IPHONE
How to keep new apps off the iPhone Home Screen
In short
Open Settings, tap Home Screen & App Library and choose App Library Only. New apps are then installed without adding an icon to the Home Screen. You find them in the App Library, one swipe past your last Home Screen page.
Say you spent an evening arranging your Home Screen just how you like it, and then the next app you download drops its icon onto it. That happens because every app you download normally puts an icon on the Home Screen, and the pages fill up. With one setting, App Library Only, new apps go to the App Library, where your apps are automatically sorted into categories.
On our iPhone, Home Screen & App Library sits between Display & Brightness and Search in the Settings list.
On our iPhone, the page has three groups – Newly Downloaded Apps, Notification Badges and Search – and all of them fit on one screen without scrolling.
4 of 4 steps show a real screenshot from our iPhone 17e.
Steps
- 1
Open Settings and tap Home Screen & App Library
It is in the main Settings list, below Display & Brightness.
- 2
Choose App Library Only
Under Newly Downloaded Apps, the tick was on Add to Home Screen on our iPhone. Tap App Library Only to move the tick there.
- 3
Decide about notification badges
Under Notification Badges, Show in App Library puts the badges on apps in the App Library as well. On our iPhone it was off.
Switch it on if you would otherwise miss notifications from apps that are not on the Home Screen.
- 4
Keep or remove the Search button
Under Search, Show on Home Screen controls the Search button on the Home Screen. On our iPhone it was on.
If you do not see this option
- You cannot find Home Screen & App Library in Settings. On our iPhone it is in the same group as General, Display & Brightness and Search. Apple also says you can tap the search field in Settings, type a term and tap the setting in the results. Source: Organize the Home Screen and App Library on your iPhone
- There is no App Library. Apple says the App Library and these ways to organise apps came with iOS 14, so the phone needs iOS 14 or later. Source: Organize the Home Screen and App Library on your iPhone
If this does not work
- Apps you already had are still on the Home Screen. The setting changes where new apps get downloaded. Apple says to touch and hold an app, tap Remove App, then Remove from Home Screen to move it to the App Library. If your habit is to keep every app you ever downloaded on a page somewhere, this is how you win those pages back.
- You cannot find a new app. Don't worry, it has not gone anywhere. Apple says to swipe left on the Home Screen to the App Library, tap the search field and type the app name.
- Apps sit on a hidden Home Screen page. Apple says to touch and hold an empty area, tap the dots near the bottom, tap the circle under the page and tap Done. The apps are in the App Library either way.
Good to know
To open the App Library, swipe left on the Home Screen until you see the App Library. Your apps are automatically sorted into categories, and you can tap the search field to find an app.
App Library Only never locks an app away. To put an app back on the Home Screen, touch and hold it in the App Library, drag it to the left onto a Home Screen page and tap Done.
Apps you already have stay where they are. To tidy those up: how to delete apps on an iPhone.
About this guide
- Device
- iPhone
- Shown on
- iOS 27.0.1 (iPhone 17e)
- App
- Settings
- Path
- Settings › Home Screen & App Library › App Library Only
- Real screenshots
- 4 of 4 steps
- Checked
- October 2026
- Sources
- 1 official, linked below
The screenshots are from our iPhone 17e on iOS 27.0.1, in dark mode.
What changed: every screenshot is now our own iPhone 17e on iOS 27.0.1, dark mode, and the wording is checked against those screens.
Sources
Links checked October 2026. Menus and features can change with updates.Did this guide work for you?
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