Discovered your Facebook application is missing from Android, iOS, or iPadOS devices and want to recover it? The app was crucial for mobile users despite the existence of Messenger and the chance to visit the website in the browser without losing access to features. While it’s true that the app is only a medium and that most data is hosted on Facebook servers, it still has merits. Plus, Facebook provides a way for developers to integrate Facebook tools, SDKs (software development kits), and API (Application Programming Interface) into their apps or built an app on the Facebook platform. All these make it pivotal for users to learn how to restore a Facebook app. Let’s begin.
1. Check if the Facebook app is hidden
There are many ways to hide an application on Android and iOS. A system update might have hidden it temporarily or removed it from the home screen, although that rarely happens. You or someone unauthorized might have hidden the app in the Settings if you wanted to spend less time on social media. Hackers may have meddled with your phone, although that’s also a rarity. Regardless of the reason, a reliable way to check if the app is hidden on Android is to:
- Swipe down the notification area at the top then select the cogwheel icon. Otherwise, tap the Settings icon on the home screen.
- Find the Apps or Apps & notifications option and select it.
- Tap the See all <X> apps where X is the number of all applications installed on your device.
- Make sure All apps is selected on the drop-down menu and find “Facebook” on the list.
- If it doesn’t exist, move to the second method. If it does, tap it then select Enable or Force Start.
On iPhone, the app may exist in the app library but get hidden from the home screen. Search for “Facebook” after you swipe all the way to the left on the home screen and see the search bar. Once you find it, tap it and select Add to Home Screen.
2. Restore a Facebook app from a backup
Have you ever used iTunes to back up your iPhone storage? Did you ever install applications on Android that lets you back up and restore applications? If the answer is yes to either, you’re lucky. We’ll cover two common methods.
Recovering a Facebook app from a backup
There are several quality choices for getting data, including apps, saved, making it easy to restore your home screen and settings after a system crash or factory reset. Unsurprisingly, if you didn’t create one in the past, the procedure can only serve as a failsafe for the future. Although we’re unaffiliated, we’ll show the procedure with a well-known app you perhaps used in the past. Follow these steps to restore Facebook using an app backup app:
- Open the application you used to create a backup. We’ll use Backup & Restore by Trustlook Security Lab as it has over 10 million downloads at this point.
- If you tapped the checkmark next to Facebook on the “Installed” page and traces of it exist, you’ll see it with an Archived message on the right-hand side. Regardless, switch to the “Archived” tab.
- Find the app on the list, put a checkmark on the right side, and tap the Restore button at the bottom.
- Users who have used Google Drive as the backup option should switch to the “Google Drive” tab, select Facebook on the list, then tap the Download button.
Using iTunes to restore iPhone, iPad, or iPad touch backups
We demonstrated how to restore iPad with iTunes in the past. In this case, you only need the method under the “Restore Data With iTunes Backup” headline, and those steps also apply to iPhone and iPod touch. Since you already have detailed steps, we’ll only give you a brief update that the option is called iTunes only up to macOS 10.14.
On macOS 10.15 Catalina, you have to open Finder in the top menu next to the Apple icon. The rest is identical—connect the Apple device via USB, select it under “Locations”, then choose Restore Backup… in the “Backup” section before picking a backup that contained the Facebook app, entering the password, and choosing the Restore button.
3. Reinstall the Facebook app
If you never created a backup and the app isn’t hidden, it must have been uninstalled, and you’re without methods to get it back. However, we’re happy to say that reinstalling the Facebook app isn’t such a terrible thing. As mentioned, most data is still on Facebook servers and the application only provides access. Plus, you can download Facebook data after requesting an archive. Plus, we have an extensive guide that covers the restoration of uninstalled apps. You have to download Facebook on Google Play Store or get the Facebook iOS/iPadOS app. The guide even shows the use of data restoration applications to restore fragmented Facebook information left after removal from your device.
4. Restore a developer Facebook app
Many users forget that Facebook lets users utilize Instagram, Facebook, and Meta API, tools, SDK, and guidance to develop their applications or even integrate functionality such as log-in. If you are one of those but have found that your application disappeared from the platform, don’t worry. You have two options for recovering a Facebook app as a developer:
1. If you are an admin for the Facebook Developers project
Head over to the App Dashboard on the Facebook for Developers page. Log in with your administrator account, and you can see all active and deleted apps. Clicking Restore next to its name will make the Facebook email you at the head administrator’s contact email. Correspond with the employees or use the provided download link.
2. If you aren’t an administrator on the developed Facebook app
In case you’re one of the former admins, trying to get back a forgotten app project, or encountered a problem where no one has admin permissions, don’t worry. You can go to the Facebook for Developers Appeals page. Explain your situation and wait for a response from the Meta team.