How to set if new iPhone or iPad apps are downloaded to the Home Screen or App Library only

Apple gives you the option to choose for yourself where new iPhone and iPad app downloads will appear. Follow along as we show you how to set whether newly downloaded apps are added to the Home Screen or appear only in the App Library.

iPhone app downloads - App Library hero image

App Library on the Home Screen

iPhone and iPad App Library automatically organizes apps into one central view at the end of your Home Screen pages. It also lets you browse all of your installed apps alphabetically and automatically sorts your apps into categories like Social or Games.

Set where new iPhone and iPad app downloads go

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Choose Home Screen from the main list. On iPad, it’s called Home Screen & Multitasking.
  3. Under the heading Newly Downloaded Apps, select Add to Home Screen or App Library Only.
Set new iPhone apps to download only to App Library

Here’s what each option does:

  • Add to Home Screen: New iPhone apps you download get added to the Home Screen. Plus, they automatically show up in the App Library. Recent app downloads can always be found within the App Library’s Recently Added folder.
  • App Library Only: New app downloads are added to the App Library only and won’t appear on any of your Home Screens. This works especially great if you opt to hide unimportant app pages on the Home Screen for quicker access to the App Library.

And that’s how you set where new iPhone and iPad app downloads should appear.

Additional notes

So what happens if you enable the App Library Only option and later revert to the Add to Home Screen setting? Shouldn’t doing so automatically make any apps you’ve downloaded while the App Library Only option was selected re-appear on the Home Screen? In a word, no.

And this is by design to avoid cluttering your Home Screen. Remember that at any time, you can tap and hold an app icon in the App Library and drag it straight to the Home Screen. And conversely, you can remove any app from the Home Screen by holding its icon, then choosing Remove App > Remove from Home Screen. Doing so will hide the said app from the Home Screen without deleting it permanently.

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