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App Library is the feature, first introduced in iOS 14, that automatically groups and surfaces your installed apps. It is located to the right of your final organized iOS home screen.

I find App Library too good and want to disable it. App Library:

  • Surfaces apps that I want to hide in a folder and avoid using.
  • Makes apps easily accessible even if I hide home screens via a Focus.
  • Doesn't show the Dock apps, which make my most frequently used apps harder to open.

Is there a way to disable App Library and return to a finite number of apps, folders, and Springboard home screens? As it behaved on iOS 1-13.

Settings app has a Home Screen section, but (in iOS 15) no way to control using App Library.

With iOS 14 and later, there are new ways to find and organize the apps on your iPhone — so you see what you want, where you want. Learn how to use the App Library and organize your Home Screen.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211345

How to disable iOS App Library

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    This feature is one of the worst for me. I have several apps that I want to "hide" from my kids (basically games that I don't want them playing and messing up my progress). I have done everything (hide notifs, hide from search, bury in folders, etc) but then the kids swipe right and boom! there it is. The fact that Apple has "hide from search" but didn't think to include "hide from app library" is unreal.
    – ryvantage
    Commented Oct 30, 2022 at 14:45

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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You can't disable or turn off the App Library.

However, you can bypass it so that newly downloaded apps are displayed on the Home Screen instead:

  1. Open Settings -> Home Screen.
  2. Under Newly Downloaded Apps, select Add to Home Screen.
  3. Under Notification Badges, turn off Show in App Library.
  4. Unhide all your Home Screens to avoid accidentally swiping into the App Library.
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