How to regain your iOS device’s stock Home screen layout

By , May 17, 2012

With so many tweaks available that allow you to rearrange your Home screen in various ways, it’s almost inevitable that you end up with a Home screen that looks nothing like the original Home screen that you started with.

Fortunately there’s a really easy way to reset your app icon layout on your Home screen.

A good lot of you are probably already aware that such an option exists, but it’s a nice reminder since recent tweaks like Dashboard X can result in drastically altered Home screens that can be time consuming to rearrange by hand.

Take a look at our video walkthrough for more information…

To reset your Home screen layout to default, simply do the following: go to Settings > General > Reset > and tap Reset Home Screen Layout.

You will receive a prompt asking you to confirm. Once you confirm, the app icon layout will switch back to the stock layout. This technique works on all iOS devices.

Like I said, most of you will probabaly be aware of this, but be sure to leave me a note in the comments if this was helpful for you.

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  • http://www.imaxforiphone.co.cc/ Michael McMillen

    I already knew how to do this but oddly a lot of people don’t.

  • http://twitter.com/oneBurge Burge

    Or just connect to iTunes and hit restore…

    No don’t only joking…… Use the above way ..

  • http://twitter.com/SomaXD somaxd

    i would mention that it doesnt reset any jailbreak stuff. (IE: it doesnt break jailbreaks) for people who might have been scared to hit a Stock Apple Reset button. lol.

  • http://twitter.com/iKrill Antonio Santos

    It Also organizes apps A-Z order.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nick-Chambers/1371602241 Nick Chambers

    I, for one, had no idea you could do this. And I have wanted to in the past and have been jailbreaking for a long time..

  • http://www.facebook.com/antman217 Anthony Antunez

    I’ve been using this since iOS 2.0, I love having my apps in alphabetical order so they are much easier to find especially for those people that have like 8 pages of apps. I guess it’s good to remind people especially those that just joined the iOS gang.

  • http://twitter.com/AbuNur07 Corelle L.Williamson

    OMG now my phone keeps crashing and looping! >:( WTH!

    It will not exit out Safe MODE!!!

  • http://twitter.com/khalids19 Khalid Salim

    I seriously didn’t know about this and I was simply curious now today…I finally know how to, thanks mate

  • Anonymous

    Noticed a spelling mistake. It should be “app” instead of “qpp” in the second paragraph ^_^

  • http://twitter.com/chrpye chrpye

    Jeff,
    Thanks, but this trick is useless in my opinion.

    Provide us instead with a trick that does the exact opposite, that is, rearrange the icons exactly the way you saved ‘em at an instant X,
    (so that u don’t lose your o’ so precious own Folder organization & doesn’t take you 2 days to rearrange your icons back, when your phone crashes & goes into safe mode, which happenned to me quite a few times).

    • Kok Hean

      If you have Springtomize 2, use Time Machine.

      • http://twitter.com/chrpye chrpye

        Thanks a lot for providin an option.
        I never looked into springtomize as I was a little afraid of too heavy tweaks like winterboard ( and thought Springtomize felt in that category) as it was not always well thought of from what I read here and there.

        Do you confirm “time machine” records specific “gridlock” & “FolderEnhancer” customization ?
        If yes, I will definitely look further into it, just for this feature, as I probably won’t use the other multiple customization options that it provides…

      • Kok Hean

        GridLock and FolderEnhancer rely on a package called IconSupport, which is supposed to help retain your home screen layout. Since Springtomize 2 doesn’t have this dependency, it probably uses something else. I don’t have these purchased, but I’ll install them using other alternatives and let you know.

      • Kok Hean

        Update: it doesn’t work for Gridlock.

    • http://twitter.com/AbuNur07 Corelle L.Williamson

      can some one hlep me with my comment above? I did it and now Im stuck in safe mode i right not I cant do nothing but update?

      • http://twitter.com/oneBurge Burge

        Swipe the status bar ..then hit respring

      • http://twitter.com/oneBurge Burge

        Swipe the status bar ..then hit respring

      • http://twitter.com/AbuNur07 Corelle L.Williamson

        t keeps respringing to do the same thing

      • http://twitter.com/oneBurge Burge

        Sorry just read above…
        In safe mode go in to Cydia and uninstall what you just installed

      • http://twitter.com/oneBurge Burge

        When your in safe mode that is..

      • http://twitter.com/AbuNur07 Corelle L.Williamson

        no apps work it just keep restringing

      • Joshua Rawlings

        Google “infinite iPhone loop”

      • http://twitter.com/oneBurge Burge

        Ok .. This will restore your device .. You will lose your jailbreak if you have one ?
        Connect to USB and start iTunes .. Hold down home button ( keep it down )
        It will take some time but your iPhone will go in to recover mode .. And iTunes will recognise your device .. ..restore..
        You will loose your jailbreak ..
        Depending on what device this is and if you have SHSH’s saved your can downgrade back to 5.0.1 and re jailbreak ..

      • http://twitter.com/AbuNur07 Corelle L.Williamson

        Thanks! I went a head and up dated I heard the 5.1.1 jail break was near completion anyways. Will be out jail break till then! It’s all good.

  • http://twitter.com/rud0lf77 Rudolf Lichtner

    I was pretty sure that all people know this already…

  • prosperity

    Good one – I just spent half an hour trying to go back to the original the hard way.

  • Faye

    Thanks a lot!