How to Fix Apps Not Showing on Android Home Screen?

I can only go through settings to see my apps that are installed recently but why are my apps not showing on the home screen? Why the chrome added to the home screen not working?

Recently, many Android users have complained that their installed apps not showing on the home screen. Apparently, failing to find a shortcut icon on the home screen makes it less convenient for users to launch the program. This could occur for a broad range of reasons but it doesn’t indicate your Android phone is broken sometimes.

In this post, we are going to analyze why your installed apps are not showing on your Android phone and take you through some of the most useful solutions to get your app icon back on your home screen.

Why Are My Apps Not Showing on Home Screen?

Coincidentally and unexpectedly hiding your apps can be one of the most reasonable answers to this question. And all you need to do is to simply get it back from where it is hidden. Nevertheless, there are many other reasons why your apps are not showing on the home screen:

• The app is not installed yet.
• The home screen display issue.
• The apps are organized into a specific folder.
• An update of the Android operating system or apps.

How Do I Find Missing Apps on My Android Phone?

The methods may depend on the models or version of your Android device, but the mentioned solutions below can be enough to help most users out of the problem. It might take 6-8 minutes to go through all the methods. Therefore, please take patience to fix the “apps not showing on home screen” error and enable your Android phone to the normal condition.

Check If the Missing Apps Are Installed

The first thing you should try to do is to check whether the downloaded apps have been installed successfully already. This is because if the app hasn’t been installed yet, it will not appear on the home screen. You can find the installed and uninstalled apps in App Gallery, where the pre-installed apps and the third-party ones are all be stored.

Now, launch the App Gallery app from the home screen and check the installing condition by navigating through:

1. Open the App Gallery icon on the home screen.
2. Click on the “Manager” mode at the bottom.
3. Go to “Installation Manager ”. Each app will be tagged by an icon indicating its condition.
4. If the icon is “OPEN” or “UPDATE”, it means it is installed already. Instead, if the icon is “INSTALL”, it means it hasn’t been installed yet.

For some Android models, the app will be installed automatically when it completes the downloading process. If you find the missing apps installed but still fail to show up on the home screen, you can uninstall the app and reinstall it. If necessary, you can also recover deleted app data on your Android phone.

Check If the Missing Apps Are Stored in the Folder App

There is a possibility of malfunction that you have to drag the app icon to somewhere else. In most cases, they should be stored in the Folder app, which can be created by yourself someday. As long as the app is stored in the Folder app, you can find it with the following steps:

1. On the home screen, long-press the blank screen and scroll down the interface.
2. Type the name in the search box to position the missing app.
3. Tap on the “Position” icon to figure out where it is stored.
4. You can drag the app icon to the home screen in case you can’t remember its position next time.

Adjust the Home Screen Style

There are two kinds of home screen styles. One is “Standard” and the other is “Drawer”. Once the Drawer style is initiated, only a few apps will display on the home screen while all apps will be stored in the drawer. To display all apps on the home screen, you can adjust the home screen style:

1. Launch the “Settings” app.
2. Scroll down to the “Home screen & Wallpaper” option.’
3. Go to “Home screen style”.
4. Change the home screen style from “Drawer” to “Standard”.

Check If the Missing Apps Are Hidden

Some models of Android devices are allowed to hide or freeze the apps. Once the apps are set to be hidden, they will disappear on the home screen. To uncover a hidden app, you can:

1. Slide outward the interface with your two fingers on the home screen.

2. Then you will see the hidden apps in the interface.

3. Tap on the “Add” button to see all the installed apps.

4. Uncheck the app you don’t want to hide and then confirm the change.

Shut Down and Restart Your Android Phone

1. It can also result from the home screen display issue. To fix the issue, you can shut down and restart your Android device:
2. Long-press the “power” button for about 3 seconds and click on the “Power off” option to shut down your Android phone.
3. Leave the machine for at least about 10 minutes until it completely cools down.
4. Long-press the “power” button for about 3 seconds to reboot the device.

Reset the Home Screen Data and Launcher

For some models of Android devices, you are also allowed to reset the home screen data. For example, if you are using a Huawei phone with an EMUI system, you are also allowed to reset the home screen data and launcher manually. Based on the Android operating system, the EMUI system is developed to offer users a better experience. And if your Android phone is running the EMUI system, you can reset the home screen data and launch.

For EMUI 4.0:

Go to Settings > Apps > Three dots (or Menu) button on the upper-right corner > Show system processes > Huawei Home > Storage > CLEAR DATA

For EMUI 3.0 / 3.1:

Go to Settings > Apps > Huawei Home > CLEAR DATA

Reset Your Android Device to Factory Settings

If neither of the mentioned methods can help, a factory reset to your Android tablet or Android phone is required. Before initiating a factory reset, you are highly suggested to back up the data on your Android device. This is because once you initiate the factory resetting button, all your data and cache on the phone will be cleared.

To factory reset your Android phone, you can:

1. Turn off your Android phone.
2. Press down the “Volume-up”, “Power” and “Home” buttons at the same time to enter into the Recovery Mode.
3. Select the “wipe data/factory reset” option via the “Volume-up” and “Volume-down” buttons.
4. Select “wipe cache partition” via “Volume-up” and “Volume-down” buttons too.’
5. Tap on the “Reboot System Now” option and it will restart afterward.

How to Fix Installed Apps Not Showing on Home Screen

If you tried the above ways and installed apps still not showing on home screen, then there may be some software glitches on your device. And you need to get those software problems fixed, then app problems will be fixed as you wish. DroidKit is a complete Android solution that provides you to fix system issues on Samsung phones and tablets, such as Samsung apps keep stopping, app not installed error, app permission problem, Samsung pay not working, even Samsung black screen or not registered on network due to system glitches, etc. 

And DroidKit is 100% secure and stable to you, with no risk of being infected with viruses or malware. Because the ROM downloaded and installed on your device during the repairing process is definitely official from Samsung.

What’s more, if you want to unlock your Android phone when forgot your password, or recover lost data whenever you need it, DroidKit can also provide you ways to do. You can explore this complete solution here.

Now, here are the steps on how to fix apps not showing caused by system problems:

Step 1. Get DroidKit installed on your computer (Windows PC & Mac supported). Launch the software and go to Fix System Issues.

Step 2. Connect your phone with the computer and head to Start.

Step 3. After DroidKit matched PDA code for your device, click Download Now button to get firmware package.

Step 4. Once downloaded, click Fix Now button.

Step 5. Then you need to put your device in Download mode. And DroidKit will start repairing. Wait a minute, you will get the finished page as below.

The Bottom Line

Despite being a common issue for Android users, the apps not showing on the Android home screen issue can be solved via the mentioned 7 solutions. It may take several minutes to follow the steps but it is worth trying!

Hopefully, if you find this guide helpful, please leave a comment to let us know or share it with your friends.