Home » iOS Tips » iOS 8 Errors » The Curious Case of The Disappearing Apps in iOS 8

The Curious Case of The Disappearing Apps in iOS 8

Last updated: June 27, 2015 at 17:08 pm

Update x1: Most of the Apple iOS apps have gone missing after upgrading to iOS 8. Several Apple users have confirmed this bug does exist (see comments).

Sometimes exploring iOS 8 feels like entering a cave in the middle of the night — you just don’t know what to expect. We didn’t expect that apps could disappear from our Apple iPhone but it just did. And guess what? We are not alone. Many users have complained about this mysterious “missing app” bug that is visible (or should we say invisible?) after upgrading to iOS 8 firmware.

Apps Gone Missing From Homescreen

You can install any number of apps and games on your device and all of them can be accessed from your homescreen. Swipe left or right, put apps in a new folder, temporarily hide them or send them somewhere in the dark corners — you can still find them via Spotlight search.

In this mysterious case, even Spotlight failed to find the app.

What Really Happened?

We updated Find my Friends to its latest version. The update, if we think about it, went smoothly. We only had to go to App Store and hit the “Update” button. We explored its new features, wrote about it, and all of a sudden it went missing the next day.

There was no app. No icon. Nothing.

It just escaped from Apple’s closed ecosystem. And that is when we decided to use App Store to see if the app was actually uninstalled accidentally. You know what? It was right there, with the button “Open” (meaning that the installation was successful). Relieved? Well, not really because I finally…

Pressed “Open” in The App Store… And The App Didn’t Launch

App Store just didn’t do anything. Really: What could possibly go wrong in opening an iOS app that was installed recently? But wait. The dramatic journey didn’t end here. Spotlight, which can search even text messages, couldn’t find the app.

So shocking.

Either I screwed up somewhere, or the Find My Friend app just stopped working. Probably it went for a walk? Silly me.

And so, I asked my writer to see if he was able to recreate the problem. He installed Find My Friends update on his iOS 8 device and reported that the app did not disappear. The icon was right there, sitting on the homescreen of his Apple iPhone 5s.

Let’s Blame The App

Just when I thought this bug must be related to Find My Friends, Willie commented on our WhatsApp post. He wrote: “My Whatsapp was deleted off my phone with the new 2.11.11 update. Even the “open” in App Store still does not open the app… gone!”

Deleted? We are sure he meant the app vanished from the device. Not only did WhatsApp disappear but also Facebook app icon went missing. Brian says: “Came here looking for a solution. I can’t find Facebook app and WhatsApp app on my device.”

Icons and apps go missing all the time on jailbroken iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches, but this was a very unusual case as iOS 8 doesn’t have a jailbreak yet.

Reinstalling App Doesn’t Help But Resetting iPhone Did

Installing the app again was the first step to see if we can get back the missing icon back on our Apple iPhone. Unfortunately, even multiple uninstalls and re-installs did not help.

Our next option was to downgrade the firmware, and go back to iOS 7.1.2, but that’s just too extreme.

What really bought the apps back? It was hard resetting the device that fixed the problem.

Final Thoughts: Fix This Problem, Apple!

Right now, we are waiting for others to verify this bug is, indeed, related to iOS 8 firmware. Willie’s and Brian’s comment is a proof that something is wrong. We have read that icons disappear again and re-appear when you hard reset, so this is not a permanent solution.

If are you facing similar issues, please let us know by dropping a comment. We hope that Apple is going to fix this problem in the next iOS 8 update.

130 Comments

Note: Articles written at iOS8release.com are valid for every Apple device running iOS 8.0, iOS 8.1, iOS 8.2, iOS 8.3, iOS 8.4 / 8.4.1 firmware

Vicky

Faced the exact problem. Skype icon gone. Did hard reset long back. Got app and gone again.

Gotta reset daily.

Problem since beta, btw. I hate Apple! :/
Beth

Same here. Apps are here and then gone. An app I used this morning disappeared this evening. Another app I had deleted re-appeared. My sub and also lost apps after the iOS8 install.
Phil

Same here. My IPad home screen has all the icons in place but 50% of them have no graphics just something that resembles a black and white radar.
- Lupe
  
  Me too. They are still there, and the open, but just black and white graphics. Also, the screen jumps up and down when I want to enter text. I use AOL as my home screen and when I move back to the previous news story the keyboard pops up. Sorry I ran the update!
- julzzzy
  
  I think those are sites you saved to your homepage. I have this same problem but I use this feature all the time. For me this. is. HUGE. So many apps are not better, more functional or run as smoothly as their website and since saving them to my home page takes up way less space, I do the save to home screen instead.
  
  When you save this way you can manipulate the screen so the icon is a pic that makes it easily identifiable. Since all that has now disappeared, I’m pretty sure its gone forever. I would love a fix but I don’t see how this could be done without redoing each one.
- julzzzy
  
  Changing languages and back fixed this for me. Further discussion of it here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6541583
Mel

I did place 2 apps in a folder on home screen and then lifted first one out and then second one. When releasing second one it just disappeared. Folder and the app both vanished. It is still accessible via Appstore “open button” but not on the home screen. Seems like serious iOS8 bug.
Ben

I think the problem could be your restrictions. I had an app disappear and evidently it’s app age restriction changed with the iOS 8 upgrade.
Amanda

Having same problem only mine is with find my iPhone can only open it in the app store come on Apple this is reridiculous makes me regret upgrading
HansDZ

same problem for me, app icons disappear suddenly on my iPad Air with IOS 8.0.2
Christina

I had an entire folder and all of the apps in it disappear. I can open them from search but it’s a pain.
Genie

I have noticed both my ipad air and iphone 4s have lost not just a single app, but whole home screens. I can search with spotlight, and see they are installed when connected to itunes on my mac. But they are missing from homescreens. My quick fix is to click remove on the each installed app so that it shows will remove, then click it back again. Click apply when done. It just drops the icons back onto the homescreens and off to sorting again… PITA with 8 homescreens filled with folders.
Leah

After updating to io8, my App store is missing! Also, when I attempt to access my photos from Instagram, the app crashes.
julzzzy

I had to delete so many apps to install the update I’m not totally sure I didn’t delete them but I think I’m missing Tumblr and a couple of others I didn’t remove. I’m much more upset about the icon art that disappeared leaving generic gray targets for bookmarks saved to the homepage. I liked and need the pics to identify them and use them the way most people use apps. They might as well have just disappeared because now they’re just useless blobs.
- julzzzy
  
  Just found a really weird fix for this by changing languages and switching back to English! You have to be very careful if you don’t speak the other language but all of my icons now seem to be where they were and the saved to home page icons are back as they were and are no longer the grid targety icons. I don’t understand why this worked but found this trick here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6541583 answer posted by elhombrealto
  Not sure if it will bring back all of everyone’s lost apps but it worked for my issues.
  - Debbie
    
    Wow! I just tried this, and it worked for me, too. All of my bookmarks had turned to a generic, white patch. So, I switched, languages to Spanish, then back to English, and it corrected the problem. Thanks for sharing that info!
Albert

Go to Settings>General>Restrictions. If you have restrictions turned on – you may have disabled buying apps. Turn it off and the icon will come back onto the iPad.

found solution because we setting restriction

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3861825
- QueenofMunchkins
  
  I spent half the day trying to figure out what happened to all my apps, but naturally it was because I’d just set up restrictions, since I occasionally have a toddler playing with my phone. They’re all working now, but I feel silly…..!
Nga

I have same issue with Find my friends icon. It disappeared from homescreen, i found it is still in Usage but cant find in spot light @@
Tried to hard reset as well as reinstall the app several times but its not working ;; (
- Faihan
  
  I found my missing whatsapp icom in the folder where the calculater is. When you first open the folder, you wont see it. The folder made itself two pages. It was in the second page.
maria

same problem, but with two different apps: Emoji and Google Map! So deleted the app in my itunes. Did hard reset after backing up iphone 5, then restored from backup. Downloaded the apps again, synced again. Same problem persists! Strangely in my iTunes the apps show as installed. Did the whole process twice. No change, apps still missing, just like described above. Any ideas, HELP?!
bk

yep – updated to 8.1.1 yesterday & no Facebook plus others. App store says it’s there but won’t open it. Nothing showing in Spotlight. Ridiculous. About to try your hard reset – thanks for the tip, I hope it works as waiting on a message ugently
- Christopher Covell
  
  Same thing happened to me and I wound up finding an entire missing folder inside of one of my other folders. Check around your device before resetting anything. I only saw it as spread out app icons when I hooked up to ITunes and saw the overview of what was on the iPhone. There they were outside of the folder I named Accts. When I opened the folder I keep my angry bird titles in there was the entire “Accts” folder (which I didn’t think was possible: folder within folder). I pulled it back out on the homescreen and it was ok. About 9 icons back to where they belong. Hope this helps some of you.
Mchiquilla

same problem but i am missing more than 2.
netflix,pandora,nbc,abc,uvideos,and some of my kids games,
Denny Kurniawan

Please help, it’s my setting app with the gear icon, you know right? It’s gone from the springboard, now I can’t change any settings anymore, even I can’t connect to a wifi, please.
Eli Diamond

So, this just happened to me this afternoon. Sometimes when I’m fighting the alarm my fingers will stay on the home screen (Yeah yeah, I don’t like to get up somedays. They got a pill for that), and the apps go into edit mode. But, the apps that are native tothe iPhone, ie.. App Store, iTunes Store, Contacts, and the such, don’t show an X in the corner when they’re shaking around so they can’t be deleted, right? Well, after the alarm won its battle, I found my home screen a little disheveled with my Contacts app and Messages grouped in a new “Utilities” app-folder. Upon reorganizing the screen, Messages came out fine but my Contacts app just disappeared when I slid it out.

The App Store doesn’t have the native Contacts app as far as I can tell. It doesn’t come up when I search the App Store. But, I can access my contacts through my Phone App, I can bring it up in Spotlight and the little app icon looks like it should in Spotlight. If I open it from Spotlight it will stay in the lineup on the ‘Multitask’ screen but not from the Phone app. Granted, I haven’t tried any other fixes including restarting my phone, so this rant may be just a rant. But only time will tell… And a hard reset being the fix is no fix at all, just lame. When will it all work perfectly? Jezzzzzshhh
Debbie

I upgraded to iOS 8, and continue to find little things going wrong. The icons for the bookmarked pages that I have on my homescreen, have become generic, white patches. I can still open them, but it is too hard to distinguish between them at a glance. Not good!
George Cunanan

I installed IOS 8 last September 2014 and subsequent updates on my Iphone 5 and my Find My Friends icon disappeared on the iphone home screen. I tried resetting/uninstalling the FMF. I checked my Apps on itunes back up home screen sometimes it appears when I re-install it and when I synchronize it to my iPhone 5 it never appears on the iPhone home screen and at the same time it disappears on the iTunes back up home screen. The only way I could access FMF is to go to APPS and tap “Search” and type Find My Friends and open it from there. I think it is always open as I don’t need to login and just tap “open” and I am automatically logged in. By the way if I go to my iphone settings the App FMF is there but again the icon is not on the iPhone home screen.
Tony

Last night we rented a movie through the iTunes Store on my new iPhone 6 – when I tried to find iTunes the app was gone – and search couldn’t find it either! I eventually found the store was an open app and was able to access through there. Yikes – I’m really surprised by Apple this time that they’d let buggy software be released….
Sarah

I downloaded IOS 8 yesterday. Have just added an icon to my home screen and like Debbie most of my icons have turned into generic ones. What can I do?
David Lopez

I got an Iphone 6 plus iOS 8 the screen went blank with no apps and only solution so far is hard rest. My keyboard also tends to disappear and occasionally my messages they turn all green and I have to close the app and take it off multitasking and open it again
Release_Me

My “google” app dis”app”eared from my phone overnight (iPhone 6). Upgraded to iOS 8.1.3 a day or so ago; maybe yesterday. My husband’s Find Friends app vanished from his iPhone 4S a while back… % OS.
Dumbdad

I’ve got the new iPad air and all of my apps have turned invisible. I figured out that they are still there, just not exposed to the naked eye. WTF? This just happened, out of the blue.
Ray

This just happens to my messages icon on my 5s. help!
Daisy

I loaded iOS 8.1.1 on my iPad and it froze. After rebooting 80% of my icons changed to white with grey graph lines. Any suggestions.
Isabela

I was in the middle of using Google Chrome when it crashed and most of my apps disappeared (except the basic ones you get with an iPad). I don’t even have an app store anymore. My settings say I still have them all, but I cannot open them.
- Anonymous
  
  OMG same :c
  im really sad right now
Jeremiah

It deleted a whole folder of mine today! Just happened to be a folder I use all the time, my finance app folder. All my banking, credit card apps. All gone from the screen I have to spotlight search them. Is there a fix yet it is already driving me mad!
Glenda

My facebook icon dissapeared over night also. Updated the new ios software 8.1.3 last week. Soo dissapointed.
Verity

Pages app disappeared, doesn’t show as installed on iTunes and ain’t no way I am purchasing a new app
Bukola Dosunmu

My email icon is present but the page is blank
Lauren

Same problem, YouTube, Spotify in a folder with few other apps…whole folder missing. Can access if I find them in the store and open which is useless…can’t get them back on screen. Hope fix comes soon! I
Philip

Yes I am having that exact problem too!!! Help!!!
Dani

I’ve had my apps disappear front my home screen too and when’s go to the App Store to search for ebay( which is disappeared) it says open so the apps there just I can’t open the app on my phone as it’s no where to be found. So annoyed
josh

My instagram did this same exact problem, i was updating it and it now has disappeared and it wont even let me open the app.
Pikey

I have lost an entire folder. I can find the apps in the spotlight search and the name of the folder shows in search but it’s not on my home screen. I really don’t want to backup and restore it, any fixes for this?

iOS 8.1.3
Ana

A whole folder of mine has been deleted, it includes radio apps and the Apple podcast app that I use all the time. The App Store just gives the option to open. I can also locate in the Spotlight search but its really annoying!
Prov

I am missing gmail, google maps. and other things google. NOT GOOD AT ALL
ca112

I received an update for an app that I don’t have anymore. What’s interesting is that the app appears in my list of apps under settings. I can’t find the app itself anywhere on my phone.
Damitlisa

Entire folder disappeared….all my music apps. I can access it through spotlight search, but can’t open in App Store. Ugh….irritating!!
Ha Jo

Same here with iPhone 5, Find my Friends is gone. I can open it from the AppStore though. Hard resetting the device allows me to re-download it from the AppStore. But still no icon. Apple, Apple…
JTeam

I have iOS 8.1.3. When I did an update all Apps I lost Spider Solitaire
Lakeside

I lost an entire folder as well. It had YouTube, Slingplayer for iPad, Uverse, Flixster and a few others.
Disappearing Anne

I too am well ticked with apple at the moment, as I have lost the once reliabel google maps and no amount of reinstall is working. It wont reinstall at all. Its there in my itunes store but it wont or cant be installed on my iphone 5. More and More on a daily basis Im getting disappointed with Apple. Might have to give serious consideration to S…..
Posumqn

Entire Settings app is GONE on iPad air and ipad 2 keeps freezing since updates
AshleyStarr

Was reorganizing my apps and my Facebook icon disappeared
jaelynn

lol y’all got it easy…i lost the fcking App Store itself
Julian

I just downgraded my iPod touch 5G 32Gb from ios 8.3 beta 4 to ios 8.2. After i did, I saw that a few apps were missing. Apps like youtube and a few games. When I connect it to Tongbu, it sais the apps are installed, but I can’t find them anywhere…

Please help.
inbleugurl

My whole folder of games just disappeared
inbleugurl

Though in my case, the missing apps are still playable… Just that they’re nowhere to be found
Squirrel

My music app and audible app both stored in an entertainment folder just vanished. If I use the search function I can still find music and all my stuff is there and playable, it’s just vanished from my home screen. What should I do?
keikei

well i was busying to delete my apps then I suddenly i press my wechat icon after that i try to find the icon but I can’t.so i checked the multitasking background but thank gods that it was still there.later on i went to apps store to check if is deleted or what so ever ,once I found it the button was open
Mikelondonse

I lost my podcast app icon too, same problem with appstore saying ‘open’ and nothing happens. Grrrrr! I listen to podcasts (lots stored) whilst doing my gardening job as go not want to use up my G3 data allowance on Internet radio/I player.
Dry Town

An entire folder filled with apps disappeared. Though I can still spotlight search and open them.
jaelynn

i did. i think it might have something to do w my jailbreak idk
chochy

yep i have the same issue
Mandy MacMillan Naphas

My whole “health” folder disappeared with “Nike” and “run keeper”, etc, but using search opens the app. The icon is GONE though
Zuee

All of the apps I have downloaded are missing. They’re still listed in settings, but are no where to be seen. The only apps available are the Apple ones.
karima saidi

I have the same proplem. My desktop is all empty and blue, no icons no applications nothing. I can only get on the internet… ;(((
Jaz

I downloaded shazam on my last phone and accidentally deleted it off my home screen. It stayed in my cloud to so I could get it on my iPhone 6, but the icon still doesn’t appear on my home screen even though I have the app. Help!
James Harris

In my my case, a whole folder is missing. I have IOS 8. I can search for the apps in there on spotlight, but can’t locate the folder. This is especially annoying as it’s my utilities folder and I can’t remember the names of all the useful stuff I have in there, so I can’t search for it!
Divya

I have ios 8.1.3 version, Watsapp icon disappeared suddenly. I have restarted/reset my iphone. But no luck. Any solution?
Piibs

Randomly my messages icon just dissapeared, tried restarting and resetting but nothing! can’t text anyone.
mohini

i have the same problem, my WhatsApp icon had disappered from the iphone screen
Liz

After updating YouTube and The Hunt on my phone they have both disappeared. It has reached the point where I’m scared to update any of my apps in fear of losing them. This is an extreme inconvenience that Apple should seriously look into.
Val

Same here with my driving folder; all apps gone off main screen: how do i access them now? (Newbee to tech)
Maher hakeem

Me too :@
Angie

I tried hiding apps May 2015 and he spotlight search will not find any app- pre installed or downloaded. Frustrating!
Kaye

I lost three apps in the last day or two please help me get them back
Em

This happened to me except I do not have find my friends app and even when I go into the App Store it says update or open but I can’t click it and it’s not on my home screen it wasn’t downloaded on to my iPad at first it disappeared straight away! If any body has any solution to help us all it would be great
https://twitter.com/srhayes Scott

I have iOS 8.3 and yesterday all my favorite Apps (Gas Buddy, Google Maps, Twitter, Fitbit, to name a few) vanished. I went to the App Store and had to re-download them from the Cloud. The Apps then think they are freshly installed, so I had to go through the nuisance of logins, configs, and setups all over again. I’m sick of Apple “upgrades” that ruin my user experience. Remember the Apple Maps debacle? Yes, I want a fix, but what will they break next in the “fix”?
Luis Fernandes

lost all of my icons on ipad,even the settings icon and now i cant disable find my iphone to restore with the itunes
- Leprechuan Master
  
  Sammeee
Tina

I decided to update the YouTube app and then it just randomly disappeared from the home screen. I went to the App Store to open it. Nothing happened. Hard resetting my phone didn’t work Reuther. I decided to go to the setting and MANUALLY delete YouTube from my phone so that I could re download it from the App Store. Did this work? NOT AT ALL!
Shannon Russell

I have an Apple iPhone 6 plus. Upgraded to the last 8.whatever version. My mail app disappeared! It has my personal and work email! Ummmm…. WTH? So frustrating
JL Mo

I paid for Shazam Encore when I had an iphone 5. I’ve gotten the iphone 6, and all of my apps transferred. Today, Shazam Encore is gone. Gone from my iphone, gone from my itunes account, gone. All of the ‘tagged’ songs I’d built, gone. The app is kind enough to allow me to pay for it again. Yeah, I don’t think so.

I found this post, and appreciate the information that I’m not alone. I’m still on my quest to determine how to get either get my app, or my money, back.
Shosh

I have an ipad air, and just yesterday almost all of my apps went “missing,” including the app store! Even more infuriating, I can still see the apps under settings, I just cant access them. Spotlight cant find them, not even the app store, and I’m ready to throw my ipad out a window because of an update.
Mikala Ryan

I have an iPhone 6 and my snapchat recently disappeared. On the App Store it has the “Open” button and thankfully it opens when I press it. But I cannot access it from my home page(s). I’ve also tried turning off my phone to see if that’s work, nope.
I have no idea what happened and I can’t un-download it.
NinjaNurse

I have a 5s, hadn’t done the upgrade to the new iOS 8 version, but got an alert that I needed to do it. Have been using my phone all day just fine. I go to respond to a text alert, and ALL of my apple apps are gone. App Store, camera, Safari, etc. I can’t even screen shot right now. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with it.
Kosai Al-madani

My iphone default apps are totally gone
Whiskey_and_Porkchops

Losing the “virtual Rolodex” button is most disconcerting, especially to us older users. I hope this is an inadvertent oversight or a simple error, and not part of a larger plan to take away the user’s ability to configure the device. I love Apple products, but the company is very uptight when it comes to personalizing a device beyond the cosmetic.
Carla Caldato Trujillo

I just lost the Yelp app yet I can access it through the App Store since I updated a bunch of apps yesterday. I can’t do a search with spotlight since that’s now missing!
Brian Millar

Both my iBook app and the new Health app are missing from my home screen yet i can open them through searching on flashlight. Makes no sense
as mongan asoma

I’m facing the same problem.
Yesterday the nineth July 2015, I was using whatsapp and facebook, I woke up this morning the tenth July, whatsapp icon is nowhere to be found, and I’m shocked as I mostly rely on whatsapp for long conversations with co-workers and friends.
Is there anyway I can do to get my apps back?
Chael Mat

My Settings, Messages and Phonebook all disappeared. I can’t receive any calls although when i call my phone i can hear the dial tone on the receiver but the phone is mute.
ggfgxhc

i lost all the applications and now I have an empty homescreen i can do nothing
INKONUP

My sons lost 7 apps since update. Same thing, AppStore shows open or update proving its installed but NO icon?? What THe?? Ok so jump on PC and there it is in iTunes all happy looking. Sort it out Applr..
martha

A lot of icons in my ipad is missing also. I used facebook then it crashed. I opened another app but it keeps on crashing too. So I decided to restart my ipad when I opened it half of the icons were missing even the ipad built programs was gone, Mail, Settings, Clock, App store. So there’s no way I could download new apps. I wish they’ll do something about it.
- Arbab Mehar
  
  my iphone 5s also ths problem what i do my email is arbab.alibaba@facebook.com
Tony Carson

I have had three apps do this on me but got two of them back through app store , one though was my work calendar not good , think I’m gonna go back to paper diary , wondering whats gonna go next !
sherry

my home screen icons disappeared
Evan Evans

Tons of my apps dissappeared. And what’s more, the APP STORE app has dissappeared, so I can’t even redownload them.
Mary Valentine

I lost the youtube app, but I can’t even watch YouTube videos from Google. If I do a google search and select videos, nothing happens when I tap a video. Google wallet is gone and I lost a password keeper with all my passwords. The open button is there for them all but does nothing when tapped.
Marc Cooper

Have experienced this behavior three times so far on 5s iOS 8.3 and 8.4. Most apps disappear, but never have lost App Store. Had to Re-download apps, reconfigure passwords, settings, etc.
Diana Ryan

My maps app just randomly disappeared and I can’t re-download it because it’s a standard one from apple. I can find it in spotlight. So frustrating!!
Tanya Czarny Toner Lankford

Just updated my iPhone 6 with iOS 8 yesterday, and my Google app, my Instagram app, and a few others disappeared off of my home screen. They’re not appearing in my purchased apps, and when I search and find the app in the app store it doesn’t even give me the option to open or download etc. I called Apple support and after doing a few things her only suggestion was that I do a hard reset. Such a pain in the ass.
Mani

I changed my iPhone from 5s to 6. First restored via iTunes then updated to the latest firmware and the final restore from iCloud. Lost Google Maps, 8mm Vintage camera (paid app) and some others.
It’s a mess.
Chris Johnston

I updated my 5c to ios8 and instagram disappeared. When I try to log in, it says someone else is using that password, or username or email. Yes-It’s me!! It would be funny if it weren’t so frustrating. Tried shutting phone down, and getting the app reinstalled but it’s impossible because my email is my email. Tried resetting password and username but it all comes back to I am Still on instagram and I don’t want to change my email address for an app. I really enjoy instagram too, and wish I could restore it somehow.
Chris Johnston

Apple is unreliable and their devices cannot be trusted. They will not own up to glitches because they’re……
John Adams

I got an I pad for school downloaded Instagram YouTube spottily and some games and now they’re gone I’m not sure if it’s because I downloaded the new software( ios 8.4) or if it’s just some previous bug I’ve had the new software for about a week and all the apps show on my settings but my App Store will not let me load anything and I don’t want to take all my books offend have to reload them… What the hell Apple this is why I own an android phone!!
Fairooz al awami

I had my Camera and Photos apps together in one folder. I upgraded to IOS 8.4.1 and the whole folder disappeared. Using spot search I am able to find the Apps but that is not a solution. I was able to get the camera app icon on the home screen,. by turning the restriction On/Off. but I can not get the photo App icon yet. Any Help is apperciated
Fairooz al awami

Forget to mention I did hard reset but the photo app was not reinstated to home screen
Bonita Patrick

Just updated to 8 iOS but now I can’t get my face book, the app is showing but I can’t tap on it
Anna Gerlach Lykholt

My ‘find my friends’ is as You describe just gone missing
A NORRELL

Yes! My Google Maps app just vanished…! Very annoying!!
Kelly Valenta

I had the same problem – the Podcast icon wasn’t showing up but I could find it in spotlight search or by asking Siri to open Podcasts. I hooked my iPhone up to my laptop, went to my iPhone in iTunes, and then went to apps – I found Podcasts in the list of “installed” so I dragged the icon over from the list to the screens on the right and it worked! Something to try at least.
- Dawna Cobb
  
  Thanks for this tip. It worked for me, too.
William Dinger

It is pretty bad when the App Store does not show up on an Apple product after an update. No way in hell I am doing a hard reset. Wish I checked out the problems before I updated. Live and learn. Way to go Apple.
Margie

I am having the same problem with my Chatelaine App. It is showing in settings that it is installed but not on the home screen. I always do the updates.
Zowie

My iPad just lost everything, no app store, no safari, no apps that ive installed. The only things that are left are calendar, photos, contacts, clock, maps, videos, notes, reminders, game center, newsstand, ibooks, settings, podcasts and tips….Im going to take it to apple store, im leaving for japan on Monday and need my iPad. This is just ridiculous.
Kate Jackson

Glad it’s not just me, assumed I’d done something wrong, my apple health app has disappeared, can’t find it anywhere, not even in the App Store :/
B Greene

Since I upgraded my 5s to iOS8.3 all Google app icons disappear upon installation. Youtube problems missing the icon and even from Safari when clicking the link, the video will not launch.
Melia Lynne

My Instagram app went missing. Lol. Thanks for the help!!
Sarah Burton

Lost my Contacts icon. Can still access them via the ‘phone’ icon, but annoying none-the-less
Dayne Francisco

I’ve just experienced itjust now with my ipad and i’m looking for answer how to get everything back. Almost all of my apps including setting photos,camera,apps store, etc. Were automatically disappeared after i restart my ipad. Helpppp please
Joakim

My daughter had the same problem with her iPhone 4s, using iOS 8.?
At the same time she couldn´t upgrade because of to small memory.
So, solution was this:
1) Make sure you have an iCloud backup – hers was brand new
2) Connect phone to itunes, (2a. back up if dont have the guts not to…), restore iphone to factory settings
3) Tell phone to restore from iCloud account
BINGO! Apps were back, AND phone has iOS 9. Yahoo!
MargaretAnn

I am unable to delete icons I never wanted – find my phone (don’t have one) and don’t want “find my friends”. I also don’t want iCloud – for anything. And, all of a sudden, I need to enter a passcode to unlock my iPad Air. NEVER had to do this before in the year I’ve had this thing! All my “shortcut” icons I had set up – the ones I want – disappeared! All this happened suddenly – after an “upgrade”! HELP!
Maggie Harrigan

Yes! My google app disappeared and I came here for answers. Thanks so much. Hopefully resetting works.
Maggie
Randy

I have found two apps have gone missing. Fuel Monitor and Fitbit. Interesting that your Find my friend app disappeared too. All Apps starting with the letter F.
I found that Fuel Monitor was on the cloud so I thought that if I reinstalled it from the cloud I could recover my info but that was not the case. The App icon appeared on my iphone but when I went to use it the App requested I load all new information from my cars… as if I was starting from scratch. Very frustrating.
Keith

Last week, four recently-installed apps just disappeared from my iPhone 6 with iOS 8. It is extremely frustrating because I use these apps many multiple times per day and they archive data…which is now ALL GONE! I reloaded the apps, but could not retrieve any of my data from the app store. Tooling along, frustrated, but started using the apps again. Now, one of them just disappeared AGAIN! I have absolutely NO archived data from the last month, since I started using the app. This is very frustrating and very angering. Apple, FIX THIS!!!