Question newly installed apps diappear

[suri]

dear all,
i have been using android smart phone for 3years now. few days ago my android broke down. as i started it, I got "android recovery" message and "factory reset" option. after trying with some professionals, i did a "factory reset" due to which my useless data got deleted.

after resetting , i installed my required APPS and set them to run like logging into them. i did the reset and installation 2 days back. but today all my APPS which I installed got deleted.

could anybody tell me "how these APPS got deleted by themselves.


suri

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone do you have? When you powered your phone on and found your apps gone, did you notice that you had to go through the whole setup process of the phone again?

Can you also confirm that if you go to the Settings>Apps system menu, you don't see any of your installed apps there?

 

[suri]

i have nokia c01.

Q. When you powered your phone on and found your apps gone, did you notice that you had to go through the whole setup process of the phone again?
A: i have explained the situation in my post. phone broke down--->showed android recovery---->so did factory reset---->installed APPS. But after my phone went to sleep i.e. its battery discharges and it switches off. after this when i switched it on the APPS were gone.
ANS: I did not have to go through the set up process. i.e. when phone was switched on the APPS were gone.

Q. Can you also confirm that if you go to the Settings>Apps system menu, you don't see any of your installed apps there?
A: yes, these missing apps did not show up in the apps & notifications. infact the memory have gone up by itself confirming that apps vacated the memory.

suri

 

[B. Diddy]

You did explain the situation, but what you explained is what happened leading up to this. You said that after 2 days, all of your apps were missing, so I assume in those 2 days, the phone was acting normally. What I wanted to know was after those 2 days of normal usage, did the phone suddenly act like you were setting it back up again as if it were new? But in your 2nd answer, you said you did not have to go through the setup process again. I just wanted to see if the phone had done a factory reset again on its own, but it sounds like it didn't.

Are you using an SD card for app storage?

 

[suri]

i am not clear if it was exact 2days. it may have been 1 day or some hours after APP installation, until at night when i left it and battery discharged--> it switched off--> in morning APPS were gone. in these hours/day the APPS worked fine e.g. I asked questions to perplexity AI.

""phone suddenly act like you were setting it back up again"" : i do not remember(don't think) if i was setting it back/resetting it.
""But in your 2nd answer, you said you did not have to go through the setup process again"" : yes i think setup process is long one where phone keeps downloading for a while with lot of notifications etc. as i wake up and switched on the phone i did not saw this process happening.

SD Card: no i do not use SD Card.

 

[suri]

THERE IS AN UPDATE: i needed the APPS for daily usage. so after the disappearance of APPS. I have decided to do again a "RESET" and installed the apps from APKpure. yes, i have been using APK pure APP instead of google play for last 3 years. the disappeared APPS were from google play which i did for first time since last 3years. so new APPS are again from APKPURE.

 

[B. Diddy]

Is Google Play Protect turned on? If so, that might automatically uninstall apps that it deems as potentially unsafe.

Or are you saying that the apps that disappeared are always ones you installed through the Play Store?

 

[suri]

Is Google Play Protect turned on? If so, that might automatically uninstall apps that it deems as potentially unsafe.

Or are you saying that the apps that disappeared are always ones you installed through the Play Store?

all these years from march 2022 i had installed only "non-google play apps". Just this time after break down i installed "googleplay apps". these "googleplay apps" disappeared. so I have gone back to "non-google play apps".

i have checked the apps, there is no "google play protect" in my phone and have never been in my phone since 2022.

COULD ANYONE SUGGEST SIMILAR APPS TO "google play protect" since i use APKpue APPS

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok, and is there only one login profile on the phone? Is there any chance you might have logged in as a different account, or as a guest?

 

[suri]

Ok, and is there only one login profile on the phone? Is there any chance you might have logged in as a different account, or as a guest?

There is only me who login to my phone. do not think if there is another login profile. i have just one "onscreen lock" to which i log in and start using the phone & apps

 

[suri]

is there any app that i can install to make my phone more safe like 'google play protect'. please do let me know.

 

[B. Diddy]

Did you install any 3rd party security apps, either from the Play Store or elsewhere?

For security, you could consider Malwarebytes, which is one of the more trusted apps. The problem with security apps is that a lot of them are useless, and at worst potentially dangerous (i.e., scam companies that try to lull you into a false sense of security while possibly stealing your data). Installing apps as APKs is always a risk, since you can never be entirely sure that they're safe. APK Mirror is probably the only site for APKs that I would recommend, since it's run by people associated with Android Police.

 

[suri]

Did you install any 3rd party security apps, either from the Play Store or elsewhere?

For security, you could consider Malwarebytes, which is one of the more trusted apps. The problem with security apps is that a lot of them are useless, and at worst potentially dangerous (i.e., scam companies that try to lull you into a false sense of security while possibly stealing your data). Installing apps as APKs is always a risk, since you can never be entirely sure that they're safe. APK Mirror is probably the only site for APKs that I would recommend, since it's run by people associated with Android Police.

thanks Diddy for your responses. I did not install any 3rd party security apps from anywhere.

 

[B. Diddy]

It's hard to say why this happened. Keep using your phone and watch closely if i happens again.

 

[mustang7757]

Based on what you described, this is not normal Android behavior—apps don’t just disappear without a trace while storage usage increases.

A few key points from your answers:
You did a factory reset from Android Recovery-OK
You reinstalled apps- OK
After the phone powers off (battery dies), you turn it back on-
No setup screen (so it didn’t reset again)
Apps are gone
They don’t appear in Settings > Apps
Storage usage still increased
That combination strongly suggests data corruption or storage failure, not a simple app issue.

The biggest red flags here are:
Possible failing internal storage (eMMC)

Budget devices like the Nokia C01 Plus use basic storage that can fail over time.
Symptoms match:
Apps install -data written
Phone shuts off-data not retained or becomes unreadable
Storage shows used space - “ghost data” left behind

Power loss corruption (battery dying mid-write)
If the phone shuts down due to low battery:
App install/data write may not complete properly
File system can get corrupted
On reboot - apps vanish or don’t register

APKPure vs Play Store is NOT the root issue.

Using APKPure:
Doesn’t cause apps to disappear after reboot
Might introduce compatibility/security risks, but not this behavior
The timing difference you noticed is probably coincidence.

Try this :

Test without letting battery die
Charge fully
Install apps
Reboot manually (not from dead battery)
See if apps stay
Check storage health
Go to Settings > Storage
Look for weird usage (system taking huge space, etc.)
Factory reset again (clean)
Preferably from Settings (not recovery)
Set up fresh, install just 1–2 apps and test
If problem repeats-- hardware issue
Internal storage is likely failing
Not realistically repairable on that model.