How to Delete Apps from Your iPhone

Are you wondering how to delete apps from iPhone? Perhaps you loaded up your iPhone with apps from the App Store when you first got it, and now you’ve decided you only want to keep the ones you use. It happens to the best of us, and with so many options, it’s easy to do.

(If you’re interested, read Jan Manon’s article 100,000 Apps and Counting for more on this phenomenon.)

But for now, let’s just get you on your way to deleting your apps from iPhone. Follow these steps.

How to delete iPhone apps completely

On the iPhone screen, find the application that you would like to delete from your iPhone.

Touch and hold down on the application icon for a few seconds. The screen should start to wiggle and an “X” will appear on the upper left corner of each application icon you’ve installed. Touch the “X” of the app you want to delete.

When prompted to confirm, select “Delete.” This message will also alert you that deleting the application will also delete its data. Congratulations! The app should now be gone from your iPhone.

Which iPhone apps you can and cannot delete

You may notice that some apps won’t have an “X” on them, including Notes, Safari, Stocks, Maps, and others. These are preloaded iPhone apps that came installed on your phone—and they cannot be deleted. More details on these apps are available from the Apple iPhone Features page.

If you do not want to use these apps regularly, you can move them to their own page. To do so, click and hold down on their icons, much like you did above, and when they start to wiggle you can drag them off the page until the screen flips to a new page. When the icon is where you want it, simply let up. To stop the wiggling, click the homepage button on your iPhone.

Delete the iPhone app from iTunes

If the application you’ve just deleted is also in your iTunes Applications, you will need to delete it from there, otherwise it will reinstall on your phone the next time you sync between iTunes and iPhone. The iTunes library lets you manage your Apps much like you manage your music. In your Library menu in iTunes, you can select Apps and then view all your apps. To delete them, select the ones you want to delete and click the “delete” key on your keyboard. iTunes will prompt you to confirm; select “Remove.”

Another option is to keep the app in iTunes, but change the settings so that applications do not automatically sync. To manage these settings, connect your iPhone to your computer. When the iPhone icon appears in iTunes, access the Apps tab to manage your apps and configure your sync preferences.

If you really want to start over, you can learn How to Restore an iPhone to Factory Settings – but be absolutely sure you want to wipe your device before you do so.