Unable to move or organize apps after iOS 26 update on iPhone 16 Pro

It’s a two hand process. I was able to move an app after holding it for a few seconds of jiggling and kept hold it while using my other hand to swipe to the page I wanted the app to be and was able to place it in the correct folder. Once in the folder I was able to rearrange the folder. The iOS is 26.0.1.

I am repeating this message in case you missed it in another post. It does work but it is extremely slow.

UNTIL THEY FIX IT, BE PATIENT, TAKE YOUR TIME.

Moving apps has been a challenge, but all of a sudden I’m able to do it with lots of patience.

I have an iPhone 17 Air, iOS 25.1, with 1GB memory. Yes, I have a hundreds of apps, but that should not be a reason that I can’t move them around the screen easily like in previous iOS versions.

However, I have noticed that yesterday I finally figured out how to move apps and folders, even though it takes up to five minutes or more for each move.

Here’s what I have to do:

HOW TO MOVE A FOLDER TO ANOTHER PAGE

1 - press gently and hold on the folder until the window opens with the message “Edit Home Screen”

2 - Select “Edit Home Screen”.

3 - hold your finger gently against the folder that you want to move and wait patiently until it starts to expand just slightly.

4 - Then slowly move your finger with the folder toward the left side of the screen until you can just barely see your folder on the page. Then after a minute or so, the next page will arrive coming across slowly to put you on that next page. Never let go of with your finger on the screen.

5 - if this is not the correct page that you want then continue holding where you’re at on the left edge of the screen so that it will move to next page.

6 - Wait until the page stabilizes completely holding your finger with the folder into the position where you exactly want it to be left. Sometimes other folders will start to move around and not allow you to put the folder where you want it. You have to move it around slowly until finally it will give up and let you put it where you want it. Sometimes after a couple of minutes, it will give up and you will see the folder name appear at the bottom of the folder.

7 - Once this happens it is an indication that you should be able to let go with your finger. Don’t touch anything yet, but wait just a little bit and then you should be able to touch the END button at the upper right of the screen letting it know that you have completed the operation.

8 - hopefully after about five minutes working time, the folder will remain where you want it and you have successfully completed your task.

HOW TO REARRANGE OR MOVE AN APP INTO A FOLDER

1 - the steps are similar to moving a folder to another page with some exceptions.

2 - 1st place your finger on the app that you want to move and wait until the screen starts to jiggle the apps. Then select “Edit home screen.”

3 - once the app starts to expand in size just slightly you can then slide your finger to move where you would like it to be placed on the screen. If you’re moving it into a folder, slide it over the top of the folder and hold it there for at least a minute and a half until the folder starts to change its look. If it starts to expand in size a little you should be able to place that app inside the folder. But wait!

4 - don’t let go of your finger until you’re sure that that app is setting in a safe place inside that folder before you release the finger.

5 - once everything looks good then let go of your finger and don’t touch anything for another minute or so. Then you can click the END button at the upper right of the screen to stop the operation.

DEDICATION, PATIENCE, AND LOTS OF TIME IS REQUIRED TO DO EACH OF THESE OPERATIONS UNTIL THEY ARE SUCCESSFUL. A lot of trial and error until you can successfully complete these steps is required.

I don’t know if it’s a matter of memory problems that’s causing these operations that used to only take a few seconds to do.

I hope Apple can resolve this as quickly as possible.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE. 😎

I finally managed to find the trick: after long pressing on the app’s icon I wanted to move, and the app begins to jiggle, I pressed my finger on the circle that contains “-” at the top left side of the icon, and finally managed to drag the app to the target folder.

Shay

The suggestion to hold the icon for an extended amount of time works. A very long press. Be patient.

I have it on both my 16 Pro Max and my 17 Pro Max. Hopefully, an iOS bug fix will come out soon. The AI suggestions for what to try are all pretty drastic other than doing a Force Restart. The Force Restart didn't solve the issue on either of my phones. Aside from the selected app temporarily disappearing, I also cannot access any of my other desktop screens until I hit Done. I CAN rearrange other icons on the page after the desired one disappears, but I'm not sure I have control of that. It seemed to just happen while I was trying to figure out where my disappeared icon went.

It takes about three minutes to move an app using edit Home Screen.

First, I hold on an app and it starts to jiggle, and then I select edit home screen. Then I hold onto the app as long as it takes until finally, it will allow me to start to move it. I slide it down toward the lower part of the screen over on the far left side and hold it there with it just partially showing and wait a long time until it finally shifts to the next home screen that is there if I want to put it into a folder that exists, I can move it up to that folder and then hold it over that folder until finally the border around the folder, changes color and I can let go of the app. After that, then I take the app and with my finger and slide it into whatever part of that folder that I want it to be at.

If I accidentally hold the app, just a little bit too much off center or trying to slide to a different home screen and miss holding it exactly on the edge of the Apple screen it will not take affect, and the app will go back to where it was originally.

This whole process takes up to three minutes just to move one app. Sometimes the app will disappear and end up back in its original position instead of where I’ve tried to place it. Yes it is frustrating.

I am using iOS 26.one on an iPhone 17 air.

Moving apps has been a challenge, but all of a sudden I’m able to do it with lots of patience.

I have an iPhone 17 Air, iOS 25.1, with 1GB memory. Yes, I have a hundreds of apps, but that should not be a reason that I can’t move them around the screen easily like in previous iOS versions.

However, I have noticed that yesterday I finally figured out how to move apps and folders, even though it takes up to five minutes or more for each move.

Here’s what I have to do:

HOW TO MOVE A FOLDER TO ANOTHER PAGE

1 - press gently and hold on the folder until the window opens with the message “Edit Home Screen”

2 - Select “Edit Home Screen”.

3 - hold your finger gently against the folder that you want to move and wait patiently until it starts to expand just slightly.

4 - Then slowly move your finger with the folder toward the left side of the screen until you can just barely see your folder on the page. Then after a minute or so, the next page will arrive coming across slowly to put you on that next page. Never let go of with your finger on the screen.

5 - if this is not the correct page that you want then continue holding where you’re at on the left edge of the screen so that it will move to next page.

6 - Wait until the page stabilizes completely holding your finger with the folder into the position where you exactly want it to be left. Sometimes other folders will start to move around and not allow you to put the folder where you want it. You have to move it around slowly until finally it will give up and let you put it where you want it. Sometimes after a couple of minutes, it will give up and you will see the folder name appear at the bottom of the folder.

7 - Once this happens it is an indication that you should be able to let go with your finger. Don’t touch anything yet, but wait just a little bit and then you should be able to touch the END button at the upper right of the screen letting it know that you have completed the operation.

8 - hopefully after about five minutes working time, the folder will remain where you want it and you have successfully completed your task.

HOW TO REARRANGE OR MOVE AN APP INTO A FOLDER

1 - the steps are similar to moving a folder to another page with some exceptions.

2 - 1st place your finger on the app that you want to move and wait until the screen starts to jiggle the apps. Then select “Edit home screen.”

3 - once the app starts to expand in size just slightly you can then slide your finger to move where you would like it to be placed on the screen. If you’re moving it into a folder, slide it over the top of the folder and hold it there for at least a minute and a half until the folder starts to change its look. If it starts to expand in size a little you should be able to place that app inside the folder. But wait!

4 - don’t let go of your finger until you’re sure that that app is setting in a safe place inside that folder before you release the finger.

5 - once everything looks good then let go of your finger and don’t touch anything for another minute or so. Then you can click the END button at the upper right of the screen to stop the operation.

DEDICATION, PATIENCE, AND LOTS OF TIME IS REQUIRED TO DO EACH OF THESE OPERATIONS UNTIL THEY ARE SUCCESSFUL. A lot of trial and error until you can successfully complete these steps is required.

I don’t know if it’s a matter of memory problems that’s causing these operations that used to only take a few seconds to do.

I hope Apple can resolve this as quickly as possible.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE. 😎

HO HO HO!!! NO 🎄 MERRY CHRISTMAS GIFT 🎁 TO 📱iPHONE USERS YET. I have now downloaded iOS 26.2 and have found no improvements to this situation. As a matter of fact, it’s even gotten a little bit worse.

NEW ALERT: When trying to move an app to a new folder on another page, once you get to that page, sometimes it will quickly move to the next page of folders to the left and want you to drop the app on that page. You have to make sure you don’t let go of the app icon and move it back to the right to get it back again to the page and folder that you need. You’ll have to hold it for a little bit to make sure that it stays on that page and then begin to put it in the folder that you want. Be careful because it does odd things trying to adjust positions of folders on that page.

There have been no improvements that I have hoped for on this moving apps situation.

I guess Apple doesn’t want to give us a 🎄Merry Christmas gift of having this whole situation working correctly for the multiple thousands of people that are having this problem.

The post was created before any updates were released to iOS 26. From what I am reading the latest update for iOS 26.2 made this and some other issues even worse.

I’m simply not updating iOS past 26.1 until I see positive reviews on a release version that resolves these issues. If you own a Mac you can usually roll back to previous version if you have back ups stored in iCloud from before the updates. Otherwise you will have to just wait for Apple to realize how bad they messed things up and fix them.

Having the same issue on iPhone 17 Air before and after updating to latest release of iOS 26.0.1 Also my apps are still blanking out and show up as gray blotches even though the latest release said it would solve this issue. It has not. They do eventually load up but Apple released this iOS 26 long before it was ever ready for public use based on how boggy it currently is at this time. Hate it when companies rush products to market and don’t pay attention to perfecting it first.

I had this for a few iOS releases first it was only for Apple default apps but now with iOS 26 I’m unable to rearrange any apps when I move them the other apps don’t move out the way anymore.

Apple, please fix this

Me too! I regret downloading iOS 26 because of this! I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max and rely HEAVILY on being able to relocate apps and folders to reorganize them. Please fix this ASAP! This is an unacceptable glitch for releasing a new iOS. Apple should have caught this months ago.

My apps wouldn’t move into folders following the IOS26 update, so when Apple came up with the latest bug fix I was hopeful of change! Unfortunately the problem still persists?

[Edited by Moderator]

I have the same problem with iOS 26.1. I cannot move my apps or put them into folders or move them to a different screen that contains more folders.

Another issue I have found is that the screen is very slow to refresh when I move from one screen panel to the next screen panel, which I have quite a few since I have many apps in folders. This is getting frustrating because any new apps I might add end up at the end screen that has new apps showing. But I can’t move them and put them into folders that I want to put them in elsewhere on my phone.