How to move multiple apps at once on iPhone

People have asked for bulk moving for over ten years: a 2015 MacRumors thread runs to 24 posts, a 2023 Apple Support Communities question about quickly organizing apps has 187 “me too” votes, and a 2025 thread asks for the old iTunes drag across screens.

The two-finger stack, step by step

You can collect apps from more than one page: swipe to the next page with the second finger while the first finger keeps holding the stack, then tap more apps there. You can also drop the stack on top of a folder to put every app inside it.

1. Touch and hold an empty part of the home screen until the icons jiggle. If a menu appears instead, tap Edit Home Screen.
2. With one finger, touch an app and move it slightly so it lifts off the grid. Keep that finger down for the whole move.
3. With a second finger, tap each other app you want to bring. Each one flies onto the stack under your first finger, and a badge shows how many apps you are carrying.
4. Still holding, move to the edge of the screen to go to another page, or open a folder by holding the stack over it.
5. Lift your finger to drop all the apps at once, then tap Done.

Where the stack goes wrong

• If the first finger lifts by accident, the whole stack is dropped wherever it is. The apps land on the current page and push everything else along.
• Dropping a stack on a full page pushes apps at the end of that page onto the next one, so moving 10 apps can shuffle three pages.
• Hovering too long over another app can open a folder or create a new one when you meant to pass by.
• You only see one page at a time, so on a phone with many pages it is easy to lose track of where things are going.
• It is a two-handed move. Many people find it awkward on a large phone, and it is hard to do at all with one hand.

Moving many apps at once from your Mac

TidyGrid shows every home screen page side by side on your Mac, on the phone's real grid. You select apps the way you select files: Command-click each one, or drag a box around a group. Then drag the selection to any page, into a folder, onto a new page, or out to the App Library.

If you are not sure where some apps should go yet, drop them on the Shelf, a holding area beside the pages, and place them later. Every move can be undone and redone, and nothing reaches the phone until you press Apply, which saves a backup of the current layout first and then checks the phone matches the draft.

1. Connect the iPhone to your Mac with a cable and tap Trust.
2. Open TidyGrid and find the apps you want, using search if you have many pages.
3. Command-click them or drag a selection box, then drag them where they belong.
4. Check the pages, then press Apply.

Who this works for

• The two-finger stack works on any recent iOS version, free, on the iPhone itself.
• TidyGrid needs a Mac with Apple silicon and a cable to the iPhone. Reading a layout is tested on iPadOS 15, iOS 16, iOS 17 and iOS 27.
• Applying a layout from TidyGrid is tested on iPadOS 15.3.1 and iOS 27.2. iOS 16, iOS 17, iOS 18 and iOS 26 are still in testing, and on those TidyGrid opens the layout read-only.

What it cannot do

• iOS has no box selection: on the phone you collect apps one tap at a time.
• TidyGrid moves apps you already have. It cannot install or delete apps.
• TidyGrid does not keep empty spaces you left between icons on purpose, because it cannot see them.
• TidyGrid works over a cable, not over Wi-Fi.

Questions