We download and install more than 50 apps on your phone. Some of them are used daily, while others are not used that frequently and then there are some apps that we use occasionally as well. These apps on an iPhone are usually lying around on any of the home screens. If not then you can always check the App library on the latest builds of iOS. However, often iPhones come across a bug where users are not able to see an app on their home screen, but you can see in the App store that the app is installed and you even get notifications from that app.

There can be several different reasons behind the apps or app icons getting disappeared from your iPhone’s home screen, but the most common reason due to which it occurs on iPhones running iOS 14 or later is because of the App library. The app library is similar to what we see as the menu on Android smartphones, it has all of the apps that are presently installed on your iPhone, and it then groups them according to the app category. Using the app library users can view all of the apps in alphabetical order as well.

The connection between the Missing App and App Library

Ever since the release of iOS 14 and the App Library, Apple has given an option to remove the apps from your home screen, and it will still be present on our App library. It’s more like a desktop, where you can delete the shortcut icon from your desktop, but the app remains installed and can be accessed from the Start menu. Similarly, if you cannot find apps on your home screen, it could be because you might have accidentally removed the shortcut icon of the app, you should check the app library of your iPhone. You can access the app library by swiping to the extreme right.

By default, whenever a new app is installed, the system creates the icon at both the places home screen as well as the App library. This setting can be changed to set new apps to go only to the app library.

Missing App icon could be on a hidden home screen page

With iOS 14, Apple also released an option to hide the pages of the home screen. By hiding the home screen, you also hide the apps that are placed on that particular page. To check if there is any home page that’s hidden, open the home screen editor, tap on the page dots and then check any unchecked pages and finally press Done. 

Hiding a Home Screen Page Will Stop Showing New Apps

As much as the hiding of homepage looks good, there are some drawbacks of hiding a home screen page as well. Whenever you hide a page or a number of the page from the home screen, the system automatically sets new app downloads to appear only in the App library and not on the home screen.

App Might have been removed manually

With iOS 14, a lot of UI changes have been made. now, when you press and hold any app icon on your home screen, it will give two options. Either delete the app or remove the app from the home screen. So, chances are you might have removed the app from the home screen instead of deleting the app. You must check that app on the App library. It should be there tucked inside a folder.

On the other hand, with the latest iOS 15, users can now delete pages from the home screen along with the apps, this will simply remove that page and the apps on that page will be removed but not uninstalled. You can still find those apps on the App library, but they will not be shown on the home screen unless you bring them back.

Bringing the Apps back to the home screen

If the app is on a homepage that is hidden, then you can simply unhide the page, and those apps will reappear on the home screen of your iPhone. Otherwise, if you don’t want to bring back the whole homepage, but want a few apps to be on the home screen, then you can quickly grab them from the App library. Simply press and hold the app and then without lifting your finger, drag and drop the app to the home page where you want it to be.

Alternatively, you can also tap and hold on the icon, then from the icon menu, you can tap on Add to the home screen, the app will be automatically added to the first open spot where the app can be placed.

Prevent New Apps from Skipping Your Home Screen

If installing new apps doesn’t appear on the home screen of your iPhone, then you need to enable that. Go to settings >> Home screen and change the newly downloaded app’s preference from app Library only to Add to Home Screen. Once you change this setting, new apps that are installed will automatically appear on your home screen. So now this won’t affect the apps that are located on the hidden home screen pages.

Unlockable App

In some exceptional cases like the magnifier app or any other accessibility app only appears when they are enabled from settings and otherwise, they just disappear. So, if you are looking for an app that is related to system settings or accessibility, then you must first enable it from the system settings of your iPhone, only then will you be able to access the app for the same from the home screen. This was fixed in iOS 15 so, if your device is running iOS 14 then you need to enable it.

The App May No Longer be Available

With every iOS update, there are certain apps that are left behind, as the developers stop supporting the new OS with that app. or the iOS doesn’t support an older version of that app, so it just disappears and gets removed on its own. You can also verify this issue by going to the app store from the browser of your computer and then tapping on your profile icon, then head to the Purchased section and look for the app. If you find that the app is greyed out and the download icon is also greyed out, then you cannot download or use the app on the current version of iOS.