Not every user knows how to restore a shortcut on an android. To facilitate access to important files and applications, it is convenient to place their icons on desktops. Smartphone and tablet owners are accustomed to adding, moving, or deleting third-party app icons - but what do you do when the default icons - sms, camera, contacts, gallery, and others - disappear? It is not always easy to return them yourself and establish the reason for the “loss”.

Shortcuts can disappear from phone desktops for several reasons:

• the program has been transferred to the memory card;
• the label was accidentally deleted;
• the icon has ended up on another desktop or folder;
• a system failure has occurred.

When moving from the phone's memory to the built-in, shortcuts to applications that you downloaded and installed yourself may disappear. The standard ones implemented in android will remain in place after such a transfer. Most often, they disappear or end up on other desktops after an accidental long tap. The android system has a function that contributes to the “loss”: when you “hover” one icon over another, they are automatically grouped into a folder. A similar situation can happen if you use a launcher.

Launcher is a special utility designed to change the appearance of buttons and icons. If it is set, long-pressing the shortcuts often swaps places, after which they are difficult to find. This sometimes happens after installing a new package or resizing the grid.

The advantage of launchers is that they can also be used to restore deleted applications: just find the one you need in the menu and drag it to the screen.

If you have a launcher and have recently used it to update your screen design:

1. Look for the icon by the inscription, it may have changed its appearance or ended up on another screen.
2. Check if new folders have appeared.

Next, to return the standard icons on the android, exclude the possibility of a system failure. They rarely happen, but just in case, restart your device. To do this, hold down the power button until the menu appears and select the "Reboot" line. If the icon does not appear even after that, it will have to be searched for and returned to its usual place “manually”.

How to recover a deleted shortcut on Android

There are several ways to restore a shortcut on an android.

Method one: go to the tab with applications and widgets. Usually this is enough to press the touch button. Find the missing icon, hold it down to a short vibration. At the same time, it will slightly increase in size. Without releasing, pull it to the side. A semi-transparent display of desktops will appear on the screen. Still holding the icon, drag it to the desired location. It will "land" as soon as you remove your finger. Unfortunately, the section with applications in this design is not available in all phone models.

Method two. You can return the standard icons on android through the "Settings" menu. Find the line "Applications" or "All applications" in it. After clicking, a list will appear with all programs installed on android, including standard ones. Find the right one; for convenience, you can use the search, which is provided in some models. Click on it - a window with detailed information about the program will appear. Click the menu button, which is usually located in the upper right corner, select "Add shortcut to desktop".

The modern user has a lot of application icons on the desktop of the smartphone. These are social networks, instant messengers, tools and system software. Often there are situations when, for some unknown reason, one or more icons disappear. Returning them yourself is sometimes problematic, so people turn to the Internet for help. Let's figure out how to return disappeared icons to the main screen of the phone, and also consider why they can disappear.

It is quite difficult to establish for what reason the icon of a particular application has disappeared. It all depends on a number of previous factors, the most popular of which are these:

• transferring the program to a memory card;
• accidental deletion of the application;
• moving the utility icon to another location on the screen, or adding it to a theme folder;
• system failure;

It is almost impossible to independently determine the reason for the disappearance of the application icon, so let's not hesitate and move on to solving the problem.

How to return icons to the main screen of the phone

All methods to return the missing icons will be simple for anyone, even the most inexperienced smartphone user. Read the information on each of the methods carefully so as not to miss something important.

Method 1: Move App to Internal Storage

Before proceeding to the instructions, we note that this method is not suitable for all phones. Therefore, if your device does not support transferring programs to an SD card, proceed to the next method. And for everyone else, a detailed guide was compiled:

1. Let's go to the settings.
2. We go to the "Applications" tab.
3. We open the page with the program, the icon of which was lost.
4. Click on the "Storage" item, and then select "Edit".

1. In the window that opens, set the option "Memory card".

At the end, we return to the desktop and check for the presence of the program icon.

Method 2: search for an icon in the general menu

Some phones have a common menu with all installed applications. To go to it, a button in the form of a circle with eight dots is usually used. Note that there is no such section on Xiaomi smartphones and many other devices, so do not waste time and proceed to the next method. As usual, you can read the instructions below:

1. We carefully analyze each of the pages for the presence of the missing icon. For convenience, you can use the search bar, if available.
2. After finding the icon, hold it and move it to the main screen.

Don't forget to make sure the icon is pinned to your desktop.

Method 3: Search for the icon in folders

Some users create thematic folders on the main screen of the phone, in which they place applications according to certain criteria. It is possible that the missing icon accidentally got there. This guide will help you check it out:

1. Open the folder by clicking on it.
2. We look through the icons placed in it.
3. When finding a lost icon, hold it and move it to the main screen.

That's it, this instruction ends.

If the disappearance of the icon caused a system failure, then in most cases the problem is solved after rebooting the device. Hold down the power button, and then select "Restart" from the options provided.

Wait for the smartphone to turn on and check if the icon appears.

Conclusion

We have considered all the most common ways to return the icon to the phone screen. If you know other methods, then be sure to share them in the comments with other users.

Phone icons, contacts, SMS messages and other programs could disappear from the desktop for one of three reasons.

The most common reason: icons disappear due to the transfer of programs from the main memory to the USB flash drive. This is how the icons of applications downloaded from the Play Market disappear: YouTube, viber (viber), skype, play market, flashlight.

Built-in programs: camera, sms, handset, menus, messages, galleries, settings, downloads, wi-fi and others that are in the phone "by default" after installing the OS, for this reason they cannot be lost.

Another reason– inadvertent removal or movement of an icon to another screen or to another section of the operating system.

You can accidentally move the icon of the phone, contacts, SMS messages and other programs, especially often this happens when the smartphone is in the hands of a child.

The third reason moving icons to a folder previously created or which is created automatically when one icon overlaps another.

Missing icons in the flash drive.

It happens that if the Android operating system or the programs installed in it do not work correctly, such a harmless action as moving an application from the main memory to a USB flash drive leads to the loss of the program shortcut on the desktop.

To return the shortcut, the icon to its place, the reverse action helps: transferring the program from the USB flash drive to the phone's built-in memory.

You can do this in the following way. Settings - Applications - Your application - Move to phone.

If the application is already running, then there is a shorter path. Select the desired program in the list of running programs and hold it with your finger for 2 seconds. After that, the "Application Information" window and the "Move to phone" button will appear.

It is worth noting that this problem of losing the icon does not depend on the type of flash drive inserted into the phone, but on the "buggy" of the application installed from the Play Marketa.

Hola Launcher setup.

It also helps to solve this problem removal and complete reinstallation of the program from Play Market. It is advisable to remove the flash drive from the phone.

Programs built into the OS such as: Camera, SMS, Calls, Contacts, Gallery, Play Market, Settings, cannot be transferred to a USB flash drive and back to the phone. The shortcuts of these programs disappear from the desktop for a different reason.

Accidentally removed icons.

The icon of any main program or third-party application can always be pulled from the list of installed programs.

Expand the list of programs (button circle or square with dots), find the program you need, for example, Contacts or Handset - Calls. Press it for 2-3 seconds. The desktop will automatically open and the icon of this program will appear on it. Place the application icon in a convenient place for you.

So you can quickly restore the missing icon and put it in its old place.

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The icon is in the folder.

What to do if, for one reason or another, the icon has disappeared and you cannot find its program in the application menu. This problem applies to phones that do not run on pure Android, but are made on the basis of MIUI firmware, for example, a Xiaomi smartphone and similar ones.

Look for the missing shortcut in the folders on the desktop.

On the Android OS desktop, you can create folders and "throw" shortcuts to similar applications there.

Creating a folder is very easy. Drag one icon to another and drop it on the second icon. A folder will automatically be created in which there will be two shortcuts.

It is quite possible that this happened earlier, by accident. Unbeknownst to you, you yourself or someone else pointed one shortcut to another and a folder was created. Or more likely, the application icon was accidentally "thrown" into a nearby folder.

What to do, how to find the icon? It is necessary to open all the folders that are on the desktops of the mobile phone and look carefully, look for the missing icon.

Note: Carefully inspect the smartphone screen, you may not notice the folder, it may look like a shortcut.

Video: Menu button, where is it? Or a video about Launcher (desktop).

Video: Automatically add shortcuts to the Desktop in Android.

Sort icons and search for them by name.

You can return the missing icons in another way, using special applications called launchers.

most famous Hola Launcher, which can be downloaded for free from the official Play Market app store.

After installing Hola Launcher on your phone, you will be able to change the design of buttons, icons, icons and the appearance of the Android OS. But most importantly: different types of menus will appear, through which you can find any application, program and display its icon on the desktop.

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Cons of Hola Launcher: the appearance in one place or another of advertising, which from time to time has to be closed.

Additional features of Hola Launcher: this program optimizes the performance of the operating system and allows you to quickly clear the RAM of your mobile device.

After updating applications, it often happens that icons disappear from the desktop of a smartphone (or tablet) and / or notifications about incorrect links from one or several of them begin to appear over and over again. Therefore, we will tell you what to do if the application icon in Android has disappeared.

• if the icon is gone: restore

The fastest and easiest way to fix this problem is to simply re-add the missing icon to the smartphone's home screen. But if the icon has not disappeared, but only does not work (broken link), then it must first be removed. To do this, click on it and hold down until the inscription "Delete" appears at the top of the screen.

Here we recall that in this way it is possible to completely remove the entire application at once, so you need to be more careful with this. In this case, we only need to remove the non-working icon from the screen.

Removed? Now through " Settings"We find the corresponding application, click on it and also hold down the click and drag it to its usual place on the main screen.

• if the icon is gone: reboot

Here, too, everything is simple. The problem with the disappearance of icons, like a whole lot of other problems of various sizes, can be eliminated by simply rebooting it. Press the power button, select "Reboot" and wait for the procedure to complete.

• if the icon is gone: clean

If both methods described above for eliminating the problem did not have the desired effect (which is unlikely), then we also use the third one -. The method is more radical, but it allows you to solve much more serious problems. True, this option is not open in all Android smartphones.

However, let's try. First of all, turn off the device. Next, when it is completely off, simultaneously press and hold the power and volume up buttons until the Android logo (or any other logo) appears on the screen. It will mean that you have successfully activated the so-called recovery menu smartphone ( Recovery). The transition between its lines up and down is done with the volume up and down buttons. Use them to select clear cache(or Wipe cache partition).

Here, too, you should be careful. In some smartphones, Clear Cache is combined with the item factory reset(complete reset of the system settings or ""). If this is also found on your smartphone, then on this one, obviously, it's better to stop and completely exit the Recovery menu. Since it is still not worth resetting the device completely due to one bat icon.

If clear cache(or Wipe cache partition) you observe in a separate line and without additional entries, then select this line and start the cache cleaning procedure. Upon its completion, restart the smartphone again (Reboot). When rebooting through the recovery menu, it usually takes a little more time. But then, most likely, all application icons will return to their places again and will work properly, as before.

Young Android smartphone users often have the question posed in the title of the article. " Here was the iconPI remember where I stood, used it and suddenly it was gone. Can't make a phone call/View and send SMS/Take a photo/Go online/etc.Who is to blame and what to do?»

Consider a few typical cases.

1. You accidentally deleted either an icon or an application.

If you click on the application icon and hold your finger on it for a while (about 1 second), then it " stick to the finger, and at the top of the screen will appear shopping cart icon. If you move the icon to the trash, it will turn red and when you release your finger, both icons will disappear. As a result, the original icon will be removed. Unlike Windows, here the Recycle Bin folder does not exist in the files and it is impossible to restore an icon deleted into it.

but recover deleted icon possibly from . This menu is called up by pressing the button with the image Lattices and contains icons of all installed system and user applications.

If you find the desired application in the list and hold your finger on its icon, then in some versions OS Android, it will also stick to your finger, and under them the image of the last desktop will appear, on which you can release the icon and it will thus be restored to it. At the same time, it will remain in its original place in the Applications Menu.

IN other versions OS when you hold your finger in the Application Menu, crosses appear on the icons, and images of all desktops appear at the bottom of the screen on a reduced scale, where you need drag icon to restore.

Be careful with crosses! They are meant for removing no longer icons, but themselves custom applications. In this case, to restore them, you will need to re-download and install the application from the Google Play market.

Thus, if you can't see your missing icon even in the Application Menu, then there is two options:

• either you uninstalled the application as I just described;
• or you accidentally or knowingly disabled it without deleting it completely.

In the latter case look for it among disabled and include ( Settings - Application manager - Disabled tab (swipe from right to left) - Looking for an application - Enable - Reboot smartphone).

2. You accidentally moved the icon.

You probably noticed that the icon stuck to your finger can, without releasing your finger, move around the screen, changing its position and expanding other icons. When moving off screen it ends up on the next desktop. This case is typical when you accidentally held your finger on the icon longer than necessary and did not notice how it stuck and moved to the next table. So try to look for the "missing" icon on neighboring desktops.

The second case of displacement - folder creation. If the sticky icon is placed not between other icons (in this case it pushes apart them), but directly over another icon and release in this position, both icons are placed in a newly created folder named (which can be changed by tapping on it). You may also, through inexperience, fail to notice that created a folder and “lost” their icon in it. Look for folders, enter them and drag your icon back out, to your desktop, and to the desired location. By the way, folders are a very handy tool for saving space on your desktop. Use them consciously. See a couple of folders in the first screenshot.