iOS 4, Apple's newest OS for the iPhone, has a helpful new folder feature that lets you reduce the number of iPhone app screens you must scroll through to find the app you want. You may be able to consolidate to just two screens. But using iOS 4 folders can be a little frustrating, as iPhone owners try to drag apps into folders using their bulky fingers.
[For more on iOS 4, see Five Ways Apple's iOS 4 Breathes New Life Into iPhone. ]
Then you might shake your head when you try to sync with iTunes, only to have your work wasted as the iPhone reverts back to the iTunes version of your screens. Here are ways to prevent that from happening:
1. First, connect your iPhone to iTunes. Go to the iTunes apps section on the device, and create folders and arrange your apps on the adjacent screen on iTunes, not the iPhone itself. Then apply the changes.
2. Trust us, this task is much easier using a mouse than your finger. Also, if you create folders and move apps around on the iPhone itself and then apply the changes, the work may be lost if the screens revert to the image on iTunes.
3. You might be tempted to click on apps you deleted because they had cluttered your screens but want them now with more manageable folders. Go ahead, but be ready for your iPhone to bog down when you update all these old apps.
4. In our test some apps seemed to be endlessly updating, forcing us to restart the iPhone to stop these updates. After rebooting and syncing with iTunes, most apps were updated. But they appeared outside of the folders, and we had to put them in the right places again.
5. Warning: Some old apps might not be able to update. In which case you'll just have to unclick them in iTunes and sync again.
Read more about iphone in CIO's iPhone Drilldown.
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