How To Find Recently Deleted Apps On Android

Searching through the list of apps on your device, whether it's a smartphone, tablet or computer, you can no longer find the app you used often. You thought its icon had just disappeared, but if you check it out more thoroughly you will notice that it is no longer installed on your device. You're not sure if it was you or someone else who deleted it by mistake, but the problem is that now you can't remember its name and you have no idea how to recover it. Am I right? If that's the case, I'll soon explain how to solve your problem.

In this guide, in fact, I will show you how to recover deleted applications on the devices you use. I will show you the procedures to follow both on Android smartphones and tablets, and on those with iOS. In addition, I will also give you my advice on how to accidentally prevent such a problem, using some tools that you can use on these two operating systems. In addition to telling you about the devices you carry with you every day, I will show you how to achieve your goal even if you have deleted applications on computers with Windows and macOS operating systems.

You can't wait to read my advice, can you? Then it's best not to delay any longer, in the hope that this guide of mine will help you achieve your goal. Are you ready to start reading this tutorial of mine? Are you? Let's get started!

Retrieve Deleted Apps on Android

If you own an Android smartphone or tablet, you can recover deleted apps in two ways: by accessing a specific section of the Play Store or by installing apps that previously back up the apps in the device's memory. You won't have any difficulty using one method or another, so feel free to choose the one that suits you best.

Play Store

Every time you install an app, its download, whether free or paid, is registered on your Google account, so you can find the app at any time in the Collection section of the Play Store.

Accessing it is easy: just tap on the Play Store icon (the symbol of a coloured triangle), which you can find in the home screen, and press on the icon (☰), located in the top left corner. This way, you'll see a list of Play Store sections, from which you'll need to select My Apps and Games.

From the tabs at the top, tap on the one called Collection to show you a list of apps that are installed on other Android devices associated with the same Google account or those that are no longer in the memory of your device.

For each app, you can read the Not Installed sign, which indicates that that app is not currently on your smartphone or tablet and, if you wish, you can reinstall it by pressing the Install button next to it. If you no longer want to see an app in this list, press the [X] button to the right of the app you want to remove.

Backup App

The above method is the easiest and most immediate to use. However, if the application you deleted does not come from the Play Store, but from an APK package, how can you recover it? In this case, the answer to your question is to use apps that back up and restore apps that have been installed on your smartphone or tablet.

Of all the apps that do this, the one I recommend you use is App Backup and Restore, which you can download for free from the Play Store. You can also decide to purchase the Pro version at a cost of € 0.99, which provides only the removal of advertising banners. All the features of this app can be used freely at no extra cost, such as the automatic backup of applications when they are installed or updated.

To start using the Backup and Restore App, download it using the link I gave you in the lines above and click Install, then Accept and finally Open. After you launch the app, select the Installed tab and check all the apps you see in the list, or just the ones you want to prevent an accidental uninstall.

Then press the Backup button below and wait for the backup process to complete. Remember that backing up apps takes up space on your device's memory, so make sure you have some free space available.

To install a deleted app using the App Backup and Restore features, go to the Archived Broadcast section of the App Backup and Restore section and tick the app you want to restore. Then click the Restore button, then click Yes, and finally click Install from the screens displayed.

Please note that in order to use the app reinstall feature with this type of app, you must activate the Unknown Origins option in your Android Settings. To do this, tap on the Settings icon (a gear symbol) on the home screen and go to the Security section. Locate the Unknown Origins and move the toggle from OFF to ON and then press OK, from the screen you are shown.

If you have a recent version of Android, open the Settings app (the icon with a gear symbol), located on the home screen, and tap Security & Privacy > Other > Install unknown apps. Then search for the name of the backup app you are using (e.g. App Backup and Restore) and, next to the Allow app installation, move the toggle from OFF to ON.

Retrieve deleted applications on iOS

If you're using an iPhone or iPad, you can retrieve a deleted app from the list of apps you've purchased from the App Store. This functionality is not immediately visible when you open the Apple virtual store, but it can be easily reached thanks to the procedures that I will show you in the following lines.

To retrieve a deleted app, tap the App Store icon (a stylized "A" symbol) on your smartphone or tablet home screen. After launching it, tap on the thumbnail of your image in the upper right corner.

In the new screenshot that opens, click on Buy and wait for the app list to load. By tapping the Not on iPhone/Not on iPad tab, you can see a list of all the apps that were previously installed on your Apple devices, but are no longer on the one you're using. Tap on the icon with a cloud symbol on the right side of the app you want to install, and the app will download, making it available for use again.

If you want to hide an app downloaded from this list, just swipe from right to left on the app name and then press the Hide button.

In addition to the above, another method you can do is to create a full backup of your iPhone or iPad, so you can restore it later to recover deleted apps.

Recover deleted applications on Windows

If you're using Windows 10 or Windows 8.x, you've surely taken advantage of the Microsoft Store to download some applications to your PC. Well, know that when you uninstall an app, perhaps by mistake, you can retrieve it by accessing the My Collection section of the Microsoft Store.

To do this, click on the icon with the symbol of a white bag with colored squares inside that you can find in the Taskbar at the bottom left. If you can't find this icon, press the Search button (a magnifying glass symbol) and type "microsoft store" by clicking on the corresponding search result.

After starting the Microsoft virtual store application, click on the icon with the three horizontal dots symbol at the top right and select My Collection from the context menu. You will be shown a list of apps and games that you have installed on your computer, registered to your Microsoft user account.

If you are going to reinstall a deleted app, click on the button with a downward arrow symbol at its name. If you can't find the app in the list, it's probably hidden, so click the Show Hidden Products button to expand the list with all the apps installed so far.

Restore deleted apps on macOS

As well as for PCs with Microsoft operating system, also on Mac you can recover a deleted application, installed via Mac App Store. The operation to perform is simple, as well as that seen in the previous paragraph related to Windows.

All you need to do is access the Mac App Store using its icon on the Dock or inside Launchpad. When the Mac App Store starts, click the Buy button at the top and wait for the list of apps you have installed on your Mac to load.

If you want to reinstall an app that has been mistakenly deleted, simply click the Install button to the right of it. This will start downloading the app, ready to use again.