Android or iOS ?

[Moriarty]

Hi,

Thank you for allowing me to join your forum. As the title suggests I am proposing to join the android clan and thought I would buy a reasonable priced Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 tablet just to try and get the feel of the difference's. At first I was very impressed with how easy it was to use, and things were working very well until most of my downloaded apps just disappeared.
After several searches to try and find a solution I have not found a way to reinstate them to the home screen. Not being one to give up easily I thought I would ask your expert advice before I decide on what to do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SpookDroid]

Welcome to the Forums! You can try posting this in the right forum for the tablet so we can help better, but if it's a Tab S3, that's a very old model and apps may not be compatible with that Android version anymore.

That being said, they shouldn't have 'disappeared'. Are you saying they are not on your Homescreen anymore (i.e. shortcuts) or did they get uninstalled from your phone entirely (i.e. gone from the app drawer)?. Did you install the apps on an SD card?

 

[Moriarty]

Thank you for your reply. I am sorry if this post in not in the right place but I am sure to get there eventually. I bought this tablet as I am just testing the android system and did not want to spend a fortune before I knew if I could get along with it. Firstly the apps I installed are all compatible with this tablet as they all appeared on the home screen and were working fine until they just vanished. They are in my game launcher but I am unable to use them. I have not installed an SD card so I will and see if it makes any difference.

 

[SpookDroid]

If the apps are still on the phone, then somehow the 'shortcuts' were somehow removed from your Homescreen (on Android, you have the App Launcher which has a list of all your installed apps and you have a Home Screen or screens, which you can customize with widgets and folders and specific app shortcuts; it's the latter where your apps disappeared from).

Let's try this. Pick an app that disappeared. Then open the Play Store and search for that app. Does it say it's installed? Does it have a button to 'Open' the app? Do you get any errors when you say you can't use them? (Again, since this OS version is very old, apps can suddenly stop working if the devs update them and cease support for older models).

If you want to try Android on the latest versions without the investment, you can try this virtual tool from Samsung, or try a PC emulator instead.

Try Galaxy On Your Phone | Test Android UI | Samsung US

Nervous about switching to Android? Download the Try Galaxy App on your current phone to test out Samsung's OneUI, Galaxy apps, and AI features.

www.samsung.com

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I moved this from the Introductions forum to the Tab S3 forum, since the thread is primarily asking about a problem with that device.

I agree with SpookDroid about potential issues with very old devices -- the Tab S3 was released 8 years ago, and stopped getting official system updates 6 years ago. Although Samsung makes generally excellent devices, your experience on such an old device will not represent the full function and performance of modern Android devices, and therefore will not be a fair comparison with iOS (unless you're considering a very old iPad that also stopped getting updates years ago).

 

[Moriarty]

Thank you again for your help. In the App Store I can select an installed app and it will work perfectly. I am fully aware that this tablet is old but I have been retired for several years and I don’t use any device for work or communication purposes so I just need something that I can use for reading and playing puzzles on. If I can find a way to get the apps on to the home screen it will be fine until I decide which is the one I prefer.

 

[SpookDroid]

OK, if the apps can run from the Play Store, that means they're installed and ready on your phone tablet! (Again, as long as the button shown there was OPEN and not INSTALL).

If they are installed, then what you need to do is access your App Drawer. This part is tricky because the way to do this has changed a bit over the years, so this may or may not work. Generally, you should either have an APPS icon at the bottom of your screen or you should be able to access it by swiping up or down from the homescreen. If that works, you should see a list of all apps installed on your phone, and you can either use that to launch them at will, or you can long-press any app you want and then drag it to your homescreen. This will create a quick shortcut there to the apps you'd like and you can arrange them in there as you wish.

Alternatively, you may be able to long-press on an empty area of your home screen and several options would appear to customize this. One of them would be 'app shortcut' or something on that vein.

The last option would also let you see and add/remove more homepage pages, which may be what caused your apps to 'disappear' (if you accidentally added a page and the main one was hidden/moved; to move through pages you swipe left/right from any point on your homepage).

 

[andee1517]

Are you possibly not on the main home screen?

 

[Moriarty]

Thank you again for your help and support. I am not sure if it makes any difference but you are referring to a phone in your reply and my problem is with a tablet. The only way I have found to view all the installed apps is from the settings.

 

[B. Diddy]

FYI, the user interface for phone vs tablet is identical for the most part.

Could you show us a screenshot of your homescreen? http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html