Trouble creating folders
Orthoducks
Newbie

I want to organize my apps into folders. There are several steps to the process; the first will be to create a folder that I can move some of icons into.

The generic Android instructions I found for this do not work. Either my Verizon VS980 does things differently, or something is going wrong.

The instructions say to press and hold an app's icon, then drag it on top of another app's icon. This creates a new folder and moves those two icons into it. One can then drag additional icons into the folder.

When I press and hold an app's icon, I never get a chance to drag it anywhere. Android switches to the home page and puts a copy of the icon there.

Why is this happening, and how do I get around it?

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Re: Trouble creating folders
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader

It's working as intended.

Once the icon is on your home screen, or one of the other screens, then you can place them in folders by dragging them on top of each other, and naming that folder.  The apps drawer list merely lists them alphabetically.  You organize the ones you want to and use the most on your home/alternate screens.

Hope this helps.

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Re: Trouble creating folders
Not applicable

This will work in the Apps section. First you need to press the icon with the extended finger and + sign then do the press and hold the app and place it over another.

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Re: Trouble creating folders
Orthoducks
Newbie

SuzyQ: If I understand you correctly, one of the three top-level icons on the home screen leads to a set of screens that's essentially useless except for occasional housekeeping tasks. I can copy files from the "Apps" screen to the home screen, and I can organize the copies, but I can't organize the originals in any way. I'm a new user of Android and I'm trying not to judge things that may simply be different from what I'm used to, but that sounds bizarre.

Anonymuss: I tried what you suggested. I'm not sure what it's doing, but it's not doing what I want. It seems to do about the same thing that my original experiment did, except that the copied icon appears in different places on the home screen, and sometimes doesn't appear there at all.

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Re: Trouble creating folders
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader

Orthoducks,

It may very well be getting used to a new OS - and all it's nuances.  Android has a "Home screen", your main work area where you can place icons/shortcuts for various apps, or widgets, which are usually larger than the icons and take up more screenspace, but are typically "functional", meaning they update information for you (weather widget, data usage, sports scores, etc).  The other screens are where you can place other widgets, and apps, for fast(er)  accessibility than searching through the app drawer.

I can organize my app drawer alphabetically, or date of download, or "custom", I can hide those I don't want to see or deal with, but on my phone, I can't put them into folders.  Since I use my home screen and other screens to put the apps I use most "at my fingertips" so to speak, I rarely go into the app drawer, except to grab a new app and put it on a screen.

I have my social and financial stuff, and email on my home screen, along with a weather widget.  Other screens contain games, my Kindle app, MyVerizon, stuff I don't use constantly like I do the email and social stuff.  You can pretty much customize your screens, or even remove the blank ones so you only have one or two instead of multiple, blank ones.  If you press and hold an app icon, you can move it between the screens by dragging it to the edge of one screen until the next screen pops in, then dropping the icon there.

Hope this helps, and playing around with it is the way to get familiar with how it all works, and comfortable with it all.

Re: Trouble creating folders
Not applicable

Orthoducks wrote:

Anonymuss: I tried what you suggested. I'm not sure what it's doing, but it's not doing what I want. It seems to do about the same thing that my original experiment did, except that the copied icon appears in different places on the home screen, and sometimes doesn't appear there at all.

You're doing it wrong. I have this phone it works for me. Press the finger icon. If you did it right you should see red X by apps you downloaded. Then press and HOLD the app you want to use create a folder then move that app over another app.

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Re: Trouble creating folders
Orthoducks
Newbie

SuzyQ, thank you; I'll leave the apps screens alone and move on to what I thought was the second step, getting the apps I want to use on the home screen.

Anonymuss, than you too, but there's a misunderstanding somewhere; your last post doesn't make any sense, it makes me suspect that the problem you're trying to help me solve is not the one I have. (I haven't downloaded any apps yet. I don't think I said anything that implied I had.) Organizing the app screen just isn't going to happen, and I'm not going to spend any more time on it.

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