Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

App Library: I hate it

Roachjt said:
I just ignore it. I use folders to group apps in a meaningful way for me and for me that works better than the App Library. It doesn’t offend me but it is completely redundant for my way of working
Click to expand...

I'm in exactly the same boat as you. I don't like hiding away any apps and don't like the automation of the App Library so I just work with folders. I love the convenience of actually having all of my apps on one single screen, arranged exactly the way I want them to be. It makes it much quicker and intuitive for me to find what I'm looking for on a day-to-day basis.
 
App Library is just a replication of the “purchased” in the App Store App. I haven’t seen Apple explain this anywhere or anybody on this forum come up with a use for it
It’s almost like Apple is sticking a useless feature in just for the sake of being New
 
I am right in thinking 14.2 has added another automatic folder to the App Library? Suggestions?
 
My bottom line RE: iOS 14 is this. I always set up my new iPhones using a backup via iTunes that I make a few hours before setting up and each new iPhone looks (with Settings and Passwords intact) exactly like my previous one, a fact that is personally very important to me after years of getting everything just right for my use. Does iOS 14.2 allow me to achieve the same result using the same process? My current iPhone XS Max running iOS 13.7 will be wiped and then passed to my son to set up for himself using his iTunes backup/restore method as we have done with every model since iPhone 3Gs. My new iPhone 12 Pro Max comes next Friday 11/14 and it will have iOS 14 already installed. I'm trying to get a feel for just how much of an adjustment I should expect going forward.

Also, I almost forgot to ask, does the Today screen accessed by swiping down from the top of the screen for Notifications and then swiping right still exist?

Thanks for reading.
 
lelisa13p said:
Also, I almost forgot to ask, does the Today screen accessed by swiping down from the top of the screen for Notifications and then swiping right still exist?
Click to expand...
The Today View is still there and accessible by swiping right from the Notification Center as well as by swiping right on the first Home Screen page (or from the Lock Screen, if that is enabled).
 
  • Like
Reactions: lelisa13p and chris4565
lelisa13p said:
My bottom line RE: iOS 14 is this. I always set up my new iPhones using a backup via iTunes that I make a few hours before setting up and each new iPhone looks (with Settings and Passwords intact) exactly like my previous one, a fact that is personally very important to me after years of getting everything just right for my use. Does iOS 14.2 allow me to achieve the same result using the same process? My current iPhone XS Max running iOS 13.7 will be wiped and then passed to my son to set up for himself using his iTunes backup/restore method as we have done with every model since iPhone 3Gs. My new iPhone 12 Pro Max comes next Friday 11/14 and it will have iOS 14 already installed. I'm trying to get a feel for just how much of an adjustment I should expect going forward.
Click to expand...
What you have should remain as it is -- as far as the App Library goes you'd simply get that page that is accessible by swiping left from the last Home Screen page.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lelisa13p and chris4565
andylyon said:
I am right in thinking 14.2 has added another automatic folder to the App Library? Suggestions?
Click to expand...

It seemed to have rectified itself within an hour. I initially found it jarring at first because it pushed all my folders to the right by 1, thereby messing up my muscle memory, but everything appears to be back where they should be now.
 
C DM said:
The Today View is still there and accessible by swiping right from the Notification Center as well as by swiping right on the first Home Screen page (or from the Lock Screen, if that is enabled).
Click to expand...
This sounds like the usual behavior remains unchanged, which I'm glad to hear.
C DM said:
What you have should remain as it is -- as far as the App Library goes you'd simply get that page that is accessible by swiping left from the last Home Screen page.
Click to expand...
This is good to know. Thank you for the info. Much appreciated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chris4565 and C DM
Apleeseed84 said:
Check your Bluetooth settings to see if you have it set to other than automatically by accident
Click to expand...
All Bluetooth settings are default settings.
It just does not work. The only feature I care since spacial audio requires supported contents and I’m not a fan of that anyways.
 
Auto-Switch has been working really well for me. I'm still conflicted on the App Library. I'm using it and still wanting to back to my folders that I had on the home screen. I like it and I don't. But I'm starting to memorize where apps are in the App Library and using it like I did my folders on my home screen.
 
After slowly getting used to it, I’ve switched almost completely. Only a couple holdout often used apps and one folder. I dislike clutter and have been tired of managing apps and sticking them in folders. The sorting of apps is rather well “Interesting“. I can say though, that I feel that App Library should stick with the iPhone. Or find a better way to implement it into iPadOS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire
Adoniram said:
All I see is Windows Mobile but with rounded edges:
lumia1520.0.jpg


Do the people that like the App Library also like Windows Mobile? Just curious... To me, neither is easy on the eyes, both are cluttered. And the lack of customization in iOS makes it worse in some ways...
Click to expand...

Never used Windows Mobile, I came from a very dark place... I was a BlackBerry user (CrackBerry etc.)
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Shirasaki
I normally deny any updates but I went ahead and did it anyway (figured the worst that can happen is I just go out and buy another 6S and get iOS 13 back that way!) but here's how I rearranged everything:

1. Today view accessed from lockscreen, which is a remnant of old Android past, something I still use on my Galaxy Tabs from 2012--lockscreen widgets. Easy way to resume podcasts or the last playlist of music without unlocking my device.

2. One home screen, with the 'smart stacks' (which work quite nicely IMO) on top, Siri Suggestions below that, and widgets for batteries and Apple Music in the lower quadrants.

3. App Library a swipe left.

This leaves four quadrants--swipe up control center (yea, my phone is old!), swipe down notification center, swipe right, Today view, swipe left App Library. Kinda efficient for me! I wanted to love Siri Suggestions before but having to swipe right then click felt like an extra step at the time. Now they're useful.

Also, 3D touch isn't removed as I were told it was (maybe in 14.3 it got put back?) it still works as it did, and the setting for "3D & Haptic Touch" remains on and available.

Also, my Watch on WatchOS 7, love the new Memoji face. Saw that at Best Buy and felt 'wow it kinda looks skeuomorphic! How do I get that? Is that a Series 6 exclusive? Apparently a WatchOS 7 feature. If I had any gripes it's that it has no deer face Memoji--deer are my favorite animals.

So thankfully very little changes at all, and you can hide the previous layout and have it there if you want to try the 'new' way, decide you hate it, and want your old way back so you don't have to start arranging your screens from scratch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Abazigal
nickdalzell1 said:
Also, 3D touch isn't removed as I were told it was (maybe in 14.3 it got put back?) it still works as it did, and the setting for "3D & Haptic Touch" remains on and available.
Click to expand...
Only removed from the iPhone 11 and up (physically removed). Older devices still work fine
 
It has a purpose although slot of people will not use it. When I download an App I download it to the App Library then move it where I want it
Other then that I haven’t seen much use for it
 
I still dislike it and it is dumb that Apple doesn’t let us turn it off.

It took a long time for me to break the muscle memory that I had formed to go to my last page of apps, now this dumb list. I like my phone less but better here than my iPad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yog
I've integrated it by offloading all the apps I rarely use to it. My first page is still a list of applications that I use often (rarely folders now) - whereas before the App Library, I had 3/4th of my Home Screen folders (I only like one screen).

Due to this, it's less clicking to get to applications that I use all the time and a few more gestures to get to applications I rarely use -- though, now, most of the time I just pull down from top and type it in to get what I want.

I like this better than the Home Screen full of folders that I used to do for so long. Wasn't easy adapting though. I don't like the forced integration either.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Abazigal
I haven't had the 'miscategorized folder' issue as everyone else. But then I haven't even heard of many of the apps mentioned here, either. My iPhone is just used for messages, music, reading ebooks, podcasts, quick web searches, camera, and rarely, phone calls. I got shopping apps for Kroger, and financial apps such as American Express Serve. All of them are categorized perfectly fine, and unlike the Siri Suggestions widget on my main screen, tends to make giant-sized, the icons for apps I need in that instant, such as the Walmart app icon being one of the larger 'suggestions' when I needed to use Walmart Pay this evening (Siri Suggestions is either broken or needs further training). App Library saved me from what used to be three swipes, and two taps (three swipes from my main default home screen, to my third party app page, one tap to open the shopping folder, and another to open the app. App Library was a single swipe from my default screen in iOS 14, and Walmart was a single tap from that.

I dunno, seems to work here!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ansath
BigMcGuire said:
I've integrated it by offloading all the apps I rarely use to it. My first page is still a list of applications that I use often (rarely folders now) - whereas before the App Library, I had 3/4th of my Home Screen folders (I only like one screen).

Due to this, it's less clicking to get to applications that I use all the time and a few more gestures to get to applications I rarely use -- though, now, most of the time I just pull down from top and type it in to get what I want.

I like this better than the Home Screen full of folders that I used to do for so long. Wasn't easy adapting though. I don't like the forced integration either.
Click to expand...
I did something similar but wound up deleting a ton of seldom used apps, kept the bare bones on my Home Screen, and barely ever using anything else because I don’t want to dig for them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire
It's getting where App Library might be my new default screen. It seems to have all the apps I need in that moment available in giant-size one-tap form.

Siri Suggestions (widget) is broken or I'm doing it wrong. I figured it'd figure out what app I use in specific locations or times, or by how often I open a specific app, but for some reason, it still can't figure out I open Kroger app at Kroger, or Walmart app at Walmart. It had 'Google Assistant' and 'Microsoft Edge' there for no real discernable reason. I installed the Google Assistant app last weekend, and used MS Edge to download some classic Samsung wallpapers to add to my theme. Never once at a Kroger or Walmart or anywhere else except a forest I hike in.

App Library is basic looking, but gets it right each time! It's getting where I might just use the Today view for widgets, delete my main screen, and use App Library.
 
nickdalzell1 said:
App Library is basic looking, but gets it right each time! It's getting where I might just use the Today view for widgets, delete my main screen, and use App Library.
Click to expand...
I am liking App Library, but I feel. there is a bit of contradiction in its design, where you basically have to swipe all the way to the end of your Home Screen to access it. Which can be a hassle if you have many home screens, and defeats the purpose - which is to let you quickly access your commonly-used apps.

It's also the reason why I am down to 1 Home Screen now.

I feel that maybe, App Library could replace the current today view. IE: swipe in from the left to access App Library. Maybe be easier that way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back