Samsung J7 V problem

[Android Central Question]

Hi, all. My issue started last week whilst I was on a camping trip. I switched on Medium power save mode so I wouldn't have to charge the phone while I was out. After I got home, I put the phone on the charger, and attempted to disable power save. I got the notification that the option had been shut off, but the power save symbol in the upper tray never shut off. After a few days, I had issues charging the phone. Pretty normal...dust gets in the usb port and I have some trouble connecting the pins without a significant amount of effort and cursing...Now today, as the battery rapidly discharged, I switched it to maximum power saving mode, and it seemed to glitch. My animated wallpaper (installed via NovaLauncher) stopped working (normal for maximum power saving), but once I switched it out of the power save mode, it reverted to the standard samsung wallpaper and all my apps were gone from the home screen. This includes my gallery, Samsung Notes, My Files, and Camera. When I looked in app manager, all the downloaded apps are still there, but are listed as disabled, and I am unable to re-enable them. The phone seems to be stuck in some strange power save flux. This phone is less than a year old. I've attempted the soft reset and the cache wipe with no success. I have not added any new apps for the last four months (minimum) and though I have NovaLauncher, I only put it on so I could have my animated wallpaper. I still use standard TouchWiz for everything. I cannot access anything from My Files, Gallery, Notes, or even my Calendar or Calculator!
My third party apps are as follows:

PitchLab
Bubble Witch Saga 3
Dragon's World
Dragon Quest 3
Farm Heroes Saga
Huuuuge Casino
CCleaner
Nova Launcher

All the other apps came packaged with the phone, and there has been no issue with how it runs since I installed them.
Any ideas on how I can re-enable my apps without losing my Samsung Notes, Files and Gallery pics? I'd prefer not to do a factory reset if it can be avoided.

 

[belodion]

It sounds like you've booted into Safe Mode, or the phone has done that itself somehow.

 

[evilblades0647]

Apologies. I guess I have to register to post a reply to my own post...
Yea, it seems like that, but its strange. I booted it to safe mode normally once it was charged (this morning) then shut it down and booted normally. No change...It isn't displaying the safe mode message in the bottom left, and there is no added functionality. To make matters worse, now my clock has stopped working in both the system tray and home screen. It displays 00:00 on my lock screen. I can still make calls and send/receive texts with it, and surf chrome, but literally nothing else is working. Checked and even the samsung bloatware apps can't be accessed now.