Recently deleted apps: where iPhone and Android keep the list

iPhone and iPad: the Not on this device list

Apple’s support article on redownloading apps, published on 17 September 2026, gives the route for recently deleted apps on an iPhone or iPad: open the App Store, tap the My Account button or your photo at the top of the screen, tap Apps & Purchase History and then Your Apps, tap Not on this device, find the app and tap the Redownload button. If you use Family Sharing, you can tap a family member’s name to see their purchases. If you can’t find the app on your device, Apple says to use the App Library. On Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD the list is Purchased, then Not on This TV, and on Apple Watch it is Account, then Purchased.

Apple adds three limits. Some apps aren’t available on all devices; an app bought on an iPhone might not have a version for Mac. Games played with an Apple Arcade subscription don’t appear in your purchases, so you search for the game and download it again. You can’t redownload in-app purchases, but you can restore some of them if you used Apple In-App Purchase to buy them.

Android: the Not installed list in Google Play

Google Play Help says you can reinstall an app that you bought but deleted, and that apps bought on Google Play work on any Android device signed in to the same Google Account without paying again. The steps are to open the Google Play app, tap the Profile icon, tap Manage apps & device and then Manage, select the apps you want to install or turn on, and, if you can’t find an app, tap This device and then Not installed. Then tap Install or Enable. If you turned off an app that came with your device, Google says you can turn it back on the same way.

If you can’t find an app or are asked to buy it again, Google says to make sure you use the same Google Account you bought it with. If you cannot reinstall at all, its troubleshooting steps are to uninstall and reinstall updates to the Play Store, or to clear the cache and data of the Play Store; Google warns that clearing the data may delete settings such as parental controls and password protection and that the Terms of Service will be asked for again. The help article on a new or another device repeats that you must use the same account on all devices.

When the app is not in the list

Apple’s troubleshooting article, published on 16 September 2024, lists the causes. Check that the item is in the purchase history of your Apple Account, since you might have bought it with a different Apple Account. An app might not be compatible with your device; an app bought for a Mac might not work on an iPhone or Apple Watch. The purchase might be hidden, and Apple points to a page on redownloading hidden apps. A family member’s purchase needs Family Sharing. If you see items but can’t redownload them, Apple says to report a problem, and a message that the device is associated with another Apple Account may mean waiting a number of days.

The HONOR UK blog lists similar causes on the Android side: the app may have been removed from Google Play, installed using a different Google account, hidden by device settings, or no longer compatible with the phone. It also warns that third-party recovery tools often require root access. A blog by PandaOffice, updated on 21 October 2026, which promotes its own file-recovery program, says that neither the App Store list nor the Google Play list is a reliable deletion log, because an item may have been purchased elsewhere or never installed on this phone.

Where the guides and the makers differ

The label is not the same everywhere. Apple’s page of 17 September 2026 says Apps & Purchase History, then Your Apps. The HONOR UK blog sends iPhone users to their profile and then Purchased, and PandaOffice says current App Store screens place redownloads under Apps & Purchase History, Your Apps, while older versions use Purchased. For Android, Google says This device, then Not installed, and HONOR says Installed, then Not installed.

The date of deletion is the other difference. In a thread in Apple’s community, a reply dated 26 May 2025 says that choosing Not on this iPhone lists the apps that have been removed with the date they were removed, and Google’s AI answer for this query repeats that. Apple’s support article does not mention a date, and we did not test it on an iPhone. For deleting an app on purpose, see deleting apps on an iPhone; for apps that are hidden rather than deleted, unhiding apps.