9 Useful Ways to Fix Apps Disappeared from iPhone

Why apps disappeared from iPhone?

Various mobile apps on the iPhone help users with social interactions, sharing, searching, browsing, and accessing a wide range of online resources, etc. But sometimes, when you need to swipe right or left to look for the app you need to use right now, you may find that some apps like Camera app are disappeared from your iPhone.

Why does this issue occur? There are some potential reasons.

⛔ The offload unsaved apps feature is enabled on your iPhone, and it will automatically remove unused apps to free up storage space on your iPhone.

⛔ Your home screen pages have been deleted accidentally or a hidden app on iPhone.

⛔ Some software update glitches may exist on your device.

How to fix the app missing on iPhone

When the issue occurs, it can be quite frustrating. But don’t worry, you can keep on reading to explore these 9 ways to get the most suitable way for you.

Solution 1. Find from Hidden Purchases

If you've intentionally concealed an app from your App Store purchase history, making it inaccessible to you or others, you can launch the App Store and click on your profile picture to access your account settings.

Then sign in with your Apple ID credentials and tap on it > Click on Hidden Purchases > Check if the desired app is present in this section. If you find it, select the app you wish to reveal and tap on the Unhide option > Then return to the App Store and proceed to download the app once more.

Solution 2. Restart your iPhone

Restarting your iPhone can be another effective way to solve the software glitches or some temporary bugs on iPhone.

For iPhone X/11/12/13 or later: Press and hold either volume button and the side button simultaneously until the power-off slider appears > Drag the power-off slider to the right to turn off your device.

For iPhone 6/7/8 or SE(2nd or 3rd generation): Press and hold the side button until the power-off slider appears on the screen > Drag the slider to the right to power off your iPhone.

For iPhone SE (1st generation), 5, or earlier: Press and hold the top button > When the power-off slider appears, drag the slider to turn off the device.

After a while, press and hold the side/top button until you see the Apple logo to turn on the iPhone.

Solution 3. Re-install Disappeared Apps

The most straightforward method to solve the apps disappeared from iPhone issue is to reinstall these apps. Just open the App Store on your iPhone and use the search feature in the it to find the app you're looking for.

If you see the Open button next to the apps, then it means the apps disappeared from iPhone but still installed, so you need to move them to a more accessible place. If they say Install then it means you have to reinstall the apps.

Solution 4. Search in App Library

To retrieve the vanished apps, you can navigate to the App Library by swiping left from the home screen. Once there, search for the app by name. After locating it, press and hold the app icon and opt to Add to Home Screen to make it.

Solution 5. Turn Off Offload Unsaved Apps

The feature called "Offload Unused Apps" on iPhone is designed to reduce background operations and save storage by automatically deleting apps that haven't been used for a while on . However, this can lead to the disappearance of apps you're looking for.

To solve the issue, you can go to Settings > Tap on App Store > Locate and disable the Offload Unused Apps option. Or you can back to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to turn off it.

Then you can go to the App Store to redownload the vanished apps.

Solution 6. Unhide Home Screen pages

The accidental hiding of a home screen page, along with all the apps on it, can be a reason for apps disappearing on the iPhone's home screen.

To solve this issue: Long-press the background of your home screen until the apps start jiggling > Tap on the dots located at the bottom half of the screen > If any of the pages are unchecked, it means they are hidden. Check the unchecked pages to make them visible along with all the apps on them.

Solution 7. Change the Screen Time settings

If you've disallowed an app through Screen Time settings and are now unable to find it, then you can open the Settings app > Tap on Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Go to Allowed Apps and check if any app has been toggled off. If you find one, turn it back on.

Alternatively, you can select Content Restrictions > Tap Apps and enable Allow All Apps to remove any age restrictions or limitations on app usage.

Solution 8. Use Siri & Spotlight to Search Apps

Using Siri and Spotlight to search for the apps is also useful. Make sure Siri and suggestions are enabled first by going to Settings > Siri & Search.

Using Siri: Activate Siri by saying "Hey Siri" or by pressing the Siri button > Then give a voice command to open the app you're looking for.

Using Spotlight: Swipe down in the center of your home screen to access the search bar > Use the search bar to look for the app you need.

Solution 9. Reset the Home Screen Layout

If you've tried various settings and still can't find the apps that disappeared from your iPhone, you can reset the home screen layout to restore the default order of your apps: Open the Settings app > Select General > Tap on Transfer or Reset iPhone > Choose Reset and then select Reset Home Screen Layout.

Further reading: Back up iPhone to avoid app data loss

Frequent issues, such as apps disappearing from the iPhone, can suddenly occur on your device. To prevent these issues and potential data loss, it's a wise choice to back up iPhone data to your computer.

And if you need to move iPhone data to your Windows PC, FoneTool can finish the process efficiently.

Super-fast backup speed: FoneTool offers fast backup speeds that far surpass those of iTunes and iCloud. So you can move hundreds of files in seconds.
Preview and selective backup: FoneTool allows you to create a full backup that is consistent with an iTunes backup or selectively back up photos, videos, music, contacts and messages.
No Apple ID restrictions: FoneTool can help you restore the iPhone selective/full backup or transfer iPhone data to another iOS device without the Apple ID restrictions.
Wide compatibility: With FoneTool, you can manage all models of iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch data on Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP efficiently, as well as iPhone 15 and iOS 17.

Now you can download FoneTool on your Windows PC and learn how to selectively or fully back up iPhone data.

Selectively back up iPhone

Step 1. Connect the iPhone to your computer via USB > You may need to tap Trust to let your computer access data on the device.

Step 2. Open FoneTool, and click Phone Backup > Selective Backup > Click Get Started.

Step 3. You can check each icon to choose the targeted data> Click Backup Storage Path to choose a backup storage location > Click Start Backup to confirm the choice.

Fully back up iPhone

Step 1. Choose Phone Backup > Full Backup and click Get Started.

Step 2. Check Enable Backup Encryption as you like. Then select a storage path to save the backup and click Start Backup to begin the task.

Next time if you need to restore your backup, you can go to Backup History and click Restore dot to accomplish the task.

Conclusion

From this article, you can know how to fix the apps disappeared from iPhone issue. Hope you can solve the problem in a very short time. If you need a handy tool to back up your iPhone data, then FoneTool can be your good helper.