Home screen weirdness on iPhone 8

By Justin Harris, 9 July, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi folks,
I dug out my old iPhone 8. That phone was passed to both my nieces, made it back to me when they forgot the pass code, and wanted me to reset it, and then the niece that was going to use it got a new phone, so it got put up for a while. One of the last things I did when I still had a mac was force reset the thing. After a few months on Android, I began to miss the Voiceover way of doing things, and while at first, I was just going to use the phone for a few apps that work better with Voiceover than Talkback, after messing around a bit, I can sadly say that this dinosaur still feels snappier than my Galaxy S22 Ultra, and after discovering that it wasn't network locked like I thought, decided to just use it. Is it outdated? Yup. A bit small for my fat hands? Yup. Terrible battery life? Yup, that too. But still, for all the issues I and others have had with Voiceover, it's still sooooooo nice. Talkback has come a long long way, but until more devs adopt talkback actions, or talkback can make them happen automatically, Voiceover still wins for me.
I will probably try to get my hands on something better soon, but think I can last the rest of this month with the iPhone 8. It's not like I'm going all the way back to a flip phone or anything. And while I do like the bigger phones, the smaller ones also have their own charm.
Anyway, all of that to say that, upon setting this phone back up, I'm having a weird issue where I can not put apps in the last two columns of the last row. Four columns all the way across for the first several rows, but on the last row by the doc, it will only seem to let me put two apps there. If I try to drag and drop them and put more there, it simply won't do it. I have no widgets on the page, nothing like that. Lots of apps on the next page over too, but seriously no matter what I do, it won't let me add more than two apps on that last row. Has anyone ever experienced this? I never have, having used multiple devices all the way from the 3gs to the 13 Pro, and many but not all in between. Any idea on what could be causing this? It's not the end of the world, as this phone will be in use a few weeks to a month at most, but still, I just find it rather odd.

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Comments

By Brian on Tuesday, July 9, 2024 - 18:15

It has been awhile since I used an iPhone 8, however I seem to remember this issue back in 2017 when I actually got my (then) brand new iPhone 8. I want to say it is a decisive limitation on how many apps per page that device can handle.

Yet, I currently have an iPhone SE3, and it can hold 28 apps per screen, including Dock items.

My advice would be to either leave it as is, or remove the last 2 apps from that screen, and call it good. I do not think you can, fix, this outside of jailbreak.

HTH. 🤷

By Justin Harris on Tuesday, July 9, 2024 - 20:15

I will go ahead and leave it. But I seriously don't remember this ever being a thing, even when I had this exact same phone before. Like I said, it got passed down to my nieces for several years before finding its way back to me, of course when they needed it forcably reset, and I didn't get it done fast enough, so they ended up just going and getting a new one. Oh well, worked out in the end. Since you have the SE3, can you tell me, does it support eSim, or physical sim only? Also, how is the battery life of the SE3 compared to the 8? Thanks in advance for that info.

By Brian on Tuesday, July 9, 2024 - 21:15

Directly from Apple:

SIM Card:
• Dual SIM (nano-SIM and e-SIM)
• Dual e-SIM support

Battery:
• Video playback Up to 15 hours
• Video playback (streamed) Up to 10 hours
• Audio playback Up to 50 hours
• Fast‑charge capable Up to 50% charge in 30 minutes with 20Watt adapter or higher (sold separately)
• Built-in rechargeable lithium‑ion battery
• Wireless charging (works with Qi chargers)

Notes:
1. MagSafe is not native on this device, however, there are cases that enable MagSafe compatibility, which I think is pretty cool.
2. Battery specs above are dependent on too many factors. Still, it gets pretty good battery life in my daily use, and that is without any battery cases/portable charging pads/strips.

HTH. 😊

By Justin Harris on Tuesday, July 9, 2024 - 22:15

Good to know. I never have the best luck with batteries. Battery health on this iPhone 8 says it is at 87% health, and seriously I've had to give it 3 full charges plus top it off a few times. I do have my computer, via PhoneLink app, galaxy watch, galaxy buds and dexcom transmitter connected to it though. Plus wifi is on. Plus it still could be doing a lot in the background. Screen brightness is all the way down. Even my Galaxy S22 Ultra barely gets me through the day sometimes. So even with the upgrade of the SE3, I will probably still need and want a battery case.

By Brian on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - 03:15

Not knocking battery cases at all. I just do not use one at the moment. I do a lot on my iPhone, but then again there is a lot I do not do. For example, I am not a social media person. Too private for all that bs, so it helps not getting 40 11 notifications about somebody's latest cat videos.

I do, on the other hand, text, make/receive phone/FaceTime calls, stream YouTube, prime, and Netflix. Listen to and/or read a mother truckload of books.

I am a book whore. I can admit this. 😳

I also occasionally play iOS games, when bored, and of course play around with Be My AI and/or Seeing AI. Oh, and ask my Alexa app answers to questions; like how long to cook a pork chop.

Ya know, the important questions in life. 😉

All of that and other random apps depending on the situation. I can usually get through a 12 to 15 hour day only having to charge once, from a low battery percentage (20% or less).

Of course, this phone is brand new to me, only had it since March of this year, so I am sure degradation will happen over time. 🤷

Of my daily use apps, the ones that I find are really bad for battery drain are Seeing AI/BeMyAI, and YouTube. I would swear YouTube ads are designed to kill batteries. 😢

By Justin Harris on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - 10:55

I think what really does mine in is the dexcom cgm, but I kinda need that. lol I will probably be disconnecting the watch. I had found an app called Merge that is supposed to bring your notifications and such to the Galaxy watch, but it's really not working, and without the galaxy phone, things like the weather on the watch face are not updating. Kinda stinks, because I like the look and feel of the galaxy watch more than the Apple Watch, but it isn't all that compatible, and I thought with the Merge app I might be able to make it work, but looks like a no go. Honestly, with either Apple or Samsung, I don't use half the stuff that the watch can do. They end up being glorified talking watches that can also do timers and take a phone call every now and then.

By PaulMartz on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - 12:55

Member of the AppleVis Blog Team

I had the 2nd gen SE and I think it had the same limitation. I was attempting to manually drag app icons into that last row and just couldn't do it.

I've since found a better way to move apps. Flick up and select drag. Then navigate to the app just before the destination. Then flick up and select drop after app. Give this a try and see if it works for you.

By Brian on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - 17:46

Yup. Drag and Drop works a lot better than the old way of doing things. I also havve my old SE2, though I have not so much as turned it on in a minute. I think I may have had the issue on that device. Was going to try out one of the later iOS 18 betas with it, but I am so busy with school that it may not happen. 😅

I'm just grateful to not have it on my SE3. 😇

By Justin Harris on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - 19:07

Yeah, that's how I do it. Actually, I've tried both ways, and no luck with either. Wondering if it could be an iOS 16 bug? Because I seriously don't remember this happening with any other device, even with this exact phone when it was my daily driver years ago. But I'm just now experiencing it with iOS 16. I'm at least glad I'm not the only one who has experienced this, and also glad that nobody is currently with newer devices.

By Brian on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - 22:54

Hmm, could be. I am guessing that is where your iPhone is now? Though even if you could update to 17, why would you? 17 is a dumpster fire. 😣

By Justin Harris on Thursday, July 11, 2024 - 02:06

I do remember being a bit frustrated by it before testing the waters in Android. I was really curious, but now rather regret that decision. Didn't have a lot of bugs that I remember, but the few I had, like the phone and iPad both completely freezing up and becoming completely unresponsive, requiring a forced restart, got real annoying real quick, to the point where switching sounded like a good idea. I rather prefer the bigger devices with face id, but about the only somewhat new device in my budget will be that SE3.

By Brian on Thursday, July 11, 2024 - 03:34

You are planning on buying a SE3?

If so, let me tell you, there is another thread around here where I show someone you can get a new SE3 for as little as $200, give or take.

Will see if I cannot track down that thread; there arre some useful links for you there. 😀