How To Delete Apps On iPhone/iPad: Remove Apps Or Icons Permanently

Want to delete an app that is taking up precious space on your iPhone or iPad? Well, there are a few different ways to make those unused programs disappear. In this article, we’ll show you the simple steps required in iOS 15 and earlier versions of the operating system to keep your device organized.

Since iPadOS is so similar to iOS, all of these steps should work on your iPad as well.

We have discussed the method for different versions of iOS and iPadOS so that you can remove unwanted apps from your iPhone no matter how old the handset is.

Keep in mind that you can always re-download the app from the App Store later if you need to use it again, and Apple won’t charge you for it a second time.

Can you remove built-in Apple apps from iPhone or iPad?

For a long time, it was not possible to remove Apple apps from iPhones or iPads, much to the chagrin of those who preferred alternatives to the usual Apple apps, such as Google Maps, Firefox Focus, and others. But as of iOS 10, most of Apple’s pre-installed apps are removable, and if they can’t be uninstalled, you can at least hide them. At the end of this article, we will discuss how to hide apps on iPhone.

You can follow the steps in the tutorials below to uninstall both Apple and third-party apps that you have installed.

Unfortunately, certain apps like Messages, Photos, Safari, App Store, and Settings can’t be uninstalled because they’re tightly built into the system, but it’s possible to at least change the default app that opens automatically when you’re running iOS 14. /iPad OS 14 or later.

Follow the steps in this tutorial to change the default apps: Change your iPhone’s default apps.

How to delete apps from iPhone or iPad

It has been easy to remove apps from iPad and iPhone for quite some time, although the methods have changed over the years and new functionality has been added. For example, in iOS 14 and iOS 15, it’s possible to just delete an app from the home screen, while it remains on your device and accessible through search and App Library. We’ll go through these new options below. But first, we’ll cover some easy ways to remove apps from your iPhone or iPad that should work with a few tweaks, regardless of the generation of operating system you’re using.

1. To uninstall an app, go to the home screen and find the app you want to uninstall. If it is in a folder, you need to open that folder.
2. Press and hold the app you want to remove. You may see a contextual drop-down menu appear, but keep pressing until all your apps start to wiggle.
3. Once the icons start moving, simply tap the X or – in the corner to remove them (in newer versions of iOS, it’s a – instead of an x).

How to uninstall apps from the App Store

There is also another easy way to uninstall apps: use the App Store.

1. Open the App Store.
2. Tap your account icon in the top right corner.
3. On the next page, scroll down until you find the app you want to remove.
4. To uninstall the app, swipe left on its name until you see a red section on the right that says Uninstall.
5. Now tap on Uninstall and the app will disappear.

Uninstall apps via Settings

Another way to delete apps is through the iPhone Storage section of Settings. One of the advantages of this method is that it is easy to choose the biggest apps to remove if you want to free up space on your iPhone.

1. Open Settings.
2. Navigate to General > iPhone Storage (or iPad Storage).
3. Now you will see a list of your apps, sorted by which are taking up the most space. To remove one, tap on it and then select Remove App on the next page.

Remove apps from the home screen

If you’d rather delete an app, but not really delete it, there is a way to do that in iOS 14 and iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. This is a good way to hide apps from your home screen, perhaps to clean up clutter or because you don’t want others to see the apps you use.

In the most recent operating systems, you can choose to uninstall apps or just remove them from the home screen. If you choose the latter, they will still be accessible by searching the App Library. (App Library was introduced with iOS 14, but didn’t come to iPadOS until version 15. App Library organizes all the apps on your device into categories so they should be easy to find. You can choose to have just a few apps on your Home screens — the ones you use most often – but still have access to all your other apps via App Library.)

1. Find the app on your home screen that you want to remove.
2. Tap and hold the icon until a menu appears. Select Delete App here.
3. Then in the next panel select Uninstall app to erase it from your drive, or, if you prefer to keep the app on your device, choose Uninstall from home screen and it will be accessible from the app library or using search.

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Remove apps that are not on the home screen

If you chose to remove apps from your home screen by following the steps above, only to later decide that you don’t want them on your device at all, how can you remove them? In that case you can remove the apps via the App Library.

1. Go to the app library (swipe right on your home screens until you reach it).
2. Find the app you want to uninstall. (This should make sense, as the app should be stored in a folder that corresponds to the app category it fits in, but in our experience, this isn’t always the case).
3. Tap and hold the icon until a menu appears.
4. Select Remove App.
5. Confirm your decision by tapping Delete again.

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Of course, if you decide to get it back, you can go to the App Store and install it again.

Why can’t I uninstall some Apple apps?

If you’ve tried the steps above, you may have discovered that there are certain apps from Apple that don’t allow you to uninstall them – although you can remove them from the home screen in iOS 14/15 and iPad OS 15 by following the above steps to follow. These apps are baked into the iPhone cake, as it were, and are therefore part of the operating system itself rather than a bolted-on app. No matter how hard you try, there is no way to get rid of them. They are as follows:

• App Store
• Camera
• Clock
• find my iphone
• Health
• Messages
• Phone
• photos
• Safari
• Settings
• Wallet

If you have a recent version of iOS or iPadOS, you can hide it from the App Library. If you’re running an older version of the operating systems, we recommend that you follow the age-old practice of creating a junk mail folder and dumping them all in there.

Hide apps

The easiest way to hide apps is to remove them from your home screen following the steps above: see how to remove apps from home screen.

They are still accessible via search and you can try to find them in the app library.

So there you have it, various ways to get rid of these troublesome pre-installed apps. If you’d like to continue your Marie Condo-style cleanup on other devices, read How to Uninstall Apps on Apple TV and How to Uninstall Apple Watch Apps. Go now and spark joy!