Randomly rearranged iPad Home Screen icons

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Level 1

5 points

Randomly rearranged iPad Home Screen icons

This is my Home Screen. The icons in rows 2 and 3 randomly rearrange themselves but not the icons on the other rows. The same thing happens on page 2 of my Home Screen but not on pages 3, 4 and 5.

I can move the icons back to where I want them but eventually they’ll get moved again. They’re not even moved into the same places each time.

It’s driving me nuts. Tell me I’m not the only one of zillions of iPad owners with this problem. Even better, tell me how to fix it.

iPad Pro (11-inch) (2nd generation) iPadOS 26.2.1

Posted on Feb 3, 2026 8:26 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

LotusPilot

Level 10

303,026 points

Feb 3, 2026 8:51 AM in response to hines123

System Software Updates can, on occasion, result in unexpected rearrangement of your Home Screen icons.

Be aware that the icon/widget layout for Landscape and Portrait screen orientation are effectively independent of each-other. As such, in rotating the iPad between orientations, you may observe unexpected movement in relative icon and widget location.

With this in mind, you would be well advised to arrange the icons to your preferred layout of your Home Screens for both Landscape and Portrait screen orientation. Once arranged, the icons should retain the set locations until you add or delete an App icon or widget to the relevant page - noting that download of an App from the App Store may automatically install a corresponding icon to one of the Home Screens.

Your preference as to layout may be entirely different for Landscape and Portrait presentation.

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Answer 2

hines123 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 4, 2026 1:14 AM in response to LotusPilot

Thanks for your reply. This happens between software updates and completely at random. My iPad spends 99% of its life in portrait mode and only goes into landscape if I'm watching YouTube or something (which is rare). These rearrangements happen even if the iPad hasn't been switched between portrait and landscape modes.

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