It’s time to tidy up your iPhone: spring is in the air and a whole new summer awaits us, so take time out to tidy up iOS. In this article we’re going to look at how to organise your iPhone, tidy up apps, sort out apps and remove duplicates and unwanted items.
Follow this advice to make your iPhone cleaner, sleeker and easier to use.
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Organise your iPhone home screen
The first thing you should do is get rid of any Home Screen clutter. Over time you install apps, games and other junk that you never use. Unwanted apps take up space on your iPhone and make the interface more difficult to use. Follow these steps to tidy up your iPhone’s Home Screen:
- Start by removing any unwanted apps. Tap and hold any app icon until all the app icons start to jiggle around.
- Tap the Remove Icon (the small ‘x’) next to any unwanted app and choose Delete.
- Tap the Home Button to exit “Jiggle Mode” and return to normal.
How to sort apps into folders
- Organise your remaining apps into folders. Tap and hold any icon again to enter “Jiggle Mode”.
- Drag an app icon on top of a similar app to create a folder containing both apps.
- The folder will automatically have a name (based on the type of apps) but you can rename it.
- Tap outside the folder to return the Home Screen and continue dragging and dropping icons into folders.
How to move icons and folders
Now you can drag and drop icons and folders between screens to gather them all together. Follow these steps to organise app icons and folders:
- Drag an icon (or folder) to the far side of the screen to switch to the next screen. Keep holding the app icon and now position it where you want on the display.
- This enables you to move apps and icons to just a few screens. Move all of the apps and folders to the first or second screen if possible. This makes it much easier to find apps on your iPhone.
- If you have a lot of loose icons try dragging them to a temporary folder, then dragging the folder to the Dock and switching to screen you want, now drag the icons back out of the Folder on the Dock to the destination screen.
Sort out your contacts on an iPhone
With your app icons in place, the next thing you should do is sort out your contacts. Follow these steps to tidy up your contacts on an iPhone:
- Open the Contacts app (it’s found in the Extras folder by default).
- Tap the Add icon to create a new contact for any new people in your life. Fill out the New Contact fields and tap Done to add the person to your contacts.
- Take time to get rid of any out-of-date contacts. To remove a contact first select it so you can see its details. Tap the Edit icon in the top right and scroll right down to the bottom. Here you will see the Delete Contact button, tap it and Delete Contact again to remove the contact from your iPhone.
If you have a lot of contacts you should use the Search icon at the top to look for those you want to remove.
Remove duplicate photos
Duplicate photos (and unwanted photos in general) are a real pain on the iPhone. You can remove duplicate photos from the iPhone using the Photos app. Follow these steps to remove duplicate photos from the iPhone:
- Tap on the Photos icon to open the Photos app.
- Tap on the photo collections (in Years and Moments) to find the photo you want to remove.
- Tap the Delete icon in the bottom-right of the window.
- Tap Delete Photo to remove it from your photo collection.
Remove unwanted music
Remove unwanted music tracks from your iPhone to have just the audio files you want. Follow these steps to remove unwanted music from your iPhone:
- Open the Music app.
- Tap Songs to view a list of songs.
- Slide your finger right across an unwanted track.
- Tap the red Delete icon.
This removes the track from your Music app. This only works for tracks that have been downloaded to your iPhone, if the track is stored on iCloud (indicated by a small iCloud icon on the right) then the track isn’t taking up space on your iPhone so you don’t need to delete it.
Take things further: How to spring-clean iOS
To take things further you should remove junk files and cached content from your iPhone or iPad. In this How to clean iOS junk feature we look at:
- Deleting the Safari cache
- Removing iOS file data
- Using Mac apps like PhoneClean to tidy up an iPhone
- Recovering memory using Battery Doctor
- It’s a great feature if you are in a spring-clean mood and want to spruce up your iPhone.
Read: How to clean iOS junk: clear out files, recover memroy and empty the cache
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