Top 6 Ways to Fix Missing App Icons on Android Phones

Icons are the way we identify an application among the carefully organized clutter of our phones. Some of them have hidden and deeper meanings. Although you use a handful of apps daily, you may be surprised not to find the icon for the app you installed previously. This is what happens to many Android phone owners who often talk about missing app icons. So we decided to take a closer look at this problem.

There are two issues to resolve, and I will address both. You can view the application in the applications drawer, but it is missing on the home screen. The application icon is missing everywhere or displays a “green Android” logo instead of the application logo.

Note: I assume you have already done some basic tests like restarting your phone and updating / reinstalling the app in question.

Let’s start.

1. Add to the home screen

Advanced users can skip to the next point, but those who are new to the Android or smartphone world should read it once. You may have removed the application icon, not the application itself, from the Home screen.

Open the app drawer and find the missing app, then press and hold until the home screen appears in the background. Move and release to create a new app icon on the home screen.

Speaking of the home screen, you could have moved the app to a folder and just looked in the wrong place. The same can be true for the application drawer.

2. Hidden applications

Did you or someone with access to your phone hide the application? Most launchers offer this feature to hide applications. The location of the setting differs depending on the launch app you are using, but generally they are easy to find.

Press and hold anywhere on the home screen to find the launcher settings. View the app and see if the app icon is visible now.

3. Application deactivated

A bug or your kid may have accidentally disabled the application, which is why it is no longer active. It is not the same as uninstalling an application. It is there but just disabled and therefore unusable, leading to the missing application icon problem.

Open Settings and under Manage application, find the application with the missing icon and tap to open it. Have you noticed an option to start / activate the application? This can be found in the Info menu on the app, depending on the make and model of your phone. If so, most likely, the app is disabled and you need to re-enable it.

4. Icon pack

One of the things that sets Android apart from Android is personalization. One way to do this is to use an icon pack. It changes the appearance of the icon of the selected application, sometimes making it unrecognizable. Do you use one? It is also possible that an icon pack application was included when you installed another launch or theme application. This is another thing about Android.

5. Launcher problem

A launcher is how you access the app drawer, notifications, and other areas or aspects of the smartphone. We have covered some great Android launchers on GT. Your launcher may be working. A recent update could be responsible in this case, go to the default launcher and check if the application icons are still missing.

Try resetting the launcher to see if bad data is responsible. Open Settings and go to Manage application or list of applications. You are looking for a third party or default launcher here. Samsung calls it TouchWiz, for example. Open it, tap Storage and select Clear data.

You should also try to clear the cache and data from the launch application itself. Return to the previous screen and select Clear Data at the bottom of the screen and tap Clear All Data.

On a related note, updating your launcher from the Play Store can also help.

6. Application data and cache

You will erase the cache and the data of the application whose icon is missing in the same way as you have erased the data of the launch application at the point above. Open Settings and find the “missing icon” application under Manage application. Tap Clear Data at the bottom of the screen and select Clear All Data.

Found missing

We don’t pay enough attention to the icons unless they disappear on our Android phones. After all, this is how we identify an application and open it. How do you interact with an app if you can’t find it? I hope the above points helped you to restore the missing application icons.

If nothing else works, I suggest you format your smartphone after making a backup, but it’s the last thing I would suggest to anyone. As always, if you’ve found another way to fix the problem, share it with the rest of us in the comments below. It could help someone else.