1
4 points

Nov 27, 2010 8:51 AM in response to NuMystic

I lost 35 folders on my iPhone 4 last night. The last thing I remember doing after seeing my folders was install TeamViewer. After that I went back to my phone and all of my apps were spread across 10+ pages. As someone stated earlier all of the Apple original apps were on the first page and then the rest were in alphabetical order. This double restore noted above did work but it restored to a backup that is weeks old. I have much more work to do to get my phone back to where it was last night. This has been very painful and can't imagine this happening on a regular basis. I hope Apple is paying attention to this issue. This is not something I can deal with many more times.
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iPhone folders disappeared!

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