By Greg Mills

One of the features in iPad 4.2.1 iOS that is quite helpful is the folders function for sorting apps into categories that recover many of the 10 screens that you can scroll through.  

I loaded the iPad 4.2.1iOS yesterday and began to play around with it. My 11-year-old daughter had downloaded tons of games that I have little interest in -- I haven't launched "Whack a Mole",  personally so far -- so  I spend an hour sorting out 180 apps into games 1-5, weather, graphics, news, etc. I got 10 full screens of apps down to two pages of thoughtful folders, where I can find things I wanted -- and all on only two screens worth of real estate. There are only 10 screens available.

This morning I went to the Apple App store and set my iPad to download 14 updates that were flagged as having new code for the new iOS. When I got back I was shocked to find that my hour of sorting the apps into folders was apparently lost. All the files I set up are gone. I went from two screens back to 10 screens with no apparent way to restore my files.

I will hook up to the MacBook Pro and see if the condition is fixable. If anyone else has this problem email me with a fix and I will publicize it ... 

I contacted Apple support by phone and the issue was unknown to them.  

That's Greg's bite for today.

(Greg Mills, is a Faux Artist in Kansas City. Formerly a new product R&D man for the paint sundry market, he holds 11 US patents. He's working on a solar energy startup, www.CottageIndustrySolar.com using a patent pending process of turning waste dual pane glass into thermal solar panels used to heat water. Greg writes for intellectual web sites and Mac related issues. See Greg's art web site at www.gregmills.info ; his email is gregmills@mac.com )