How to set up a new iPhone without the old home screen layout

A 2025 Apple Support Communities thread asked how to use Quick Start to transfer everything but keep the default iOS layout and widgets, and got 5 replies saying there is no such option. It is a rare question compared with people wanting to keep their layout, but it has no good answer in Apple's tools.

Option 1: transfer everything, then reset the layout

This keeps all your data and apps and is the closest thing to what the thread asked for. It is not quite a brand-new home screen: every app you own still ends up on a page, in alphabetical order, rather than tucked away in the App Library. Check whether your widgets are what you expect afterwards, and add the ones you want.

1. Set up the new iPhone with Quick Start or from a backup as usual, and let the apps finish downloading.
2. Open Settings, then General, then Transfer or Reset iPhone, then Reset, and choose Reset Home Screen Layout.
3. Confirm. Apple's own apps go back to their default places and your folders are removed. The apps you downloaded are placed after them in alphabetical order.

Option 2: set up as new and sign in to iCloud

During setup, do not transfer from your old iPhone or restore a backup. Sign in with your Apple Account. Anything you keep in iCloud, such as photos, contacts, notes, messages and passwords, syncs back. The home screen starts in the default layout.

The cost is that apps do not come back on their own. You reinstall the ones you want from the App Store, and data that lived only inside an app and was not synced to iCloud or the app's own account is lost. Settings that are not synced, such as your wallpaper, need setting again. Some people like that as a clean start; for others it is too much.

Option 3: transfer everything, then reshape it quickly

If what you really want is fewer pages and fewer folders, not Apple's default layout, transfer as normal and then clear it out. On the phone, you can hide whole pages in jiggle mode by tapping the page dots, which sends their apps to the App Library in one go.

With TidyGrid on a Mac, you can see every page at once and move many apps at once: select a group and send it to the App Library, delete pages you no longer need, park apps on the Shelf while you decide, then use Arrange to put what is left in order by color or A to Z. TidyGrid saves a backup of the transferred layout before you apply, so you can go back if the clean version turns out to be too clean.

Who this works for

• Reset Home Screen Layout, Quick Start and iCloud sign-in are Apple features on current iPhones.
• TidyGrid needs a Mac with Apple silicon and a cable between the device and the Mac. Reading a layout is tested on iPadOS 15, iOS 16, iOS 17 and iOS 27.
• TidyGrid applying a layout is tested on iPadOS 15.3.1 and iOS 27.2. iOS 16, iOS 17, iOS 18 and iOS 26 are still in testing, and on those TidyGrid opens the layout read-only and says why.

What it cannot do

• Apple has no Quick Start or restore option that skips only the home screen layout.
• TidyGrid cannot bring back Apple's default layout exactly. Use Reset Home Screen Layout for that.
• TidyGrid cannot add new widgets or change widget settings. Add widgets on the phone.
• TidyGrid cannot install apps, so it does not help with Option 2 beyond arranging the apps you reinstall.

Questions