How to restore deleted apps on ipad

In the past, recovering deleted apps from your iPhone or iPad meant relying on a backup or just purchasing it again. But those ways are history now. Compared to the early days, it’s pretty easy to restore accidentally deleted apps on your iPhone or iPad.

Thanks to iCloud, App management is easy and hassle-free. What’s more, re-downloading the app doesn’t cost you anything if you’ve already purchased the app.

How to recover deleted apps on iPhone and iPad

If you’ve set up Family Sharing on your iPhone, you can see the My Purchases option on the All Purchases screen. If not, the method to restore deleted apps remains the same in iOS 16/15 and earlier versions of iOS.

1. Launch App Store on your iOS device.
2. Now, tap on the profile icon at the top right corner.
3. Next, tap Purchased.
   

4. Tap My Purchases.
5. Now, tap the Not on This iPhone menu at the top.
6. Find the app that you deleted and wish to re-install. Then, tap on the cloud icon right next to the app, and the installation will begin.
   

Alternatively, you can also search for the purchased app on the App Store.

When you download the app (that you’ve already paid for), you won’t be charged again.

You can also read our guide to find out everything you need to know about recovering deleted photos.

That’s it!

Now that you know how this trick works, use it to easily reinstall deleted apps on your iPhone and iPad. Moving beyond this simple hack, we’ve covered quite a few posts related to the App Store. For instance, you can stop auto-play videos before they play and also filter reviews. Give them a look to get the most out of it.

Have any questions? Ask away in the comments!

You might want to take a peek at these posts as well: 

There is really nothing to worry about, in case you have deleted a purchased App on your iPhone or iPad. You will find below the steps to Restore Deleted Apps on iPhone or iPad.

Restore Deleted Apps on iPhone or iPad

In the past it was not easy to Restore Deleted Apps on iPhone, users would pretty much buy the App yet again, in case they had deleted it accidentally and did not have a backup on their local computer or iTunes.

However, Apple now links every App that you download from the App Store to your Apple ID and stores the App in your Account. This makes it really easy to Restore Deleted Apps on iPhone or iPad.

You will find below two different methods to restore deleted Apps on iPhone or iPad.

1. Restore Deleted Apps From List of Purchased Apps

You can Restore Deleted Apps on iPhone from the list of purchased Apps as available on the App Store. This option is suitable, in case you do not know the Name of the App or you are not sure about which Apps you had deleted on your iPhone.

1. Open the App Store on your iPhone.

Note: Make sure that you are signed in with the same Apple ID that you had used to purchase the Apps.

2. Once you are in the App Store, tap on the Profile icon located at the top right corner of your screen.

3. On the Account screen, tap on Purchased.

4. On the next screen, tap on Not on this iPhone tab. This will bring up all the Apps that are currently not available on your iPhone.

5. The next step is to look for the App that you had deleted and tap on the Cloud icon next to the App, in order to begin the process of re-installing the App back on your iPhone (See above image)

2. Restore Deleted Apps on iPhone using Search

In case you had recently deleted the App and know its name, you can quickly search for the deleted App on the App Store and install the App back on your device.

1. Open the App Store on your iPhone or iPad.

Note: Make sure that you are signed in with the same Apple ID that you had used to purchase the App.

2. Once you are on the App Store, search for the Deleted App by typing its Name in the search bar.

3. Now, tap on the Deleted App as it comes up in search results.

4. The next step is to Download and Install the App back on your device.

Since you have already paid for the App, you won’t be charged for downloading the App yet again from the App Store.

What You Need to Know About Apps Linked to Your Apple ID

As mentioned above, all the Apps that you download from the App Store, including Free and Paid Apps are linked to your Apple ID and all these Apps are stored in your Account on Apple’s Cloud servers.

What is good about this setup is that practically every App that you Purchase or download for Free from the App Store will be available in your App Store Account.

Even if the publisher of the App removes a particular App from the App Store, the removed App will still be available in your Account.

However, this set up of saving every downloaded and purchased App to a User Account can create a huge list of Free, Purchased and discarded apps, which makes it difficult to find a particular App from the huge pile of Apps linked to your User Account.

Also, Apple does not allow you to permanently delete any of the Apps that are linked to your Account, which makes it difficult to get rid of unused or embarrassing Apps (if any) that you may have downloaded in the past.

iPhone and iPad apps can disappear for a few reasons, such as (1) you accidentally deleted the app on your iPhone, (2) you rearranged your home screens, (3) you or someone else set them to hidden, or (4) you restored your iPhone and/or iPad with or without a backup.

This article provides step-by-step instructions (with screenshots) on all the different ways to recover deleted apps on an iPhone and iPad, as well as locate missing or hidden apps via the App Store. We also included iTunes recovery for those who haven’t updated to 12.7. Read on.

Try to Find the App on iPhone/iPad

If you specifically remember deleting your app, click here to jump to the next section. Otherwise, it’s possible that you misplaced your app while rearranging your home screens or set new app downloads to go straight to the App Library. Here’s 3 ways to locate it:

Home Screen
An iPhone has multiple “Home Screens” that you can browse by swiping right on your screen. By default, new apps are added to the next available slot in the closest home screen. However, if you choose to hide other home screen pages except for the original, new apps will be added to the App Library (see next subsection). This is also the case for apps you chose to hide from the homescreen.

It’s possible that you enabled the setting to add newly downloaded apps straight to the App Library only, and not to the Home Screen. You can disable it by opening the Settings app > Home Screen and tapping “Add to Home Screen.”

App Library and Search Bar
The App Library screen displays all the apps you have installed on your phone and categorizes them into folders. This screen also has a search bar at the top – if you tap it, it will display your apps in list format, arranged alphabetically. You can then either type the name of the app on the search bar or scroll through the list.

Siri
Unlike the App Library, Siri’s search bar can be accessed from any screen by swiping down. You can either type your query or use speech recognition by tapping the microphone icon to find deleted apps on your iPhone. However, unlike the App Library, search results also include non-app files like documents and suggested websites – so it’s a much less focused search function.

How to See Recently Deleted Apps on iPhone

You won’t specifically be able to see “recently deleted apps” on your iPhone, but you can find all the apps you downloaded from the App Store. You can filter this list to show only apps that are not currently on your device (which, by extension, lets you see deleted apps on your iPhone). Here’s how to check deleted apps on your iPhone:

Step 1. Launch the App Store by tapping its icon.

Step 2. On the top-right corner of your screen, tap the user icon.

Step 3. Tap “Purchased.” This will display currently installed apps as well as a history of deleted apps on your iPhone, and all the apps you downloaded using your Apple ID – even from different devices.

There’s a feature that allows you to hide your app purchases, whether they have been deleted or not. If you think someone has been sneaky with your phone (or you did this by mistake), simply open the App Store > user account button > Apple ID, then scroll down and tap “Hidden Purchases.”

How to Recover Deleted Apps From iPhone

If you definitely remember deleting them, we have 3 different methods that can help you recover deleted iPhone apps. However, methods 1 and 2 require you to know your Apple ID in order to reinstall them from your purchase history. Method 3 can retrieve deleted apps on your iPhone even if you can’t log into your Apple ID.

For those who also want to restore their app data and have iCloud and iTunes/Finder backups, we have a bonus method just for you at the end of this section.

Method 1: Restore Deleted iPhone Apps From App Store

The App Store keeps a history of all your downloaded apps on all devices that use your Apple ID, even if they have been deleted and are not currently installed. This makes it easy for users to reinstall deleted apps even if they forgot which apps they were using. To get back deleted apps, launch the App Store > user account icon > Purchased, and tap the “Not on this iPhone” tab. Then, locate your missing app and tap the download button on the right to install it.

Method 2: Reinstall Deleted iPhone Apps Using iTunes

As of iTunes 12.7 (macOS 10.13 High Sierra), features related to Apps have been removed – so this section is for users that haven’t updated to iTunes 12.7 or higher. If that’s not you, skip to Method 3. Otherwise, here’s how to restore deleted apps on your iPhone using iTunes:

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac.

Step 2. On your Mac, open Finder > Applications > iTunes.

Step 3. Click on your device icon, then click “Apps.”

Step 4. Locate your missing app, then click the “Install” button beside it.

Method 3: Recover Deleted iPhone Apps With Data Recovery Software

If you don’t have iTunes, can’t find your app in your purchase history, or can no longer access your Apple ID, you can extract this data directly from your device using data recovery software. These tools can not only restore apps, but you can also use them to recover iPhone call history, SMS messages, contacts, photos, and more.

For this article, we’ll be using Disk Drill for Mac – not only is it super easy-to-use (making it perfect for demonstrating data recovery to our readers), but we’ve had consistently good recovery rates while using it across different devices. Here’s how to use it to retrieve deleted apps on your iPhone:

Step 1. Securely connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac.

Step 2. On your Mac, download and install Disk Drill.

Step 3. Launch Disk Drill (Finder > Applications > Disk Drill).

Step 4. On the left sidebar, click “iPhones & iPads.” Then, select your iPhone from the list and click “Search for lost data.”

Step 5. Once it’s done scanning your iPhone, you’ll be greeted with a list of data Disk Drill found. iOS apps package their data differently, so it’s a good idea to just select all files and manually uncheck anything you don’t want to restore. Then, click “Recover.”

Step 6. Use the dropdown menu to select a location on your Mac where Disk Drill will save the recovered files. Then, click “OK.”

Disk Drill Basic for Mac does not offer free recovery. However, you can preview as many files as you want to make sure they’re salvageable. Free data recovery exists… But they have massive limitations. Your mileage may vary.

Bonus Method: Restore All iPhone/iPad Data From a Backup

Another way to restore iPhone applications (along with their app data) is to restore your entire iPhone/iPad from a backup. Depending on how you backed up your data, you can either restore it from your Mac via Finder or from iCloud.

We won’t cover these methods in-depth in this article, but we have step-by-step guides (with screenshots, of course) for both of them in this article: How to Recover Data After Factory Reset on iPhone.

Both of these methods will wipe all the data you currently have on your iPhone… So make sure to perform a backup first!

How to Restore Deleted Apps on an iPad

When it comes to recovering deleted apps on iPhone and iPad, there’s one major difference: while iPads can run apps designed for the iPhone, iPhones can’t run apps designed for the iPad. iPad-only apps also won’t show up on your iPhone’s App Store purchase history.

Other than that, the process is entirely the same.You can use the same methods we showed in this article. Use this navigation table to quickly jump to the relevant section:

FAQ