How to organize iPhone apps into folders from your Mac

A MacRumors thread asking for an iTunes alternative to arrange apps into folders “using the big screen” has 6 posts, and we found a second thread on the same thing. On Ask Different, a question about tools for organizing iOS apps into folders has 1,434 views. On Apple Support Communities, someone asked for an easy way to select several apps into folders, remembering how they used to drag them in iTunes.

Making folders on the iPhone itself

This works, but every folder is built from apps that have to be found, picked up and carried across pages. With many folders and many pages, most of the time goes into moving between pages, not into deciding.

1. Touch and hold an empty part of the home screen until the apps jiggle.
2. Drag one app onto another. A folder opens with both apps in it, named after their App Store category.
3. To rename it, tap the name at the top of the open folder and type a new one.
4. To add more, drag apps onto the closed folder. To fill it faster, hold one app with one finger, tap others with a second finger to stack them, and drop the stack on the folder.
5. Tap Done when finished.

Apple Configurator

The usual answer on forums is Apple Configurator, Apple's Mac tool for managed devices. Its Home Screen Layout editor can create folders and drag apps into them. The Home Screen Layout setting is meant for devices an organization manages, and people on Apple's forums report that on their own phones the changes did not stick, or that applying removed their widgets. Our guide on Configurator not saving changes covers this in detail.

Building folders in TidyGrid

TidyGrid also shows the apps that are only in the App Library, so you can pull them into a folder on the home screen without hunting for them on the phone. Arrange by color or A to Z puts folders in place along with apps, but it does not reorder the apps inside folders; you set that order yourself.

1. Connect the iPhone to your Mac with a cable and tap Trust on the phone if it asks.
2. Open TidyGrid. Every page appears side by side, with your existing folders and their contents.
3. Make a folder and type its name.
4. Select the apps that belong in it, with Command-click or by dragging a selection box, and drag them into the folder together. Drag apps back out onto any page if you change your mind.
5. Use the Shelf to park apps you have not decided on yet, and search to find a specific app by name.
6. Press Apply. TidyGrid backs up the current layout, writes the new one with your folders, and checks the phone matches.

Who this works for

• TidyGrid needs a Mac with Apple silicon and a cable between the device and the Mac.
• Reading folders, including folders with several pages, is tested on iPadOS 15, iOS 16, iOS 17 and iOS 27.
• Applying a layout 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 and says why.

What it cannot do

• TidyGrid cannot change the folders in the App Library. Those are made by iOS.
• Arrange does not reorder the apps inside folders.
• TidyGrid does not suggest folder names or group apps by category on its own. You can ask an AI agent connected to TidyGrid to propose folders, which you then review.
• TidyGrid cannot install or delete apps, only move the ones you have.

Questions