How to rearrange, force quit, and delete apps on the Apple TV

Apple Tv 4k Review
Apple Tv 4k Review (Image credit: Stephen Warwick / iMore)

The Apple TV offers a plethora of third-party apps and games via its App Store in addition to the Apple-made apps that come pre-installed. With hundreds of apps available, you're going to want some way to organize them — and delete the ones that take up too much space.

Fortunately, it's easy to do exactly that once you know how. Here's how to rearrange, force quit, and delete apps on Apple TV.

How to rearrange apps on Apple TV

Getting your Apple TV Home screen just right can take a bit of time, but it beats searching through tons of icons to find the right app each and every time you want to open it.

  1. Navigate to the icon of the app you want to move by swiping.
  2. Press and hold the clickpad center (second-generation Siri Remote) or touch surface (first-generation Siri Remote) until the app starts to jiggle.

rearrange apps on Apple TV: Click and hold on the app's icon, drag it to a new position. (Image credit: iMore)
  1. Drag the app icon to a new location on the screen.
    • You can also drag the icon and hover it over another app icon to create a folder.
  2. When you're happy with its new location, click the clickpad center or touchpad again to save your changes.

How to force quit an app on Apple TV

If an app has crashed, frozen, or otherwise started to act up, you can force quit it much like you would on your iPhone or iPad. Here's how.

  1. Double-click the TV button.
  2. In the app-switching view, navigate to the app you wish to quit by swiping left or right.

Force quit an app on Apple TV: Double click the TV button, navigate to the app you want to quit, swipe it up off the screen to quit (Image credit: iMore)
  1. Swipe up on the clickpad or touchpad surface to quit the app by throwing it up off-screen.
  2. Click the < or MENU to exit the app-switcher view.

Check how much storage space an Apple TV app is taking up

If you're running low on Apple TV storage, you can easily check which apps are hogging all the space and offload those you no longer need. Just follow the below steps.

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Click on General.

Check Apple TV storage: Open Settings app, Click General (Image credit: iMore)
  1. Scroll down and click on Manage Storage.
  2. Here you can view all the apps you currently have installed, sorted by most storage used to least storage used. You can also delete any app from this screen by clicking on the Trash icon.

Check Apple TV storage: Click Manage Storage, view app usage and delete apps with the Trash icon (Image credit: iMore)

How to delete an app on Apple TV

As well as using the aforementioned Trash icon, there's an even more convenient way to delete an app right from your Apple TV Home screen.

  1. Navigate to the icon of the app you want to delete by swiping.
  2. Press and hold the clickpad center (second-generation Siri Remote) or touch surface (first-generation Siri Remote) until the app starts to jiggle.
  3. Press the Play/Pause button.

Delete apps on Apple TV: Click and hold on the app's icon, click the Play/Pause button, Click Delete (Image credit: iMore)
  1. Click Delete.
  2. Click Delete once again to confirm.

Customize your experience

As you can see, there are some simple steps you can take to customize your Apple TV Home screen experience, quit a troublesome app, or delete apps and games you no longer need.

Better yet, with One Home Screen, you can have all of the Apple TVs in your house display the same apps and games automatically so you don't have to make manual changes for the best Apple TV experience everywhere.

Updated March 2022: Updated for tvOS 15.

Adam Oram

Adam Oram is a Senior Writer at iMore. He studied Media at Newcastle University and has been writing about technology since 2013. He previously worked as an Apple Genius and as a Deals Editor at Thrifter. His spare time is spent watching football (both kinds), playing Pokémon games, and eating vegan food. Follow him on Twitter at @adamoram.