Help find missing iphone icons.

October 4, 2012 7:38 AM

Recently been experiencing lost app icons on iphone4. The phone is not jail-broken and has not been updated to ios6. The apps are still there & can be found in the search function. I did a hard reboot and some icons returned (not all), but worse, the reboot blew up my folders and screen setup. I also tried turning on & off the restrictions. No luck. Not sure what happened but is there any way to restore the icons without major disruption? Thanks.
posted by mbx to technology (5 answers total)

I noticed this happening on my phone as well post iOS 6. Of course part of the issue is that I have more icons than pages, so had to trim things down. The only solution I've found so far is to do a home screen reset (settings -> general -> reset -> reset home screen layout). This will still break down folders unfortunately...so those will have to be recreated.
posted by samsara at 7:43 AM on October 4, 2012

How does the screen layout look in iTunes when you have the phone connected?
posted by Burhanistan at 8:51 AM on October 4, 2012

Burhanistan: The layout in iTunes replicates the 3 pages of icons that I have set up on my iPhone now, then it shows a blank 4th page (not found on my iphone), then it shows 3 subsequent pages (pages 5, 6 & 7) that contain my missing icons; these pages also do not show up on my iphone. Any ideas? Thank you.
posted by mbx at 10:27 AM on October 4, 2012

To be honest, I think you should go straight to:

1. Take a backup via iTunes (check off 'Encrypted' and it will save your device passwords too.)
2. Restore your phone using iTunes (essentially reinstall the OS).
3. When iTunes prompts you, load all your data from backup onto your phone.

Even if it doesn't solve the problem, ensuring that you went through Step One will be helpful if it turns out your phone is corrupted/dying.
posted by whittaker at 10:38 AM on October 4, 2012

Thanks. After the long haul of backing up, updating ios, syncing and refoldering everything appears to be back in order.
posted by mbx at 4:54 PM on October 4, 2012