• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Technipages

Tutorials and fixes for smartphone, gadget, and computer problems

  • Topics
    • Android
    • Browsers
    • Gaming
    • Hardware
    • Internet
    • iPhone
    • Linux
    • macOS
    • Office
    • Reviews
    • Software
    • Windows
    • Definitions
  • Product Reviews
  • Downloads
  • About
App Store Icon is Missing From iPhone or iPad

App Store Icon is Missing From iPhone or iPad

October 3, 2018 by Mitch Bartlett 50 Comments

If the App Store icon seems to be missing from your Apple iPhone or iPad, give these steps a try to find it.

Fix 1 – Double Check Everywhere

Be sure the icon is not in a folder. Check every Home screen and every folder. Also use search to see if you can find it. From the Home screen, swipe all the way to the left screen, then search for “App Store” to see if it appears.


Fix 2 – Check Restrictions

  1. Open “Settings” from the Home screen.
  2. In iOS12 and higher choose “Screen Time” > “Content Privacy & Restrictions” > “Content Privacy” > “Allowed Apps“. In iOS 11 and lower, choose “General” > “Restrictions“.
  3. Ensure “iTunes Store” and you will want to set it to “On“.

Fix 3 – Reset Home Screen

It is possible that the icon is on a different home screen or in a folder. Look on other screens and within folders. If you still can’t find it, try resetting the home screen by selecting “Settings” > “General “> “Reset” > “Reset Home Screen Layout“. This should return your icons to default settings and restore the App Store icon.

Note: If your iPad was provided to you by the organization you work for or a school, it is possible there is software on the device that locks access to the App Store. Ask your IT department for access if you feel this might be the case.

You Might Also Like

  • iTunes Store Icon is Missing From iPhone or iPad
    iTunes Store Icon is Missing From iPhone or iPad
  • Safari Icon is Missing From iPhone or iPad
    Safari Icon is Missing From iPhone or iPad
  • iPhone & iPad: YouTube Icon is Missing
    iPhone & iPad: YouTube Icon is Missing
  • Camera App is Missing from iPhone or iPad
    Camera App is Missing from iPhone or iPad
  • Microphone Missing from Keyboard on iPhone or iPad
    Microphone Missing from Keyboard on iPhone or iPad
  • Facetime Icon Appears to be Gone From iPhone or iPad
    Facetime Icon Appears to be Gone From iPhone or iPad

Filed Under: iPhone

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lucie Wohnlich says

    December 2, 2022 at 6:38 am

    My App Store is missing!!! WHY!😢

  2. Juan Manuel Tineo Batista says

    November 16, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    It does not appear my content privacy

  3. Phoenix says

    October 3, 2022 at 2:06 pm

    It did not work iPhone 12 mini

  4. Anne says

    July 28, 2022 at 8:32 pm

    It worked! Iphone 8 plus ios13

  5. Lolly says

    March 3, 2022 at 6:59 am

    The “reset homescreen” option is no longer there on iPhone 13 pro. The only reset is just to completely reset (wipe) the phone back to factory settings. What else can we do?

  6. Veronica Whitelock says

    February 3, 2022 at 3:02 am

    Hi there
    PLEASE PLEASE help! I am disabled and cannot get to the I Store at all.
    I have an iPad mini software update iOS 12.5.5. I also have a neurological illness which means I have lost all my motor skills, including speaking and walking. I cannot focus properly so find it hard to read.
    So here is y problem, I cannot or do not remember my screen time password and have somehow lost my App Store App so have no messaging etc and cannot download audio books.
    Please can you help?

  7. Stephani says

    February 1, 2022 at 10:29 pm

    How do I fix this if I can’t remember my old password? The passcode on my screen time must be my old password and I’ve been trying for weeks to figure it out and can’t remember. I can recall odd stuff like my childhood phone number, but not this password….

  8. Amie says

    November 20, 2021 at 9:07 am

    Hi Mitch,
    I tried fix1 & fix2, and au had turned off the Content & Privacy Restrictions, but couldn’t find my App Store icon on my iPad mini still …..

  9. Lin kaizhe says

    June 2, 2021 at 4:20 am

    Uhhhhh, I reset Home Screen layout but didn’t work so I tried the second fix but I have screen time controlled by my father so yeah the second tip doesn’t help, I also check every folder 5 times :( anymore ways?

  10. Ernest says

    February 8, 2021 at 3:36 am

    I need to open my App Store I need to download something

  11. Paul says

    January 30, 2021 at 7:21 am

    Hi all!
    Most probably you’ve turned on “Content & Privacy Restriction” Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Orivacy Restrictions and disable it if it is enabled.

  12. lawrencedale says

    December 15, 2020 at 2:30 am

    Well, this article is really beneficial as the App store icon suddenly disappears from my iPhone and I used the tips here, finally getting back it. Besides, I also saw some article introducing other ways like updating iOS, resetting all settings, using professional iOS system repair tools such as TunesKit iOS System Repair. I don’t know whether they are effective like the methods mentioned in this post.

  13. Mak says

    December 10, 2020 at 9:02 pm

    My phone does not have AppStore. I am not able to download. Safari shows shows as “Safari cannot open the page because the address is invalid.”
    How do I fix this?

  14. Luna says

    September 23, 2020 at 4:09 am

    i was deleting some apps and i deleted the itunes store app. The next day i found out my app store was gone from my ipad and now i cannot download anything anymore. Can anyone help?

  15. Sima says

    September 19, 2020 at 11:31 pm

    For folks who had no luck, make sure your setting Settings -> Screen Time -> iTunes & App Purchases -> Installing Apps is set to Allow.

  16. Lily/Mercury Chambers says

    August 24, 2020 at 11:33 am

    I tried a lot of these things… none worked really. I also don’t want to reset my apps all over again. It feel sad to do so. Oh well. Maybe I should try to reset everything. My iPad is a little behind date, and so I don’t know what update the iPad is on anyway. Does anybody watch anime? Anyway, this kinda helps. Ok. It helps. But it’s risky if you don’t want to lose your apps. Thanks anyway Mitch. You did a nice job writing this down. :) I’ll be happy to try this again. This web is good. Merci Lily/Mercury Mars Chambers :). PS. Thanks again Mitch. And also I’m writing this with my snow headed twin. (Pretend Lily didn’t say that). Lily has a big white head to! Ummm…. Merci! Love, Lily/Mercury Chambers. Mitch thank you again! Sorry for all the unimportant info my sister put in :(.

  17. Delilah Bretz says

    August 20, 2020 at 10:49 am

    Does reset reset all your downloaded apps and data to? 😳

  18. Malia Bailey says

    August 9, 2020 at 7:17 pm

    None of this helped on an iPad Air 2. I tried all suggestions, none worked. What am I supposed to do now? Can anyone help me with this bug?

  19. Motsu David fusi says

    August 9, 2020 at 1:17 am

    I got it thank you guys i hope everyone follows this page

  20. SUsan Hedges says

    August 3, 2020 at 2:02 pm

    Nope!! we tried all of the suggestions on my husband a iPad and still no missing apps appear on home screen

  21. andrea fisher says

    June 12, 2020 at 7:08 pm

    worked, iphone xs.

  22. Redwan says

    June 1, 2020 at 2:07 am

    Thank you for your help …keep it up!!

  23. Browning says

    April 29, 2020 at 11:42 am

    I did the whole restrictions part and fortunately I could remember my passcode and it worked.

  24. Sam says

    March 31, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    This worked for me.

  25. Vivek Ghiya says

    March 24, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    I’ve tried everything I could
    Reset home screen layout,
    Disable restrictions

    But my App Store won’t show up
    This is an iPad Air 2

  26. Matthew tietjen says

    January 27, 2020 at 3:14 pm

    It wont show up for me I have done all of the fix’s and none of them have worked

  27. Bayle stockstill says

    January 10, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    I did all the things up there and nothing worked, then I reset all settings but it went away later idk what to do

  28. Sebastian Barnhart says

    December 24, 2019 at 6:51 am

    My App Store disappeared last night and now there is a screen time passcode that I don’t know?

  29. Patty P Chhoeur says

    December 19, 2019 at 9:25 am

    I can’t update all my stuff and asking me to Verify my Identity! over and over

  30. Tammy says

    December 9, 2019 at 8:58 am

    App Store was deleted. Can’t get it back. Tried downloading from Apple and says something about not valid site or something.

  31. Ceebeee says

    November 29, 2019 at 8:00 am

    Thank you. It worked on mine when I searched “restrictions” in my old ipad. I disabled restrictions then voila all the missing apps reappeared on my screen. Thank you very much for posting the possible solutions here.

  32. Bran P says

    October 12, 2019 at 9:52 pm

    “Screen time” does not exist- iphone 7 with IOS 12. My first iphone given to me by work for business uses… and I can’t install anything I need for work! Another reason I’m a droid person…

  33. vlad3368 says

    August 21, 2019 at 6:46 pm

    Solution!!!

    Tried Parental Screen Time Allowances… Didn’t work.
    Tried Updating iPad… Didn’t work.
    Tried Resetting just Home Screen… Didn’t work.
    Tried Resetting Everything… WORKED!!! YEAH!!!

    used advice from Aw’s comment :)

    “settings, general, reset, reset all settings”

  34. Li Jo says

    August 19, 2019 at 2:18 pm

    Worked for me!!! My “App Store purchase” was turned off. Thank you sooo much for helping me locate the problem!!!

  35. Claire Nichols says

    August 18, 2019 at 8:52 pm

    I tried everything but it still the App Store wasn’t appearing on any of my home screens.
    I did turn my restrictions off but still nothing. I reset my iPad home layout but still back were I started from!!!! Very frustrating!!!!!! sorry you couldn’t help.

  36. Robert SCHMITZ says

    June 8, 2019 at 4:50 am

    I thought I had tried everything….
    The ReSet home screen (Fix 3) worked!!!!
    Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  37. Yuxin (Ruby) says

    January 13, 2019 at 3:47 pm

    I tried this but it’s still gone after I updated my iPhone

  38. Shadi says

    January 6, 2019 at 9:30 am

    I did not put restrictions on my ipad, i did reset my homescreen layout and nothing happened. It is very frustrating. Could u give me any advice other than reseting my device to factory setting?

  39. Nicole Ventura says

    December 26, 2018 at 8:01 pm

    I have tried the above method under screen time as well and my App store and Itunes are both still missing after the update and I can’t update any apps or buy any in app purchases or new apps for my kids. Super frustrating. Any advice?

  40. Lisa Wells says

    December 21, 2018 at 5:05 am

    Thank you thank you thank you!!! I had tried everything and was tearing my hair out!! The Screen Time method worked, something in there was checked as Don’t Allow…I switched it to Allow and the icon is back!

  41. Catherine Berghauser says

    December 6, 2018 at 12:28 pm

    i cant find the app for app store cant put any new apps on my sons ipad and i have tried all things on the net nothings works said for the safari one all gone help

  42. Graciela says

    November 26, 2018 at 9:02 am

    Thank you Thank you Thank you!!

  43. JCS says

    November 10, 2018 at 11:19 am

    Hey Mitch!…Thanks for this Info!
    I try to keep a pretty tight rein on the apps the kiddos have on their ipods. I *FREAKED* out when I couldn’t find the restrictions…since I disable them during app updates and re-enable them after the updates are finished. Your concise info did the trick!

    Thanks!

  44. JerGisi says

    November 4, 2018 at 5:18 pm

    Thank you so much. my problem solved with “Screen Time “ metod. I have iPhone 8plus and update iOS 11.4.1 to 12.0.1 but App Store missing from home screen now it’s back ??
    thanks for helpful.

  45. Aw says

    November 1, 2018 at 8:44 pm

    Had the App Store app disappear on two different iPhone/iPads. Only way I’ve found after trying all the stuff and NOTHING worked I went to settings, general, reset, reset all settings…. brought back my App Store app. On both devices.

  46. Slate says

    November 1, 2018 at 8:37 pm

    The app store did disappear after last update, so did the general |restrictions tab. I went under screentime and that will bring back iTunes but not the app store.

  47. Lisa says

    October 30, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    This did get my Wallet app back, but the App Store is still missing! This is very frustrating. Seems like it must’ve happened at the last update. Argh.

  48. Mitch Bartlett says

    October 23, 2018 at 12:13 pm

    It’s under “Screen Time” now. I posted that in the info in this post.

  49. M J Rob says

    October 23, 2018 at 11:52 am

    Same thing happened to me, my app icon is gone. Usually When I go to general then restriction and App Store opens up, but there’s no restriction to go on, its completely gone after I updated the iPad.

  50. Karen says

    October 21, 2018 at 8:20 pm

    Hi, I have tried every instruction as per above. I still cannot reinstate the App Icon. What else can I do – this is a very important icon for my oPad Pro.

Did this help? Let us know!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • How to Print Labels from Excel Using MS Word Mail Merge
  • What Is NVMe Over TCP (NVMe/TCP)
  • Android Mobile Hotspot: How to Change the Password and Name
  • Windows 10: How to Force Quit and App
  • What is Dumpster Diving?
  • How to Download iOS 16 Beta 3 on iPhone or iPad
  • What is a Security Compromise?
  • Mastodon: How to DM Someone

Who’s Behind Technipages?

Baby and Daddy My name is Mitch Bartlett. I've been working in technology for over 20 years in a wide range of tech jobs from Tech Support to Software Testing. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful reference for all.

© Copyright 2023 Guiding Tech Media · All Rights Reserved · Privacy