How to Unhide Apps on iPhone
Find and unhide hidden apps on your iPhone. Covers Spotlight search, App Library, hidden Home Screen pages, Screen Time restrictions, and the Hidden folder.
You know the app is on your phone. You downloaded it. You used it yesterday. But now it is gone from your Home Screen and you cannot figure out where it went.
There are actually several ways an app can disappear on an iPhone. You might have accidentally removed it from the Home Screen, hidden an entire page of apps, or turned on a Screen Time restriction that makes built-in apps vanish. And iOS has a dedicated feature that hides apps behind Face ID, which pulls them out of the Home Screen, the App Library and Spotlight search all at once.
None of these methods delete the app. Your data is still there. We will walk through every hiding method and show you exactly how to bring your apps back.
Search for the app with Spotlight
Swipe down from the middle of any Home Screen page. Not from the very top edge of the screen, just from the center. This opens Spotlight search. Type the name of the app in the search field. If the app is installed, it will show up in the results even if it has been removed from your Home Screen. Tap it to open it right away. If you want to put it back on your Home Screen permanently, touch and hold the app icon in the search results and tap "Add to Home Screen." There is one exception. Apps tucked into the Hidden folder behind Face ID will not appear in Spotlight search at all. If you cannot find an app this way, keep reading.
Good to know: You can also tap the Search button at the bottom of the Home Screen instead of swiping down.
Check the App Library
Swipe left past all of your Home Screen pages until you reach the very last screen. That is the App Library. It organizes every installed app into automatic categories like Social, Entertainment, and Utilities. If you cannot spot the app in the category folders, tap the search bar at the top of the App Library and type the name. Every installed app shows up here, even ones you have removed from the Home Screen. To add the app back, touch and hold its icon in the App Library and tap "Add to Home Screen." You can also drag it to the left to place it on a specific page. The App Library was introduced in iOS 14. If an app is not showing up here and it is not in your Spotlight results either, it may be switched off by Screen Time or sitting in the Hidden folder behind Face ID.
Unhide a hidden Home Screen page
Starting with iOS 14, you can hide entire Home Screen pages. If you accidentally toggled one off, every app on that page disappears from view. The apps are still installed in the App Library, just not visible on your Home Screen. Touch and hold an empty area on your Home Screen until the apps start jiggling. Tap the row of dots near the bottom of the screen. You will see thumbnail previews of all your Home Screen pages. Hidden pages have an unchecked circle below them. Tap the circle under any page you want to bring back. A checkmark appears and the page becomes visible again. Tap Done in the upper right corner. All the apps on that page come back exactly where they were. Nothing is deleted or rearranged.
Restore apps hidden by Screen Time
Screen Time can hide built-in Apple apps entirely. If Safari, Camera, FaceTime, or another Apple app has disappeared from your Home Screen, App Library, and search results, this is almost always the cause. Open Settings and tap Screen Time. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If the toggle at the top is turned off, restrictions are not active and this step does not apply. If it is turned on, tap Allowed Apps & Features. You will see a list of built-in apps with toggles next to each one. Any app that is toggled off is completely hidden. Toggle it back on and the app reappears on your Home Screen immediately. If Screen Time is protected by a passcode, you will need to enter it before making changes. If a parent set the restriction, you will need their Screen Time passcode.
Heads up: Turning off the main Content & Privacy Restrictions toggle will also restore all hidden apps, but it removes every other restriction too. If you only want to bring back specific apps, toggle them on individually in the Allowed Apps & Features list.
Unhide an app from the Hidden folder
iPhone lets you hide an app behind Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode. Hidden apps are removed from the Home Screen, the App Library, and even Spotlight search. They are stored in a Hidden folder at the bottom of the App Library. Swipe left past all Home Screen pages to reach the App Library. Scroll to the very bottom and tap the Hidden folder. Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode. Touch and hold the app you want to unhide and tap "Don't Require Face ID" (or "Don't Require Touch ID" or "Don't Require Passcode," depending on your device). The app returns to the App Library. To also put it back on your Home Screen, touch and hold the app again and tap "Add to Home Screen." You can also manage hidden apps through Settings. Go to Settings, tap Apps, scroll to the bottom, and tap Hidden Apps. Authenticate to see the full list. Hiding an app only hides it on that device. The setting does not sync through iCloud, so an app you hid on your iPhone is still sitting in plain sight on your iPad.
Good to know: Only apps downloaded from the App Store can be hidden with this feature. Built-in apps like Messages, Phone and Safari can be locked so they need Face ID to open, but never fully hidden. A handful cannot even be locked, including Camera, Calculator, Clock, Contacts, Find My, Maps, Shortcuts and Settings.
Unhide purchased apps in the App Store
This one is different from the others. Hiding a purchase in the App Store does not remove the app from your phone or affect how it works. It only hides the app from your purchase history, which is useful if you share purchases through Family Sharing. Open the App Store and tap your profile picture in the upper right corner. Tap your name or Apple Account at the top. You may need to authenticate with Face ID or your password. Scroll down and tap Hidden Purchases. Find the app you want to unhide and tap the Unhide button next to it. The app reappears in your purchase history. If you previously deleted the app and want to reinstall it, you still need to search for it in the App Store and download it again. Unhiding a purchase does not reinstall the app.
Most of the time, a missing app is just one swipe away in the App Library or one Spotlight search from being found. The trickier cases involve Screen Time restrictions or the Hidden folder, but even those take less than a minute to fix once you know where to look. Apple's support page on finding missing apps covers a few additional edge cases if your app is still not showing up after trying everything above. If you are sorting out other iPhone settings while you are at it, our guide on how to turn off Find My iPhone walks through disabling Find My and removing Activation Lock.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
The most common reason is that you accidentally removed it. When you long-press an app and tap "Remove from Home Screen," the app stays installed but only appears in the App Library. Other causes include hidden Home Screen pages, Screen Time restrictions hiding built-in apps, or the Hidden folder behind Face ID. In all of these cases the app is still on your phone and your data is intact.
No. Removing an app from the Home Screen only removes its icon from that page. The app remains fully installed in the App Library with all of its data. To actually delete an app and free up storage, you need to choose "Delete App" instead of "Remove from Home Screen" in the long-press menu.
If someone used the Hidden folder, you will see it at the bottom of the App Library, though opening it needs Face ID, Touch ID, or the device passcode. Hiding is not as complete as it looks, though. Apple notes that a hidden app's name still shows up in Screen Time, in Battery Usage By App under Settings, and in your App Store purchase history, so those three places are worth a look. Apps switched off through Screen Time restrictions leave no trace at all. For those, go to Settings, Screen Time, Content & Privacy Restrictions, and read the Allowed Apps & Features list.
Removing an app from the Home Screen keeps it visible in the App Library and Spotlight search. Hiding an app with the "Hide and Require Face ID" option goes much further. It removes the app from the Home Screen, the App Library's main view, Spotlight search, and even suppresses its notifications. The app is only accessible through the Hidden folder, which requires biometric authentication to open.
You cannot fully disable the ability to remove apps, but you can reduce accidental removals. Avoid long-pressing app icons unless you mean to. If you are rearranging your Home Screen and accidentally hit "Remove from Home Screen," the app moves to the App Library immediately. You can find it there and add it back. Checking your Home Screen pages regularly by tapping the page dots in jiggle mode also helps catch any accidentally hidden pages.
Only apps you downloaded from the App Store can be hidden. The apps that ship with iPhone cannot be, and neither can whichever app you have set as your default web browser, or an alternative app marketplace if you are in the EU. There are age rules too. In a Family Sharing group, children under 13 cannot lock or hide apps at all, and anyone aged 13 to 17 can, but a parent or guardian still sees that the app was downloaded and how much it is used. Those age thresholds vary by country.
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