How to Reset Your iPhone or iPad’s Home Screen Layout

by Lowell Heddings on

After you’ve had your iDevice for a while, you’ll end up with a home screen completely confused and littered with apps and folders and you can’t find anything. Here’s how to reset to the default iOS screen so you can start over.

Note: This will not delete any applications that you’ve installed. It’s just going to move the icons around.

Reset the iOS Home Screen to the Default Layout

Open up the Settings panel, go to General, and then scroll down to the bottom to find the Reset item.

Inside of that screen you’ll want to use the Reset Home Screen Layout option (make sure not to use the other options).

Once you’ve done so, head back to the home screen to find all your default icons on the default screen, and then all your other app icons will be on the rest of the screens. So you can start reorganizing all over again.

Lowell Heddings, better known online as the How-To Geek, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on if you'd like.