How to Find and Reinstall Deleted Apps on Android

Google Play remembers every app you install on an account, even after you remove it from the phone. Google calls this list your library, and it lives inside the Play Store app. These are the steps from Google's official "Reinstall & re-enable apps" help page:

1. Open the Google Play Store app.
2. Tap your profile picture at the top right.
3. Tap Manage apps & device, then the Manage tab.
4. At the top, tap Installed (it may read This device) and change it to Not installed.
5. Tick the apps you want back.
6. Tap Install (on newer Play versions, the download icon at the top).

You can tick several apps and install them in one go, which is handy after a factory reset or on a new phone.

Paid apps: you do not pay twice. Google says apps you bought work on any Android device signed in to the same Google account. If the Play Store asks you to pay again, you are almost always on a different account. To confirm which account made a purchase, open the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions > Budget & history.

Preinstalled apps you disabled. Apps that came with the phone (Chrome, YouTube, a brand's own apps) often cannot be uninstalled, only disabled, so they disappear from the app drawer. In the same Not installed list, Google shows an Enable button for these instead of Install. You can also open Settings > Apps, tap the app, and tap Enable.

Android 15 added app archiving. When an app is archived, Android removes the app itself, its permissions and temporary files, but keeps its icon and your data. Google's "Archive unused apps on Android" help page describes the icon as dimmed with an archiving badge on top (a small cloud).

Archiving happens two ways:

• By hand: you tapped Archive in Settings > Apps > (app name).
• Automatically: you turned on Automatically archive apps in the Play Store settings, and Play archived apps you had not opened in a while when storage ran low.

People often think these apps were deleted. They were not. To get one back:

1. Find the faded icon on your home screen or in the app drawer.
2. Tap it. The app downloads again from Google Play and opens with your data in place.

You can also restore it from Settings > Apps > (app name), or from the app's page in the Play Store. Two conditions apply, per Google: the Play Store must still be on the phone, and the app must still be available to download. If storage is too low, Android asks you to free space first. Our guide to freeing up space on Android covers the fastest ways.

Before you reinstall, rule out two features that make apps vanish from the drawer while they stay installed:

• Launcher hiding. Samsung, OnePlus and other launchers can hide apps from the app drawer. Our guide on how to hide apps on Android shows where each brand keeps that setting, so you can unhide them the same way.
• Private space. Android 15 and newer can keep apps in a locked private space at the bottom of the app drawer. When it is locked, those apps do not show in the main list.

The quick test: open Settings > Apps > See all apps. If the app is listed there, it is installed and only hidden.

Google Play only knows about apps it installed. Anything from F-Droid, GitHub, a developer's website or a forwarded APK file leaves no trace in your Play library, and Android itself keeps no public uninstall history.

• F-Droid apps: F-Droid is a store for free and open-source Android apps. Install the F-Droid client again (or a client such as Droid-ify), search for the app by name, and install it. If you no longer remember the name, browse the categories on the F-Droid website; open-source apps rarely change names.
• GitHub apps: many open-source apps ship their APK files on GitHub release pages. Search GitHub for the app name and download the APK for your phone from the latest release.

To avoid this hunt next time, use Obtainium. It is a free, open-source app (version 1.7.4, released November 1, 2026) that installs and updates apps straight from their release pages on GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, F-Droid and more. Obtainium can export your app list to a file, so after a reset you import the list and every source comes back.

AppShelf is a small open-source app that lists everything installed on your phone, with where each app came from (Google Play, F-Droid, Galaxy Store, an APK file and others) and when you installed it. You save that list as a file or sync it to your own cloud storage.

On a new or reset phone you open the list, and AppShelf shows which apps are missing and opens each one in the right store. It also keeps your own download links per app and can log installs and uninstalls over time, which is the closest thing to an uninstall history Android has.

It is a newer project from a single developer with a small user base, and it is only available as an APK from its GitHub releases page. Treat it like any sideloaded app: check the permissions before you install.

You can also send an app back to your phone from a laptop. Google's help page for computers describes these steps:

1. Go to play.google.com and sign in with the same Google account.
2. Search for the app you want.
3. Select Install (or Installed or Enable).
4. Choose your phone from the device list and select Install.

The app downloads to your phone the next time it is online. Google's computer instructions only cover searching for an app by name: the full list of uninstalled apps is in the Play Store app on your phone (method 1).

Samsung Galaxy: most apps on a Galaxy phone come from Google Play, so method 1 applies. For apps you got from Samsung's Galaxy Store, Samsung's support page gives this path:

1. Open Galaxy Store and sign in with your Samsung account.
2. Tap Menu, then My apps.
3. Pick a category (and Watch if you have a paired Galaxy Watch).
4. Find the missing app and download it again.

Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO: these phones use Google Play as the main store, so method 1 covers most apps. If an app came from Xiaomi's GetApps store, open GetApps and search for it by name.

If you also use an iPhone, Apple keeps a similar list. These steps are from Apple's "Redownload apps from Apple" support page:

1. Open the App Store.
2. Tap your profile picture at the top.
3. Tap Apps & Purchase History, then Your Apps.
4. Tap Not on this iPhone.
5. Tap the download (cloud) button next to the app.

Paid apps download again for free on the same Apple Account. If you use Family Sharing, tap a family member's name to see their apps.