What to do if your iPhone home screen disappears
Even if all your home screens are accounted for, you could still learn a fun new trick.
You’re flipping through your iPhone’s home screens, but something’s wrong. There’s Mail, right where it should be on the first one, and there’s Instagram, nestled safely among other social media apps on page three, but Google Maps is nowhere to be found. You swipe right, left, then right again, slowly realizing your preferred navigational program (and everything that was on the page with it) has vanished.
No, Google did not reach deep into your personal device to hold some apps hostage until you stop using DuckDuckGo. You accidentally hid or deleted the home page yourself. There’s no grand conspiracy, and it’s easy to recover what you’ve lost.
How to delete or rearrange home pages on iOS
To understand how to get your page back, you must understand where it has gone. First, long-press on an empty space anywhere on your home screen, or on the dots at the bottom of the screen that show how many pages of apps you have. All the apps will begin jiggling. You can also get here by pressing on an app and selecting Edit Home Screen.
Now, tap the dots at the bottom of your screen to open up a similarly wiggly display of all your home screens. You can press on one and drag it to rearrange the order, but if you want to hide or delete one, tap the check mark under it. If you see one that’s unchecked (like the one holding your lost Google Maps), that means it’s hidden—tap the empty circle to put it back. To go a step further and delete an entire home page, touch the minus icon that appears after you remove the check mark.
If you choose to delete a home page, your apps won’t disappear—they’ll still be available from your App Library, and iOS tells you as much. Confirm Remove to trash the whole page.
How to recover your deleted app shortcuts
To get to any apps that are no longer on a home page, swipe left from the last available home screen to open the App Library or swipe down to open the iOS search menu. You can look for your missing apps in either location and open them right from the results screen.
But to put an app back on your home screen, you’ll have to go to the App Library. Once there, search for the program, long-press on it, and select Add to Home Screen. That’s it. And you didn’t even need Google Maps to guide you.
