The iPhone 5 lets you put 16 apps inside a folder

By , Sep 21, 2012

We knew ahead of the iPhone 5 keynote that iOS 6 would take advantage of extra pixels on the iPhone 5 (640-by-1136) in order to render an additional, fifth row of icons. What we didn’t know (but kinda expected) back then was that the per-folder app limit in iOS 6 running on the iPhone 5 would be raised from twelve to sixteen apps.

Strangely enough, even though Forstall and Schiller made a passing mention of this improvement during the unveiling, Apple’s iPhone/iOS pages and the official 155-page iPhone 5 User Guide never detail it.

Now, I’m sure there are better ways to take advantage of those 176 extra lines, but if you’re managing the home screen madness by organizing apps into folders, you’ll quickly learn to appreciate this little nice-to-have which helps reduce the home screen clutter on your device…

Here, a nice example of Sebastien’s Photography folder.


Folders in iOS 6 running on the iPhone 5 now hold sixteen apps each,
four more than on prior iPhones. Click for full rez.

By the way, I love Sebastien’s cherry-picked photography apps.

I’m also giving a thumbs-up to his Apple Crap folder (mine’s called Apple Shit).

The new 16-per-folder limit works out to reduce clutter on your home screen.

I’m an app junkie and have three home screens filled with just folders full of stuff.

16 folders per home screen times three home screens equals to 48 folders.

I can put a total of 48 x 12, or a cool 576 apps, inside those folders on my rusty old iPhone 4S.

When my iPhone 5 arrives, those 48 folders will be able to hold a total of 768 apps (48 x 16 = 768).

In other words: on the iPhone 5, three home screens worth of folders packed to the gills with apps work out to four home screens full of folders on prior iPhones.

Make sense?

Of course, none of this will be of concern to jailbreakers as the Cydia store contains dozens of tweaks that take Folders in iOS far beyond what Apple had originally envisioned.

At any rate, feel free to share your favorite Folders-related tweak with other fellow readers down in the comments.

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  • thedarkknight80

    Don’t matter to me , i use “infinifolders” tweak .

    • http://twitter.com/x_rus_x Vitaliy Anonymous

      It’s great, but for some reason, I had a noticeable lag when opening the folder. I just decided to use multiple folders and call them “(Folder name) 1″ “(Folder name) 2″. Not efficient regarding space, but a bit faster to open.

    • Liu Zhenyu

      Use “Folderenhancer” instead bro.

    • http://www.facebook.com/joe.jonsen Joe Jonsen

      jai breaking is essential for ios

  • http://twitter.com/MCaudebec Maxim∑

    I like iOS 6 but they seriously could have done more than add an extra row of icons

    • http://twitter.com/rickz97 Ricky

      the number of rows is alr good

  • Gu-Kung

    iPhone 5 app isn’t run on full screen. I feel like I use iPhone4. :(

    • http://www.facebook.com/dietermarkus Markus Hudobnik

      You have to wait for the apps to be updated…

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000254498753 Mark Seah

      that is it is always a wise decision…dont be the first batch to get new devices…..wait till everyone has commented, all faults are discovered / resolved…..2,3 mths later, no one needs to Q for the phone anyway!

  • http://www.facebook.com/brentleeper Brent Leeper

    Actually you could have more folders per page, you forgot to mention that. Because you can have 20 apps or folders per home screen vs. 16 on previous iPhones.

  • http://twitter.com/mhdfaran Mohammad Farhan

    bye bye infinifolders !

  • http://twitter.com/rickz97 Ricky

    i just know idb hasi its own app gonna download it

  • http://twitter.com/therealjdizzle Jason Masters

    Wow 16 apps now thats an upgrade!!!!

  • ghettocowboy

    Whoohoo a break thru technology. Because of this, I gotta have iPhone 5. What a major upgrade from 4S.

    • http://twitter.com/scotty_shebs scott sheble

      I think you have Down syndrome

      • Lolhaha

        No he has hydrocefalus.

      • MagicDrumSticks

        You spelled “Hydrocephalus” wrong.

    • http://www.facebook.com/sanil.chitrakar Sanil Chitrakar

      lol

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000254498753 Mark Seah

    i have 20 per page for each folder…..unlimited pages….that is what apple should be doing from day one !!!

    • Falk M.

      bye bye to finding apps quickly LOL

  • http://twitter.com/digitalfeind Dani Hayes

    I opened this link to read the “Infinifolder” comments.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sanil.chitrakar Sanil Chitrakar

    This must be beta version of infinifolder. We’ll get a full version of infinifolder in may be ios8 in 2015. And then idb will make an article on it trying to prove how great apple is. And all the isheep will live happily ever after. :D

    • Kurt

      That’s still iSheep dreaming. We will never get it. But iOS will still look exactly the same

  • http://twitter.com/leothelion96 Leonard Wong

    Great! This will helps when you are trying to place all games in to folders then you found you have 2 or 3 games can’t place in.It is irritating

  • http://www.facebook.com/novemberisagrave Dien Agustin

    WE HAVE FOLDER ENHANCER!!!!

  • Whos_Jeff

    Why is this even a post?

    • MagicDrumSticks

      Because poor fanboys have nothing else to look forward to.

      • Whos_Jeff

        Agreed

  • genXhippie

    Imo this is pathetic attempt of an improvement on Apple’s part. If Apple would have doubled (24 icons per folder) the numbers of allowable icons; I would have applauded. Apple’s seems to believe we should be grateful for the crumbs that are offered. It’s their pompous approach that always drives me to jb my devices asap.