Top 6 Ways to Fix Missing App Icons on Android Phones

Icons are how we identify an app among the neatly arranged clutter on our phones. Some have hidden and deeper meanings. Even if you use several apps every day, you might be surprised when you can’t find the icon for the app you installed earlier. This is what happens to many Android phone owners who often talk about missing app icons. That’s why we decided to take a closer look at this problem.

There are two issues at hand, and I will cover both. You can view the app in the app drawer, but the home screen doesn’t have this app. The app icon is missing everywhere or the “green Android” logo appears instead of the app logo.

Note: I’m assuming you’ve already done the basic tests like restarting your phone and updating/reinstalling the app in question.

Let’s start.

1. Add to Home Screen

Advanced users may skip to the next point, but newbies to the Android or smartphone world should read it once. You may have deleted the app icon, not the app itself, from the home screen.

Open the App Drawer and find the missing app and hold it until you see the home screen in the background. Move and release to create a new app icon on the home screen.

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

2. Hidden Apps

Did you or someone with access to your phone hide the app? Most launchers offer this feature to hide apps. The location of the setting will differ depending on the launcher app you are using, but they are usually easy to find.

Tap and hold anywhere on the home screen to find the launcher settings. Show the app and see if the app icon now appears.

3. Disabled Application

A mistake or your child may have accidentally disabled the app so it is no longer active. It is not the same as uninstalling an app. It is there but only disabled and hence unusable which leads to the missing app icon issue.

Open Settings and under Manage app look for the app with missing icon and tap to open it. Do you see an option to Launch/Activate Application? Depending on the make and model of your phone, it may be under the App Info menu. If your answer is yes, most likely the application is disabled and you need to re-enable it.

4. Icon Pack

One of the things that separates Android from iOS is customizations. One way to do this is to use an icon pack. What it does is change the appearance of the selected app icon, sometimes making it unrecognizable. Are you using one? It is also possible that an icon pack app is included when you install another launcher or theme app. This is another Android related thing.

5. Launcher Problem

The launcher is how you access the app drawer, notifications and other areas or aspects of the smartphone. We’ve covered some great Android launchers at GT. Your launcher may be running. A new update might be responsible, in which case switch to the default launcher and check if the app icons are still missing.

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

You should also try clearing the cache and data of the launcher app. 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. App Data and Cache

You will clear the cache and data of the app with its missing icon the same way you cleared the data of the launcher app in the above point. Open Settings and find the ‘missing icon’ app under Manage app. Tap on Clear data at the bottom of the screen and select Clear all data.

Lost and Found

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

If nothing else works, I suggest you format your smartphone after taking a backup, but this is the last thing I would suggest to anyone. As always, if you found another way to fix the problem, do share with us in the comments below. It might help someone else.

Next: Are you looking for a new launcher? Here is an in-depth comparison between Lean and Nova launchers. You will learn about their features and differences.