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Fix: Android App Widgets Not Appearing

Fix: Android App Widgets Not Appearing

By 37 Comments

I noticed a problem with my widgets on my Android device where the app widgets were not showing up. I had all of the standard widgets like Music, News & Weather, and Power Control, but no option for Facebook, Twitter, or any other apps I installed.

Fix 1

It turns out that this is a feature of Android where widgets are blocked for apps that are installed to the SD card. This was my problem since I had just moved all of my apps the SD card to save space.

To resolve this issue, the app had to be moved back to the memory of the phone using these steps:

  1. Open the “Settings” app.
  2. Select “Apps“.
    On many Samsung devices, you would select “Applications” > “Application manager“.
    These selections may vary between devices depending on the version of the Android OS you are running.
  3. Select the app that isn’t showing up in the widgets list.
  4. Tap the “Storage“ button.
  5. Select “Change“.
  6. Switch the selection from “SD card” to “Internal storage“.

Repeat these steps for any other apps you are experiencing the same issue with.

Fix 2

Sometimes the Home screen data may get corrupted. You will have to clear the Home screen data and start fresh. These steps will reset your icons on the Home screen back to defaults.

  1. Open “Settings“.
  2. Select “Apps” or “Applications“.
  3. One some devices, choose “Manage applications“.
  4. Select the menu icon or “More” option at the upper-right corner of the screen, then choose “Show system“.
  5. This step may be tricky. You have to find the name of the app that runs the Home screen. On my Galaxy S7, it’s called “TouchWiz“. On the Moto X, it’s called “Launcher“. On the Nexus 5X, it’s called “Nexus 5X Home screen“. Try to find the one that applies to your device, then select it.
  6. Select “Storage“.
  7. Choose “Clear Data“.

The Home screen should be restored, along with the ability to use widgets.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dear, I have Nokia 1 and its OS is Android One. June 2019 update removed all the widgets on the home screen and from the add option too. Only few of them are available. The apps are installed on the internal memory. I did as you recommended (fix2) but still the same. I installed weather app but didn’t find the widget in the list.
    Do you please have another option(s) to solve that?
    Thank you.

  2. Can anyone help me, I feel rather stupid, my S9 has been updated all of the apps on my home screen work fine but those not on the home screen cannot be accessed as the “Apps” widget has disappeared into the ether. AS a result I can only see about 17 of over 50 apps

    Thank you

  3. Please help. I don’t have a settings widget at all in my widgets section. I need to get you notification log urgently.

  7. My problem is…
    When I install from the Play Store.. .NOTHING is added to my phone. This has been happening for almost a year, on both mine and my wifes phone. ALL apps installed new can only be accessed from the Play Store installed section.

    1} WHY??
    2} Can this somehow be fixed? I have searched and this forum seems to be the straightest shooter. HELP!!

  8. Thanks so much! Not sure why it won’t display apps that are on the SD card, but super glad I finally have the widgets back!

  11. I have a galaxy7 and just did a update now all my game widgets are gone. not happy about this as I pay for coins and now can’t find widgets to play I have to go into play store find the game I was on and open there to play the game. It’s late so will be calling my carrier to see if they can fix the problem.

  12. Followed the instructions and got my BA widget back on my Android phone. I thought I had moved only photos and video’s to the SD card. Thanks Mitch.

  13. Hi I moved whatsapp from internal to sd card on my Honor 7 phone. Since then the whatsapp widget stopped working so I deleted it with the intention of re-installing the widget. But it had vanished from the widget section.

    I tried suggestion 1 n it worked.

    Suggestion 2 was preferable but I do not know the app that runs home screen on Honor 7 n some of the steps suggested are not available on this version of Honor 7

  14. Thankyou ! Deezer’s data was saved on my SD card. Once switched back to internal, the widget appeared.
    Good call !

  15. Nope majority of the step pages are not on my 5.1 Android phone. Settings apps shows it running but cannot get the widget to home screen to use it.

  17. I have a widget on my android phone. I recently got a tablet for Christmas. It was linked to my phone, by my daughter. But, I miss my widget. I used it for screenshots.
    Any advice?
    Technologically Challenged

  18. Fix 1 has repaired it. *ThumbsUp* You are great! Thanks a lot! Fix 1 worked on my Motorola G4 plus with android 7.0 Nougat, trying to get back the VLC widget! You solved my problem ! :-)

  19. Did not help. There is no “change” button once you tap on Storage. Just Clear Data and Clear Cache.

  20. God I was going crazy thank you so much nothing else on the Internet worked for my s5 Internet was touchwiz.

  22. Thanks a lot Mitch! I did the first fix and put Trello back on the phone memory, suddenly the ability to add that widget showed up again! A real shame Trello doesn’t indicate that anywhere or worked to restore fully-functionnal SD card storage… Thankfully we still got helpful fellows like you :)

  23. I’m on a Galaxy S7 and cannot find older notifications to save my life…no settings widget either

  27. Thanks greatly! On my stock Motorola G4 plus, after getting the Nougat OTA upgrade, my widgets were just plain weird. At times, the Transparent Weather widget would show a stale time and battery level and Battery Solo widget would be stale. The strangest was, when they were stale, if I tried to add a widget, the page of widgets would be blank. I did Settings, Apps, show system, selected Google App (which includes the launcher), storage, manage space and clear all data. I lost my home screens and had to put them back in. After that, the widgets seems to be working again. Note: take screen shots (power plus volume down) first so you don’t have to remember how your home screens were set up.

  30. Feedly widget hasn’t appeared for me in over a year – searched all over trying to resolve. I never connected that moving the app to external storage takes away the widget – Fix 1 solved it instantly. You’re awesome! Thanks.

  33. Thanks very much! I would have had this solved very quickly, but communities on the internet were saying that Android has abolished the facility of installing/starting apps from SD Card and so I didnt think android was doing this anymore…..such great news that theyve brought it back

  34. This has always been a simple fix for me ……

    go to “settings” … then to “apps” …. then click the menu and tap “reset app preferences”

  35. I cleaned data of launcher but couldn’t get widgets back there is white box if Ilong press the home screen.

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