Can’t Swipe Home Screen On iPhone In iOS 16? (Fix!)
Last updated on November 19th, 2022 at 03:18 am
Posted in Bug Fixes by Patricia on September 19, 2022
Home Screen swipes not working
Can’t swipe Home Screen on iPhone after iOS 16 update? Are you unable to swipe-left or right and browse through your various Home Screen pages? This appears to be a day-one bug and we have a workaround for it!
Unable To Swipe Home Screen
This issue has been reported by Damian (iPhone 14) on our iOS 16.0.1 review page:
“Unable to swipe left on Home Screen folders – can still access the apps in the first page but unable to swipe left to access the second page (or third or fourth page if you have lots of apps).”
It’s been confirmed by Jannes (iPhone 13):
“…when closing the App Library, I can’t swipe left or right on my home screen anymore… I can’t go back to my App Library, or go to other home pages.”
This iOS 16 bug has been also signaled by Aaron:
“I have had an issue where I cannot swipe left and right through my Home Screen pages since the update. I have an iPhone 12.”
Apparently, this issue is triggered when the user interacts with the App Library. Are you also experiencing the same problem? Report it in the comments please.
How To Fix Home Screen Swipes Not Working
Fortunately, you don’t have to reset your iPhone to factory settings. It won’t fix anything, as confirmed on Twitter. Here is what you should do instead:
1. Reboot iPhone
When the Home Screen becomes unresponsive to swipes, you should first restart your device. A fresh boot will temporary fix the problem.
Tip: Use the force restart trick described here.
2. Disable Home Screen Search
Next, our readers noticed, that turning off the new Search feature on Home Screen, prevents the swiping bug from triggering:
Open Settings -> Home Screen and turn Off Show on Home Screen.
Credits: Special thanks to Dave for sharing this fix.
3. Reset Home Screen Layout
If you’ve updated to iOS 16.1.1 or later and are still unable to swipe Home Screen pages try the following workaround:
- Open Settings and browse to General -> Transfer or Reset iPhone.
- Go for Reset -> Reset Home Screen Layout.
Fact: This will revert your Home Screen to its initial layout. However, it will also fix the home screen swipe issue according to Alexander and Debbie.
These tips should prevent the Home Screen from glitching out, until Apple patches the issue in an upcoming software update!
Do they work for you too, or you still can’t swipe Home Screens on iPhone? Do you have a better solution? Share your feedback in the comments!
Related: For more iOS 16 problems and their available workarounds please check our extended review, available over here!
Had to turn search on to get swipe back.
Intresting. Tweaking this setting must reinitialize the Home Screen…
Resetting the Home Screen layout from the reset iPhone from Transfer of Reset properties will fix the problem.
General, —> Transfer or Reset iPhone, -> Reset , -> Reset Home Screen layout
Thanks for sharing this fix Alexander. Let’s see if anyone else with the problem confirms it and I will update it, to the main content of the article.
Terrible idea. Did the Reset Home Screen and it unpacked all my apps nested in folders and displayed them individually, taking up a multitude of screens, which will require hours of reorganizing to put it back to the way it was. It also didn’t fix the can’t-swipe-up problem!
Sorry to hear this. Are you using an iPhone with an aftermarket screen replacement? You might have to revert to iOS 15, or else you won’t be able to get rid of the swiping problems.
Here is how to:
https://www.iphonetricks.org/downgrade-ios-16-1-to-15-7-1-how-to-guide/
Only thing that worked
Thanks for confirming. We’re adding this fix to the main content of the article.
I used the search to swipe between screen, press and hold search and swipe the direction you want to go :/
Sometimes I’m unable to swipe left to access camera from lock screen. I have to tap and hold the button, or unlock and go to the app. Annoying af especially since the issue is intermittent.
Thanks for reporting. Has this been fixed in the meantime?
When I turn off search, the App Library becomes my wallpaper
Are you on iOS 16.0.2?
Since installing 16.0.2 I am not able to swipe vertically (up from below) in order to select between apps which are opened. Really annoying. Is anybody experiencing this as well?
P.S. When I make a hardware reset, swiping vertically works exactly one time and then never again….until next hardware reset.
1. People are experiencing touch issues on iPhone models that come with an aftermarket screen replacement as mentioned here:
https://www.iphonetricks.org/touch-screen-not-working-on-iphone-ios-16-fix/
2. You can still downgrade to iOS 15.7 as shown here:
https://www.iphonetricks.org/how-to-downgrade-ios-16-0-2-to-ios-15-7-without-losing-data/
****ISSUE****
~Homepage has disappeared!
~Stuck in Sleep Mode/Black Screen
~“Search” on the bottom.
~Search toggle isn’t working.
****Work-Around****
~Double Click Right Button
~Accesses previously opened Apps. {Hoping an Internet Browser is one of the open Apps}
Score!! Safari was open.
~Google issue.
~Landed Me HERE!
Following suggestions on this very forum to Reboot, Fixed the Issue. Thanks to the contributors ! Y’all ROCK.
~AMS~
☮️❤️😁
You’re welcome. Glad we could help!
Downloaded ios 16.03. Customized lock screen wallpaper with selected photos and widgets, great! Left homemade as color. Ok.
Tried gradient on colors on home screen; Didn’t work.
Tried selected photos on Home Screen; Didn’t work. Not so great.
Thanks for reporting Steve. Tried to replicate the glitches you mentioned. I selected a photo and gradient features as well as selected photo on Home Screen. What iPhone model are you on? Would appreciate if you can send some screenshots at contact[at]iphonetricks.org.
Yep! The exact same thing is happening to me!! >:( So frustrating! Hopefully Apple will fix this issue asap!!
Fingers crossed, that iOS 16.1 will fix this.
Fingers crossed!!
Just updated to 16.2, ther was no issue for me in 16.1 and lower, appeared since 16.2, still no patch by apple for this one, would not recommend this update if you had fixed it.
Not really looking forward to use the reset homescreen workaround as it is a shitty solution.
Thanks for confirming. You can try iOS 16.3 beta or downgrade to iOS 15.6 RC if you don’t manage any other workaround.