How to Stop Adding Apps to the iPhone 13 Home Screen

There are so many good apps available in the iPhone’s App Store that you might find yourself downloading new ones all the time.

While the search feature on the iPhone can help make it easier to find all of these apps, it can be frustrating to scroll through your Home screens as you look for them.

Our tutorial below will show you how to change a setting on your iPhone so that the device stops adding new apps to your Home screen.

How to Only Add New Apps to the App Library on an iPhone

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Select Home Screen.
  3. Tap App Library Only.

Our guide continues below with additional information on only adding new apps to the App Library on an iPhone 13, including pictures of these steps.

If your screen is too bright or too dim, then visit our iPhone 13 brightness article to learn how to adjust it.

If you’ve been using an iPhone for a while, then you are likely familiar with what the device does when you install a new app.

After the app has been downloaded and installed, then its icon will be added to the iPhone 13 Home screen, where you can tap it to launch the app.

As you add more and more apps to your iPhone, it will create additional Home screens that you access by swiping to the left or right.

While this is fine when you don’t have a large number of apps, it can become difficult to manage when you are working with many apps and multiple screens.

With all the apps that are available in the iPhone App Store, it’s pretty easy for you to have a large number of Home screen pages when your iPhone app library fills up with games, utilities, and all of the different apps that various businesses create.

Fortunately, you are able to change a setting on your device so that it stops adding newly installed apps to your iPhone 13 Home screen and only adds them to the App Library. Our guide below with show you where to find and enable this setting.

Our tutorial on how to make your screen stay on longer shows you an interesting setting that controls how long the iPhone waits before it turns off the screen.

How to Disable the Addition of New iPhone Apps to the Home Screen (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 13 in iOS 15.0.2. Note that this App Library feature was only added in iOS 14 so you won’t be able to use it or follow these steps if you are using an iOS version prior to that.

Step 1: Open the Settings app.

open the Settings app

Step 2: Choose the Home Screen option.

select the Home screen option

Step 3: Tap the App Library Only option.

how to stop adding apps to the Home screen on an iPhone 13

Now that you know how to stop adding apps to the iPhone 13 Home screen, you can better control the layout of your apps and keep your Home screen a little easier to navigate.

Our guide continues below with additional discussion on stopping the addition of new apps to the Home screen on an iPhone.

Related: Did you know you can add Web page links to your Home screen? Our how to put a link on iPhone Home screen guide can show you what to do.

How to Add App to Home Screen iPhone 13

Conversely, if you are trying to make it so that your iPhone is able to place new app icons on the Home screen, then you will want to do the opposite of what we discussed in the earlier section.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Choose Home Screen.
  3. Tap the Add to Home Screen option.

Note that this only applies to new apps. It won’t affect the layout of any existing apps on the device.

Now that you know what each of the options in the Newly Downloaded apps section of this menu will do, you can better choose how to manage your iPhone 13 Home screen.

How to Put Apps in Alphabetical Order on iPhone 13

If you’ve amassed a large number of apps on your iPhone over time, it can be tough to find a certain app when you need it. Fortunately, a setting in the Settings menu can assist with this issue. You can quickly and easily re-sort all of your apps alphabetically by using a function in the Settings menu, regardless of whether you’re used to searching or simply swiping through your Home screens to find an app. This can save you a lot of time and work in the long run.

If you want to learn more about how to use this function, we recommend reading our lesson on how to automatically alphabetize iPhone apps. This tutorial includes step-by-step instructions as well as useful hints to make the procedure as easy as possible.

You may want to consider refreshing your Home screen layout in addition to organizing your apps alphabetically. This is especially beneficial if you’ve made numerous modifications to your layout and want to start afresh. To reset your Home screen layout, go to “Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Home Screen Layout > Reset Home Screen > Reset Home Screen.” Once you’ve done this, your default programs will be alphabetized by name, as will all installed third-party apps.

By utilizing these features, you may significantly improve the efficiency and enjoyment of your iPhone experience.

More Information on How to Stop Adding Apps to the Home Screen on an iPhone 13

You can get to the App Library by swiping to the left on the Home screen until you get to the last screen.

You will know that it is the correct location because it says “App Library” at the top of the screen. you will also notice that all of your installed apps are separated into categories like “social,” “games,” “utilities,” and more.

While this is going to prevent your iPhone from adding apps to the Home screen that you install in the future, it isn’t going to affect the apps that you already have on your iPhone.

If you would like to remove an app icon from the Home screen, you can tap and hold on to it, then choose the “Remove App” option.

This will then open a pop-up window where you can choose the “Remove from Home Screen” option. This will leave the app installed on your device but will remove it from the Home screen. You will still be able to find the app in the App Library.

If you want to delete the app entirely, then you would select the Delete App option instead.

You can also use the Spotlight Search feature if you would like to search for apps that are installed.

You can do this by swiping down on the Home screen, then typing the name of the app into the search bar at the top of the screen. You will then see the app icon listed in the search results if it is installed.

One of the reasons that it can be so difficult to locate an app on the iPhone is because of the way that the device simply adds newly-installed apps to the first open spot on the Home screen.

You can change this and sort your apps alphabetically by going to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Home Screen Layout.

This will re-sort all of your apps with the default apps first, followed by all of the third-party apps that you have installed sorted alphabetically.

Where’s Library on iPhone Devices?

Many iPhone users might not even be aware that they have an App Library, especially if they are accustomed to how the device worked prior to the addition of that feature.

The App Library iPhone 7 screen (or any other iPhone model using a newer version of iOS) can be found by swiping left repeatedly.

Eventually (depending on how many Home screen pages you have,) you will get to the App Library on the last page.

Here you can tap on any of the folders to see the installed apps that have been placed in that location.

You can also search for apps on your iPhone by swiping down on the Home screen, then typing the name of the app into the search field.

How to Stop Edit Home Screen on iPhone 13

The Screen Time feature on the iPhone provides you with the ability to control many of the actions that can be taken on the device.

While Apple markets this feature primarily as something that parents can use for their children, it can be used for any device where you might want to block someone from using an app or making a change on the device.

If you would like to prevent someone from editing the Home screen on an iPhone, then you will need to set up a Screen Time passcode on the Settings > Screen Time menu and then make some adjustments to the settings there based on what you wish to prevent on the device.

If you specifically want to stop someone from editing the iPhone Home screen by deleting or installing apps, then you can use these steps.

Step 1: Open Settings.

tap Settings

Step 2: Choose Screen Time.

select Screen Time

Step 3: Touch Use Screen Time Passcode.

tap Use Screen Time Passcode

Step 4: Enter a passcode.

create a passcode

Step 5: Re-enter the password to confirm.

If prompted, you may also need to enter your Apple ID and password for Screen Time Passcode Recovery.

confirm the passcode

Step 6: Choose Content & Privacy Restrictions.

tap content and privacy restrictions

Step 7: Select iTunes & App Store Purchases.

tap iTunes and App Store Purchases

Step 8: Touch Deleting Apps.

tap deleting Apps

Step 9: Tap Don’t Allow.

how to stop edit home screen on iphone

You can also block the ability to install apps as well.

Note that you can’t stop someone from reorganizing the Home screen by moving apps around or putting them into folders.