How To Organize & Rearrange iPhone Apps from Your Mac

One of the few things Apple did sublimely was the iPhone. It hit the right key with the public and instantly became a hit. Very few users will tell you that they aren’t satisfied with their iPhones just because of the vast number of apps out there. You can do just about anything with the iPhone, even learn to rap.

I’ve had my iPhone for a little more than 2 years; and yes, you guessed it: I’m still using a 2G iPhone. Just like Macs, the iPhone’s functionality tends to get better over time with newer operating system updates. Over the years, I’ve used a lot of apps and certainly gathered a whole bunch of free games, utilities and other junk. Luckily, Apple increased the number of home screens to hosts apps on the iPhone. We are now allowed 11 pages of applications. Unluckily, however, there is still no easy way to organize them.

But there is hope. To be able to rearrange iPhone app icons all that’s required is a jailbroken iPhone and a Mac.

If the terms jailbroken, unlocked, 2G, 3G or 3GS don’t mean anything to you, then I suggest that you first browse through MakeUseOf’s Underground Guide To The iPhone and familiarize yourself with some common lingo before proceeding. Basically, a jailbroken iPhone allows the user to access and modify the iPhone’s database. A word of caution: Apple does not provide support for jailbroken iPhones. So please, if you don’t exactly know how to go about jailbreaking your iPhone and do not want to void your warranty then do not proceed. Otherwise, get ready to be rewarded by the easiest method to arrange your apps.

Just a little background information: the traditional way of arranging apps would be to press and hold an icon until it starts to move about and wiggle. Then, we are able to re-position each app. Individually! Can you even imagine how tedious this can get?

A nifty application comes to the rescue. Aptly, it’s named Movement.

There are just 6 easy steps to follow:

1. Connect your iPhone
2. Click ‘Read Apps’
3. Start rearranging
4. Click ‘Write Apps’
5. Disconnect your iPhone and restart it
6. Quit

The application reads your iPhone for the structure of its home screens and lays them out for you. This is when you re-arrange your heart out. When you are finally done, remember to click on ‘Write Apps’. A warning popped up to prompt me to back up the springboard and disconnect the device then restart it.

Select individual apps and move them about or Command-click several and re-arrange them in a group.

Yep, I’m reckless and loving it.

Restarting the iPhone each time is a hassle but I’ll admit, it’s a small price to pay for all the time that is saved if a major reshuffling is required.

It couldn’t be simpler. I tried Movement after doing a little bit of cleaning (I finally removed the apps that I never, ever use) and wanted to arrange the apps according to their categories. It worked flawlessly.

After some mock-ups, we finally have a working model of a direly yearned for application. Movement works with Leopard (and Snow Leopard) but remember that you’ll need a jailbroken iPhone.

Do you know any other app that let rearrange iPhone app icons? Share them in comments!