How to delete home-screen icons? Most don't have "deletion X" when jiggling

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Level 2

244 points

How to delete home-screen icons? Most don't have "deletion X" when jiggling

The is the newbie-est question you're likely to see all year, but...

How does one delete unwanted icons from the home screen?

I know how to press and hold an icon so that they all start jiggling, allowing one to rearrange them -- and supposedly to delete unwanted ones. However, when I do that, only one of the icons has a little "X" in its upper left corner which is the thing which when pressed deletes the icon. And that's not even among the icons I wanted deleted. The ones which I do want to delete don't have "X"s on them so I can't delete them.

What am I doing wrong? Is it simply impossible to delete certain icons? If so, why?

Keep in mind that I don't use my iPhone as a mini-computer -- I use it only as a phone -- so I've never actually downloaded or installed any "app" aside from the ones that came with the phone. It is some of these built-in apps which I want to delete -- specifically, "Weather," "Stocks," "YouTube," and "Maps."

(The one icon which does have a "deletion-X" is a bookmarked Safari page (Google, to be precise.) It's just about the only thing I've ever "added" to the home screen.)

This is not a big deal, obviously, I'm just getting tired of looking at all these icons which I've never used and never will use, and tried to delete them and was unable to.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

15" MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 5, 2010 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:07 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

You cannot delete any of the default Apple apps. You can only delete 3rd party apps. The ones that don't have an 'x' are the default Apple apps. If you don't want to see those apps, move them to another page or put them in a folder.

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Answer 2

Tuffy Nicolas Author

Level 2

244 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:10 PM in response to paulcb

How do I put them in a "folder"?

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Answer 3

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:11 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

I assume you have iOS4? If so, drag one icon onto another. You can then drag others into the folder.

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Answer 4

Tuffy Nicolas Author

Level 2

244 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:15 PM in response to paulcb

No, I have OS 1.1.4 with a first-generation iPhone. There doesn't seem to be a way to drag the icons into each other. They just slide off and stay separate.

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Answer 5

DaVBMan

Level 6

9,280 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:17 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

Wow, very old OS. Why not update? Though even if you did, the original iPhone isn't upgradable to the 4.0 update. So wont ever have folders. Just move them to another page.

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Answer 6

Martijn

Level 3

545 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:18 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

You can't delete those standard Apple apps, but you can move them to another screen so you don't have to look at them.
Sometimes I find it hard to do this on the phone, so I'd suggest using iTunes for this: when the iPhone is connected to your computer, in iTunes, click on your phone (under Devices ), click on Apps (on top) and start moving the apps to the second screen (the grey rectangle on the right).
When you're done, sync.

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Answer 7

Tuffy Nicolas Author

Level 2

244 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:24 PM in response to DaVBMan

DaVBMan:

Don't need or want to update because, as I said, I only use it as a phone, and it works just fine as a phone. My motto: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Martijn:

When I launch iTunes on my computer with the iPhone plugged in and select the iPhone under "devices," there is no "Apps" category at the top, and thus no way to rearrange the icons using iTunes this way. I suppose this is due to me me what is (apparently) an "old" OS for my iPhone.

Oh well, I can now that deleting unwanted icons is not possible. It was at least worth asking!

Thanks.

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Answer 8

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:25 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

Like VBMan said, with the original iPhone, your only option is to move them to another page.

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Answer 9

Martijn

Level 3

545 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:39 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

Well, I only have my *iPhone 4* and *iTunes 10* around, so I can't tell where you should look for the Apps section with your software version.
However, multiple screens have always been supported on the iPhone, +nisi fallor+, so when you have you're apps jiggling around, just drag them 'off screen' to the right side. You should be able to move them to the second screen this way. But like I said earlier: sometimes this is a bit hard to do, and you have to try it a couple of times.

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Answer 10

DaVBMan

Level 6

9,280 points

Oct 5, 2010 2:45 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

Understand that desire not to mess with something that works. But there have been numerous security holes also fixed with each update as well as new carrier settings. But if you don't have any personal data on there, guess there isn't much to worry about.

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Answer 11

Tuffy Nicolas Author

Level 2

244 points

Oct 5, 2010 3:54 PM in response to Martijn

Martijn:

I've actually tried already having some of the icons on a second screen, but I actually found that more annoying than having them all on one screen, because I often found myself pondering, "What's on that second screen?," only to go to it and see it was everything I didn't want. But without it all in my face, I forgot what it all is, and thus couldn't say for sure that I no longer wanted it!

Annoying either way, but it's a simpler form of annoying to have everything altogether on one screen, unwanted and wanted.

DaVBMan:

No, I have no personal data of any kind on my iPhone, and don't use it for the Internet at all except for maybe once in a blue moon when I'm in a wi-fi hotspot and bored and waiting for someone. So, I'm not so worried about "security holes," whatever they may be.

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