Hiding those default applications! (Non-Jailbreak)

I did a quick search and didn't come up with anything, so I thought I'd post this. If by chance this is against the rules or should be removed, please PM me and I'll remove it ASAP.

(For the TL:DR crowd, there is a quick step-by-step list at the bottom of this post.)


I'm sure many of us have maxed out our 9 pages and for those of us that don't jailbreak, there is not much we can do besides limit our purchases, swap applications back and forth or delete some apps entirely.

I've noticed while rearranging my applications that sometimes you'll knock the last application on the 9th page off the dock and it will disappear entirely until you install a new application or reboot the device.

This got me thinking a little about the default applications that Apple puts on the first page and doesn't allow you to remove. For me, this was the "Stocks" application.

So I just now tested out a theory and it worked!

First, I rearranged my applications so that Stocks was the last application on the 9th page.

(For those that don't know, this is most easily done by putting it in the last spot on the current page, going to the next page and dragging the first application to the previous page. This knocks the previous page's last application to the first slot on that next page. Rinse and repeat until you hit page 9.)

Now that I had the Stocks application in the last slot on page 9, I went to page 8 and took the last application on that page and also brought it to page 9, afterward putting it back on page 8. This successfully knocked Stocks off the dock and left an empty slot.

I then downloaded a new app and sync'd the device. (As an alternative, you can just recheck a unsync'd application to reinstall it.)

Once the download was finished, I sync'd the device and disappointingly the Stocks app showed up on the 9th page once again. This left the new application off the dock and lost in limbo.

So once again, I went to page 8, took the last application on that page and brought it to page 9, afterward putting it back on page 8. This knocked Stocks off the dock once again and left an empty slot.

So now I had the new application and Stocks in limbo.

I then rebooted the device and that new application showed up on the 9th page with Stocks nowhere to be found.

With some tinkering, I'm sure this can be done for more than one of those default apps, but personally I only wanted Stocks gone for now.

This is also not a permanent solution. Each time you uninstall an application to add a new one, there is a high chance that the hidden application will reappear and you'll need to hide it again.



A quick step-by-step checklist recap:

1. Make sure all 9 pages are filled with applications, there should be no empty slots.
2. Drag the application you want to hide to the last slot on page 9.
3. Install a new application, either by download or one that is already unsync'd.
4. Take an application from page 8 and drag it to page 9, afterwards putting it back onto page 8. This successfully knocks that unwanted applicaton off the dock.
5. Reboot the device.