How do I permanently remove stacks and widgets from my iPad home screen? I remove them, laboriously redo my icon layout, but if I reboot they come back and I have to do it over again. Every time. I want them permanently gone!
iPad mini (6th generation)
If correctly removed, Widgets should not return with a restart. Are you seeing this behaviour following a simple shut-down and restart - or after a forced restart?
Force restart iPad (models with Face ID or with Touch ID in the top button)
If your iPad doesn’t have the Home button, do the following:
Force restart iPad (models with the Home button)
Press and hold the top button and the Home button at the same time. When the Apple logo appears, release both buttons.
If the problem persists after performing the restart, it may be necessary to reset your iPad settings. While this reset will not cause any loss of data, as a precaution, it is always wise to ensure that you have a current iCloud or iTunes backup before performing the reset:
How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
When you are happy to proceed, you can perform the reset from iPad settings:
Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPad > Reset > Reset All Settings
If the problem still doesn’t clear, you may need to restore the iPad to factory settings - which will erase all data from your iPad:
Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings - Apple Support
After performing the factory restore, you would be best advised to initially set-up “as new” with your AppleID - and test that you can persistently remove unwanted Widgets from your iPad. If all is well, you can then restore your data from your iCloud or iTunes backup:
Restore all content to iPad from a backup - Apple Support
Thank you. I don’t have a home button, so did forced restart as instructed (this is what I meant by reboot). The widgets and stacks returned, as they always do. Now I have to reconfigure my home page again. I know this should not be happening, but it has been ever since I bought this new iPad last month to replace my ancient one.
Widgets are integral to iOS/iPadOS - and cannot be fully disabled. That said, you don’t need to use them - and all can be deleted from your Home Screens
You can find information about managing, adding and deleting Widgets here:
Use widgets on your iPad - Apple Support
This external link may also be helpful:
https://appletoolbox.com/how-to-remove-widgets-from-ipad-home-screen-running-ipados/
Thank you. The problem is that the stacks and widgets reappear after I remove them by following the steps listed. They reappear whenever I have to reboot the iPad. I want to stop them coming back—how do I do that?
Having performed the forced restart - with no improvement - continue with the rest of guidance provided.
Removing stacks and widgets
