Gmail and other Google Non-Play apps disappearing from my home screen

[setphaserstoscott]

I am using an HTC One M9, on Android 6.0. Whenever my phone shuts off, be it from low battery or voluntary shut down, my gmail, google hangouts, and google maps icons are gone from my homescreen upon restarting. All google play apps that I have as icons are all still present. I have reset the data on my Sense home app, uninstalled updates, and then reinstalled them, all to no avail.
Anyone know what is going on? Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome back! Have you already tried a cache partition wipe? https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-31522

I also moved this to the M9 forum for more appropriate traffic.

 

[setphaserstoscott]

Wiping the cache partition did not fix the issue. Upon restart after wiping the partition, the apps still disappeared from the home screen.

 

[B. Diddy]

Although not a direct solution, you could try an alternate launcher like Nova and see if the same thing happens there.

 

[oneeyecarpenter]

That widget on home screen just displays your most used apps at certain times of the day. That is the first thing I removed when I set up my phone. To remove the widget, tap and hold, then slide up to the trash can. Now, open app drawer, and reload the apps you want to your home screen.

 

[B. Diddy]

That widget on home screen just displays your most used apps at certain times of the day.

That's good info! Just to clarify, are you talking about the Sense Home widget? HTC One M9 - What is the HTC Sense Home widget? - GETTING STARTED - How-tos - Support | HTC Middle East

 

[oneeyecarpenter]

Hi, sorry I did not subscribe to this thread so missed your question. But yes is the answer. How is the home screen now.

 

[dshrum84]

I'm having this same thing happen. I'm not using the widget. I'm also seeing 4 specific apps (Angry Birds, Futurama: Game of Drones, Plague Inc, Star Wars Battlefront Companion) that won't store to microSD card. When I try, I get the result "not enough storage available" but there are more than 59 GB available.

 

[oneeyecarpenter]

I'm having this same thing happen. I'm not using the widget. I'm also seeing 4 specific apps (Angry Birds, Futurama: Game of Drones, Plague Inc, Star Wars Battlefront Companion) that won't store to microSD card. When I try, I get the result "not enough storage available" but there are more than 59 GB available.

Hi,

I'm not sure exactly what your problem is besides not being able to store certain apps on SD Card. But, many resource intensive apps, the developer blocks that option. Contact them from the email link on the playstore page of each app. There are other things about storage you might not be aware of, so here are two very informative articles.

https://phonetipz.com/android-why-is-the-move-to-sd-card-option-grayed-out-on-some-apps/

How to Install and Move Android Apps to the SD Card

Now, if you have the disappearing apps problem, see above. If you are using a non-stock app launcher, then that could be the trouble. But, I would need more information to try and help.

 

[dshrum84]

No, I'm seeing the same thing the OP originally reported. Every restart Google Maps disappears from its assigned spot on my homescreen but I'm just using the stock homescreen. I don't use the others they mention.

I've contacted HTC Tech support about both, I'll go through the apps to the devs too to see if they can help.

 

[oneeyecarpenter]

No, I'm seeing the same thing the OP originally reported. Every restart Google Maps disappears from its assigned spot on my homescreen but I'm just using the stock homescreen. I don't use the others they mention.

I've contacted HTC Tech support about both, I'll go through the apps to the devs too to see if they can help.

Perhaps you are not familiar with the HTC Sense Home Widget. It's the two bottom rows of app space, and this is where apps will appear,& disappear according to how the device determines your app usage, at various times of the day. Try pressing and holding a blank part of the lower screen, and if a trashcan appears at the top of the screen, then slide your finder up and into the trashcan in one smooth motion, rather fast at the end. It's a big widget, and so, slide your finger right off the screen .

 

[dshrum84]

I don't have the Sense Home Widget set up. My apps don't move at all regardless of the time of day. The only thing that is mysterious is that Maps will disappear from its assigned spot after a restart, whatever the reason for the restart. Several OS updates ago, several apps would disappear from inside folders at regular intervals but that's stopped and the only time anything disappears anymore is Maps at restarts. I don't want it to disappear.

 

[oneeyecarpenter]

I don't have the Sense Home Widget set up. My apps don't move at all regardless of the time of day. The only thing that is mysterious is that Maps will disappear from its assigned spot after a restart, whatever the reason for the restart. Several OS updates ago, several apps would disappear from inside folders at regular intervals but that's stopped and the only time anything disappears anymore is Maps at restarts. I don't want it to disappear.

Sorry, but I just wants to be sure. Strange behavior indeed. Did you somehow move Maps to SD Card? Although I don't think that's even possible. I'm assuming that maps was pre-installed? And you are using HTC m9? I'll have to think on this mystery. If I come up with anything, I'll come back here.

 

[dshrum84]

Maps can't be moved to the SD card. The other Google apps the OP mentioned are the same but I don't have them on a homescreen so I didn't notice them.

 

[Isildur]

Possible solution?

I've been having this problem too, but I think I may have found a solution.

I'm not sure if they were disappearing on every reboot or just frequently on reboot, as I would only notice it when it happens.

These aren't icons not in a widget, these aren't apps on SD cards etc. Just Gmail and Google Maps, preinstalled on my phone, and placed as icons directly on the homescreen.

It occurred to me that maybe it's related to the fact that the apps also have shortcuts in a "Google" homescreen folder. (By folder I mean the icon group that get formed if you drag one icon onto another.) Maybe the phone either
a. does an icon redundancy check on start, sees that the icons already exist in the folder, and deletes the non-folder copies? Or maybe they
b. somehow never get stored to begin with the long-term registry or whatever, if they exist already in an icon folder.


I just tried deleting the shorrtcuts from the "Google" shortcut folder to see if that stopped the disappearance. (Actually I deleted both copies -- folder and non-folder -- of each, then re-added them back to the homescreen, just in case it's "b", a failure to save the change in some persistent registry at the moment that they were originally added to the homescreen.) Then I rebooted.

So far, so good- after the reboot they're still there. So I think this may be a bug related to having multiple shortcuts for the same app. Look around to see if you have any duplicates of the shortcuts in a homescreen shortcut folder.