Apps Downloaded but Not Showing? How to Search for an App on the iPhone

Upgrading your iPhone to iOS 14 comes with many great features, but sometimes it can prevent newly downloaded apps from appearing on your Home screen. Here’s why you might be missing apps and how you can fix it.

Jump to:

• Use the App Library to Place an App on Your Home Screen
• Use Spotlight to Search for & Open a Missing App
• Use Settings to Make New Apps Show Up on the Home Screen
• Restore Hidden Home Screen Pages to Find Missing Apps

Finding Downloads on an iPhone: Apps Downloaded but Not Showing

Although one of the aims of iOS 14 was to better organize and freshen your app collection, it can sonetimes have the opposite effect. Certain settings and features can prevent new app downloads from being readily visible on your Home screen. The troubleshooting tips below should help you locate the app you're looking for and place it exactly where you want it.

Can’t Find an App on Your iPhone? Use the App Library

It’s important to know that when newly downloaded apps are missing from your iPhone’s Home screen, they are merely hidden. They can easily be found, accessed and added to your Home screen. This can be done in App Library, a new feature of iOS 14.

1. Go to the App Library by swiping left on your Home screen until you've gone one screen past your last Home screen page.
2. Tap into the search bar and type in the name of the app you're looking for. If you do not want to use the search bar, you can simply scroll through the apps in the App Library.
   
   
    
3. Once you find the app you're looking for, tap and hold the app icon, then drag it in any direction and it will be added to the last page of your Home screen.
   
   
    
4. Alternatively, you can long-press the app icon to see a menu and select Add to Home Screen.
   
   

Related: How to Use the iPhone App Library

Use Spotlight to Search for & Open a Missing App

1. Swipe down from the center of your Home screen to find the Search bar.
2. Enter the name of the missing app in the search field, or tap the microphone icon to dictate your search term.
3. Your missing app should be among the top results. Tap it to open it.
   
   
    

Use Settings to Make New Apps Show Up on the Home Screen

While all apps appear in the App Library without fail, for some people a setting may be preventing newly downloaded apps from appearing on the Home screen. Here’s how to fix that going forward.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Home Screen.
   
   
    
3. Select Add to Home Screen and a blue checkmark will appear next to it. From now on, newly installed apps will show up on your Home screen, just like they did in iOS 13 and earlier.
4. Any apps that were auto-hidden before you changed this setting will still be hidden. To unhide them, you can move them back from App Library individually. 
   
   
    

Restore Hidden Home Screen Pages to Find Missing Apps

It’s possible that an app disappeared from your iPhone because, while installing iOS 14, you accidentally hid the page of your Home screen where it appeared. But don’t worry, the process to bring back hidden Home screen pages is quite simple.

It can feel frustrating when you don’t see an app that you’ve just downloaded or that has always been located in one place on your Home screen. We hope our guide has helped you correct this minor issue with iOS 14 and find the apps you’ve lovingly curated on your iPhone.