GUIDES
Add a website to your iPhone home screen: setup and fixes
The Safari steps to add any website to your iPhone home screen as a web app, what changes once it is installed, and fixes for the usual problems.
Open the website in Safari, tap Share, scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen, then tap Add. That is the whole procedure, as Apple documents it, and the result is an icon that opens the site in its own window, like an app, rather than as a tab in Safari. The rest of this article covers what changes when a website becomes a home-screen web app, what to expect the first time you open it, and how to fix the common problems, from a missing menu entry to an app that asks you to log in again.
The short answer: Safari, Share, Add to Home Screen
Apple's guide to turning a website into an app on iPhone, linked in the sources below, gives these steps. Menus differ a little between iOS versions; the labels are what to look for.
- Open the Safari app and go to the website.
- Tap Share. Depending on your Safari layout, it is in the toolbar or behind the menu button; Apple's guide shows both.
- Scroll down the list of actions and tap Add to Home Screen. If it is not there, scroll to the bottom, tap Edit Actions and add it to the list; Apple documents this exact fix.
- Check the name and edit it if you like. If the sheet shows an Open as Web App switch, leave it on; Apple's current guide lists turning it on as a step.
- Tap Add. The icon appears on your home screen.
There is no install prompt on iOS, as web.dev notes; the Share menu is the way in. Safari is the browser Apple documents, but MDN notes that since iOS 16.4 other browsers on iPhone that support web apps can install them too. If you cannot find the option there, switch to Safari.
What changes when a website becomes a home-screen web app
Three things change, and none of them changes the website itself.
It gets its own icon and window. Apple's guide puts it simply: when you tap the icon, the website opens just like an app, and you quit it the way you quit any app. There is no address bar and no tab strip; MDN calls this the standalone display mode.
It gets its own storage. web.dev explains that an installed web app on iOS does not run inside Safari but in a separate component known as Web.app. WebKit's notes for Safari 17.2 spell out what follows: when you add a web app to the home screen, your cookies are copied across at that moment, including a login stored in cookies, and after that no other website data is shared between Safari and the web app. Other kinds of local storage are not copied at all. You end up with two separate copies of the site's data; Home-screen web app vs Safari tab works through what that means for cookies, logins and saved files.
It is not a bookmark. A home-screen icon for a site that is not set up as a web app has traditionally been a bookmark: MDN notes that tapping one simply opens the address in the browser, while a site with a web app manifest and a standalone display mode opens in its own window. Apple's current guide adds an Open as Web App switch to the sheet, which suggests the choice is now partly yours; Apple does not document the details, so expect variation between iOS versions. If the terms are new to you, What is a PWA? explains them without the jargon.
Opening it from the icon for the first time
The first launch is where the separate storage shows. If you were logged in to the site in Safari, one of two things happens. On iOS 17.2 and later, WebKit says login cookies are copied when the web app is created, so you may find yourself already logged in. If the site keeps its login outside cookies, or your iOS version predates that change, you log in once more. From then on each keeps its own login; expect logging out of one to leave the other untouched, since they no longer share data.
One more thing to expect: adding a site to the home screen does not, by itself, make it work offline; that depends on how the site was built.
Fixes for the common problems
Most problems trace back to one of two causes: the site does not describe itself as a web app, or the installed app's storage is separate from Safari's. The causes below are the ones Apple, WebKit, MDN and web.dev document.
| What you see | Likely cause, and what to do |
|---|---|
| The Share list has no Add to Home Screen | Scroll further; the entry sits low in the list. If it is missing, Apple's guide says to tap Edit Actions at the bottom and add it. If you opened the link inside another app, open the address in the Safari app itself, where Apple's steps start. |
| The icon is a picture of the page, or a plain tile, instead of a logo | The site provides no icon for Apple devices. web.dev documents that Safari then uses an image of the page, captured when you added it. Only the site's makers can fix this; the icon still works. |
| Tapping the icon opens Safari, not a separate window | The site is probably not set up as a web app: MDN notes that an icon for a site without a manifest, or with the browser display mode, opens the address in the browser like a bookmark. If the sheet showed an Open as Web App switch when you added the icon, remove it and add it again with the switch on. |
| The app asks you to log in although you are logged in in Safari | Expected. The installed app has its own storage; WebKit copies cookies only at the moment you add the app and never copies other kinds of storage. Log in once inside the app and it keeps that login. |
| The icon has the wrong name | The site suggests a name from its manifest, and the sheet lets you change it before you tap Add. Remove the icon, add the site again and edit the name on the sheet. |
| The app shows an error when you have no connection | Installing adds no offline support. The installed app needs a connection exactly as the site does in Safari. |
If none of these fits, open the same address in a Safari tab: a problem that shows there too belongs to the website, and one that shows only in the installed app points to the separate storage.
How this applies to a PWA Lock address
A locked address on pwalock.com is a website like any other, so the same Safari steps apply, and the exact clicks are in the complete iPhone setup guide. PWA Lock is our service, so read this section as the makers' own description.
- The icon and the name are yours. The locked address serves its own web app manifest and Apple icon, so the sheet shows the app name you chose and the cover's icon: a calculator for the Calculator cover, a lock for the plain cover, and so on. The picture-of-the-page problem does not arise.
- It starts at the lock page. The installed app opens in its own window at its lock page: the cover first if you set one, then the lock password. Nobody who taps the icon sees the app behind it.
- The first launch may ask for your account login. Because the installed app's storage is separate from Safari's, the first tap may send you to pwalock.com to log in before the lock page appears; that login lasts 7 days per device. Whether the step is skipped depends on the cookie copy described above, so treat it as normal.
- It relocks on its own. An unlock lasts 15 minutes and ends within a moment of you hiding the app, so reopening from the icon always shows the lock page.
- The cover works offline; unlocking does not. The cover apps run in the browser and keep working without a connection. Checking the lock password needs the server, and so does the web app behind it.
What PWA Lock does not change is the website itself: the original site stays reachable at its own address for anyone who knows it and has its login, and the lock exists only at the locked address. Plans differ only in room (apps, requests a day and transfers); Starter, Personal or Pro: which plan fits you? compares them. If a site's own login misbehaves inside the locked app, Why a website login may fail inside a web-app wrapper explains which sign-in flows are affected. If the question is whether you need a lock at all, Can you password-protect a website on your iPhone? compares the options, including Apple's own.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to use Safari to add a website to my home screen?
Safari is the browser Apple's guide describes, and it is the reliable route. MDN notes that since iOS 16.4 other browsers on iPhone that support web apps can install them too, from their own menus. Those menus are laid out differently, so if you cannot find the option in one of them, open the address in Safari and follow the steps above.
Why is the icon a picture of the page instead of a logo?
Because the site provides no icon for Apple devices. web.dev documents that Safari then uses an image of the page, captured at the moment you added it, as the icon. Only the site's makers can change that by adding an icon; the icon works normally in the meantime. Sites built to be installed, including any PWA Lock address, supply their own icon.
Why does the web app ask me to log in when I am already logged in in Safari?
An installed web app keeps its own cookies and storage, separate from Safari. WebKit's notes for Safari 17.2 say that cookies, including login state, are copied once when you add the app, and that nothing else is shared afterwards. If the site keeps its login outside cookies, or your iOS version predates that change, the app starts logged out. Log in once inside it; it then keeps that login on its own.
Can I change the name or the icon after adding a site?
The name is editable on the sheet before you tap Add, and the site suggests the default from its manifest. To change it later, remove the icon and add the site again with the name you want. The icon itself comes from the site and is not something you can change.
Does adding a website to the home screen make it work offline?
No. The icon and the separate window come from iOS; working without a connection is something the site's developers have to build in, and many ordinary websites have not. If a site shows an error offline in Safari, expect the same from its home-screen icon.
How do I remove a web app from my home screen?
Remove it the way you remove any app icon. The website itself and your Safari tabs, bookmarks and logins are unaffected, because after the one-time cookie copy at install the installed app kept its data to itself. Anything that existed only inside the installed app, such as a login or an unsaved draft, was never in Safari, so do not count on finding it there.
Sources
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