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Have you figured out a way to use the App Library screen? š³
Iām talking about that weird last screen on the iPad (probably iPhone too) where Apple tries to organise your apps into random folders that you canāt seem to change and the result is catastrophic/hilarious - I mean, look at my āEnterprise Appsā folder š³:
What sense does this make? Is there a practical way to use that screen? Can one remove it if there isnāt?
Comments
Only app that is 'miss-placed' for me is Pure Synth Platinum. The rest are in 'correct' folders on iOS16.2/iPadOS16.2.
For some strange reason PureSynth platinum is in the wrong category on the AppStore (Productivity & Finance).
Most of the time I launch apps using Spotlight/Search instead of browsing thru folders on iPad, iPhone and Mac...
OK, but why isn't the folder called "Productivity & Finance" then? Why does Apple have to add a seemingly random layer of complexity? Also, why is the "smart" folder called "Enterprise Apps" and not just "Enterprise"? I mean, they're ALL apps!
Could be my comment š š š
To be honest, on 15.7.2 this library sorted more or less correctly:
Sadly, it cannot be removed.
I see one possible use for this:
If you have more Apps than you sorted into meaningful folders, but need to find Apps from time to time where you cannot remember the name, you could add this library to the Dock (there is an option to do this) and have fast access to those automatic folders - this can probably help in some situation.
Maybe.
Just imagine that though: "... Hmmm, which was that great delay I used last time?... Well, I'm sure it will be in the "Agriculture & Mining" folder, let's give it a try!"
Frankly, it seems pointless to me. Canāt think of a use for it and wish I could remove it.
Further observations:
Of the new UA apps, Bass mint somehow made it to the much-coveted Enterprise apps folder, while the other apps from the bundle continue to languish in the Music folder...
Notice how Apple is somehow able to sort apps alphabetically in these self-made folders, while it refuses to do that in the folders that you create?
I suspect the weird categories are derived from search keywords provided by the devs when uploading their apps, and from the app names. "Apple" is not doing anything but selecting them based on those categories. The "folders" are probably just (sorted) selections from the database of installed apps. So the whole process is basically automatic. I guess they figured that this was a good way to declutter iPhone screens; it was released first for iPhone.
I don't seem to have "Enterprise Apps", though I do have Loopy Pro and some of the others shown above (iPad 6, iPadOS 16.2). And I suspect PSP is in the "Finance" category due to "Platinum" in its name. One funny feature I've noticed is that off-loaded apps (GadgetLE, various SessionBands and organs) appear in the "Entertainment" category, as well as in the correct "Music" category. This seems to be some kind of SQL screw-up.
The user folders are extensions of the Home Screen; they are sets of small Home Screens. Apple lets you place icons in any order on the Home Screens, and the folders are treated the same way. So it's no surprise that the user folders are not sorted. I keep my Home Screens and app folder pages slightly under-filled. This makes it much easier to drag apps between them, since there's always a space to drop the app into.
Apple created the home screen, but is still not getting the home screen. š
I suspect the "Enterprise Apps" are related to the Apple Enterprise Program that allows companies to develop and deploy private apps to their employees. Perhaps there's something different in how those apps were bought or installed that has marked them as "special". Maybe they seemed to include a business name. It's likely another database mixup.
When the App Library was introduced for the iPhone in iOS 14, the concept was that it would provide a convenient menu for all your apps, which did not need to appear on the Home Screens. Basically, it tries to automatically create folders grouping apps of the same category. At the time, some iPad users were upset that iPadOS did not include this feature, which was added the next year.
As with so many other iPadOS features, the user has no control over this. This has been the case since the first Macintosh computers. My first was a Macintosh SE/30 (1989), which included a hard drive! We just have to accept it as it is.
Narrow use-case here, but often comes in handy: with 250 apps, most randomly distributed over a dozen pages, newly downloaded apps could show up anywhereāso the Recently Added folder is appreciated. Other than that, I donāt use the App Library. Spotlight does the trick.
I actually recently started using it almost exclusively, as a way to limit how often I check my phone and iPad for things I really donāt need to be checking for throughout the day. I only have a single folder of my most used apps on the actual Home Screen, and then I use the search bar at the top of the library page for anything else.
It lets me basically declutter my Home Screen, removes a lot of annoying notification badges, but still lets me access barely used apps if I need to.
I get that sense also. Really doubt it's Apple deciding what category an app falls into. It's up to the dev to decide which markets they want.
Yep, this is exactly how I use it and it's actually rather good once you get used to it. I do wish you could manually override app categories -- I would move Apple Music to Entertainment and Apogee Maestro to Utilities. But aside from that, it allows me to keep the apps I actually use on the Home Screen without worrying about sorting the ones I use less often.
I also find that swiping the other way, and being presented with a blurred out screen apart from the word āeditā mind bogglingly pointless!
I got rid of all my folders and added a large āSiri suggestsā widget for day to day apps. I use the search for everything else now, although Iām normally finding music apps inside loopy pro.
I donāt use the library much though. Itād be way better if it included app badges.
You can show badges in the Library. It's a setting in Home Screen and Multitasking.
As you know, that's where you can add widgets, and that screen shows their configuration. Hard to imagine a simpler way to provide that. It's just another feature that you're free to ignore.
As I mentioned here, Enterprise Apps is Apple's term for private apps created by companies for their employees to use. It's a legitimate way of installing apps outside the App Store. (The company has to obtain a special dev ID from Apple, so it's not open to ordinary hackers.) The mystery is why some users see some normal apps in that folder. Were they side-loaded somehow? Or is it just a fluke?
In short, users ask for some function, so Apple makes a half-hearted, partially malfunctioning solution and provides no user options to make it right. "We know better." Classic Apple.
This reminds me of that vintage story where some users asked for a silent start-up option on the Mac but Apple offered no way for the user to set this. No matter what the user arguments were, the forum replies were legendary, along the lines of
(they did introduce a setting for that at some point)
I wonder if they are ever going to get past this attitude.
Oh brilliant, thank you! Didnāt realise that.