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The Mail app on my iPhone seems to have disappeared, and it’s driving me crazy. How can I find it and restore it? — Evelyn P.
Few things in tech are as annoying as when you try to locate the shortcut or icon for an app and can’t figure out why it’s gone.
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You may have inadvertently dragged that Mail app icon or any other app from one screen to another or dragged it into a folder of apps. Don’t feel bad. I’ve done the same thing on occasion.
Depending on the number of apps on your device, you might find it by searching the next page of apps — use your finger to swipe left on your home screen — or the page after that. I’m hoping you have far fewer screenfuls of apps cluttering your phone than I do.
Apps also can get displaced after a software update. Among other plausible but less likely explanations:
- You intentionally deleted the app or removed the icon from your home screen and merely forgot.
- Or a mischievous kid or grandkid deleted the icon or restricted the app as a prank.
If you don’t have a Family section on your iPhone under Settings ⚙️ | Screen Time, no one has placed what Apple calls a parental control on your device. Androids and Chromebooks have the Google version for restrictions called Family Link, an app in the Google Play store.
Apps may disappear from a home screen because of age-related content restrictions, like adults-only dating apps, but that’s a far cry from your missing Mail program.
The good news is restoring those missing icons is simple. They’re probably hiding under the virtual equivalent of a rock, and if multiple apps are absent, perhaps an entire home screen has gone undercover.
Restoring app icons on iPhone
From your home screen, head to the App Library on your iPhone, which you reach by swiping all the way left. Apple has sorted all your apps here into categories. For example, all your utility apps, including the App Store, Calculator, Settings and Voice Memos, are found in the aptly named Utilities folder.
Apps such as Facebook, Messages, X and other social media titles reside in a Social folder. You will also see premade folders for Travel, Entertainment and other categories.
If you know how Apple might have categorized a given app, you ought to find it in that folder.
But it’s even quicker to tap the App Library search field at the top of the screen, which summons an alphabetical list of all the apps on the phone. Tap a letter to the right of the screen to jump to all the apps beginning with that corresponding letter. Or type the name of the app you’re looking for in the search field at the top.
When you’ve found the app, press and hold your finger down on the icon just to the left of the app name, and tap Add to Home Screen. The app should return to its rightful place. If you don’t see the Add to Home Screen option, it’s already on one of your home screens. You probably have two or three beyond the first or second one.
Return to your iPhone’s default layout
If over time not only are some icons missing but even visible ones aren’t where you want them, you can restore the default home screen layout.
Launch Settings ⚙️ and tap General | Transfer or Reset iPhone | Reset | Reset Home Screen Layout | Reset Home Screen. Except for apps that appear on the very first and possibly second home screen, downloaded app icons will appear in alphabetical order.
If you return to the default layout, keep in mind, though, that any folders of apps you manually created will be removed, meaning you’ll have to set them up all over again.
As a refresher, you can create those folders by pressing down on an icon. Then tap Edit Home Screen so all the apps on the phone jiggle. Now you can drag the app onto another app of the same type which automatically creates a folder.
Repeat the exercise for any similar apps you’d like in that folder. Apple will automatically name the folder, but you can change it.
When all those apps are jiggling, you also can move them around on your home screens. That includes changing apps in the dock, the four-app section at the bottom of your home screen that stays stationary as you swipe through the screens. It’s where your Mail folder usually lives.
Related: Tired of your iPhone or Android? Give the other side a chance
How to restore icons on an Android
All Android phones and phone screens are not alike, but they have some basic features you can use to try to locate a missing app icon.
Androids also have many screens. As with iPhones, an app could have been inadvertently dragged off one screen and onto another. So scroll up or down or onto the next page in your search.
The AWOL app could be hanging out with other apps in a folder. If you’re looking for the Chrome icon, it could be in a folder called Browsers with apps such as Firefox or Microsoft Edge.
"Shy" apps can get seen. To see all the apps you think are on your phone in one place, launch the App Drawer collection of app icons on your phone, typically by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.
You also can search by entering the app’s name in the search field. Depending on your device and view at the moment, the search may be at the top or bottom of your screen.
If you want to move the app after finding it, press down on the icon and drag it to your preferred location, either on the page where you are or another.
Disabled apps are tough to uncover. If you can’t find the app at all, it may be disabled, but you can go to the Google Play Store to fetch it again.
Disabling an app on any smartphone can be useful if you want to keep old information but don’t want to use the app again or you can’t remove it. Some Android preinstalled apps, sometimes derisively called bloatware, can’t be deleted but can be disabled.
As a truly last resort, and again methods vary, you can restore the phone to its factory settings.
Related: Can a company force me to give up my old phone number?
Bonus tip: Change where iPhone apps get downloaded
When you download new apps from the Apple App Store, you have an option to add them to a home screen as well as your App Library or just the latter.
Go to Settings ⚙️ | Home Screen & App Library and tap either Add to Home Screen or App Library Only to get a blue checkmark ✔. If you change your mind and want an app listed only in the App Library to also appear on a home screen, go to the App Library, touch and hold the given app until it jiggles and is ushered onto a home screen, and lift your finger.
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