I have an SD card in my phone, but I use it only to store files. I never moved any app to the SD card.
The same problem here.
Yesterday I realized that a shortcut to a Google Drive document and three shortcuts to pictures in my gallery just disappeared.
I updated to Android 11 a month ago or so but they disappeared only a couple of days ago.
I use the standard launcher and I can’t remember having installed anything in the last days.
I’ve just rebooted to see if they disappear but they’re all there.
Ciao,
Max
I have rebooted today and now I’ve realized shortcuts have disappeared again.
At this point I’m pretty sure it’s somehow related to rebooting.
Has anyone already opened a ticket?
If not I’ll do it and keep you informed.
Ciao,
Max
1 Like
Which browser are you using mpolito1969?
I mostly use Firefox.
Since this thread began I’ve created a number of shortcuts none of which has disappeared. I turn my phone completely off most nights.
Hi, I didn’t create a ticket because I can’t reliably reproduce it. It’s still only happened twice, but I don’t reboot often. Maybe 3 times since the last incident.
Agree, my shortcuts to Chrome bookmarks, contacts’ location/dial/message widgets, Google shoppig list shortcut all disappear on reboot. I’m having to reboot a lot to fix the Whatsapp voice note issue: WhatsApp Audios
I use Adblock Browser:
However, shortcuts that disappear are not related to the browser. I had to recreate also some pictures shortcuts I created from the Gallery app.
Ciao,
Max
What 
Adblock browser: fast, fair, secure
But itself full of trackers
Don’t use it. Deinstall it !!!
https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/de/reports/org.adblockplus.browser/latest/
So it just happened again. This time after the reboot for the latest security update for Fairphone OS. All web shortcuts, WhatsApp chat shortcuts and Google Drive file shortcuts gone. Just when I thinking the problem had gone away because I’ve rebooted a few times recently with no problems.
I’ve reported it to official support. Will report back if they come up with anything.
2 Likes
Hi all
just my few cents here:
As far as I´ve understood the issue described here it´s about links disappearing on the default android launcher after a reboot whereas there seems to be less or no such issues with other launchers (for example Nova, etc)
The first thing I´d search for would include such phrases like ‘(default) android launcher links disappearing’
By doing that I can see a lot of hits in forums starting about the end of 2021 in combination with several different mobile manufacturers. All about Android 11 and Android 12.
Therefore I´d rather suggest contacting google about this issue since the default launcher is maintained by them and the issue seems to show up across a variety of mobile models/manufacturers.
For example take this post in a different forum (about a moto 8 and a pixel mobile) and scroll down to the last comment
Alterntively (or to prove this assumption) you could test and install a different launcher and see if the situation is still the same.
But if other launchers don´t show this issue then the responsibility for fixing it is rather up to Google instead of Fairphone.
Best
DonFnord
3 Likes
Even if this might be the case, it should be of no concern to the end user.
Fairphone support their OS. Fairphone can surely determine whether they can do something themselves or whether they need to take things up with Google upstream.
1 Like
Thanks for the comprehensive response Don.
If Google are aware of it then I don’t think I need to report to them, thankfully (because God knows how).
Regarding an alternative launcher, Nova is tempting based on the Google Play rating and reviews, but one of the big advantages of the out-the-box settings is that I can easily talk my old mum through any problem she has because I managed to persuade her to buy a FP3 too (partly for that reason!).
I think I’ll try to hang on for one more shortcut loss at least before I get too frustrated and try a different launcher.
You´re welcome @el_foz
I didn´t know about your use case for your mom and I agree that Nova with all its settings could be a step to much for less tech-affine people.
With this in mind (and even if it´s not a true launcher), probably it´s worth for you taking a look at ‘simple launcher’.
There´s ot a bunch of setting to dig through and it should be easy to use:
Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.applauncher
F-Droid: Simple App Launcher | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
Best
DonFnord
1 Like
I’m not sure that is very representative, Nova launcher doesn’t require any demanding set up, there are options but they don’t have to be used.
Fairphone support replied suggesting updating to the latest OS (which is what caused the issue this third time), and then resetting to factory settings if that didn’t work.
This is why I don’t report things to Fairphone support.
I might try an alternate launcher if it happens more frequently, but I tried Nova briefly and felt a bit overwhelmed so uninstalled it.
That seems odd to me as I didn’t really have to do anything unless I wanted to customise it ??
Having never been able to reproduce the problem, yesterday / this morning I have at last done so. All the shortcuts I created back on 28th June (see above) and since, have gone. These were mostly web-related, either simple URLs or PWAs created from Firefox, but also one Contact.
What might be useful in this, is that I know what I did differently last night. As I’ve already said in this thread, I turn my phone off most nights and have never encountered the problem before, but last night I needed to check something in fastboot mode. So I turned off the phone, then turned it on in fastboot mode, and having done what I wanted to do, used “START” to boot into FPOS. I hadn’t done this since creating the shortcuts back in June.
Unfortunately I’m not able to reproduce this just by returning to fastboot and then STARTing, but this info might point to something related to boot conditions which could explain the apparently random occurrences of the bug.
I have an SD card but frankly I don’t think it’s related. Looking like a FPOS Android 11 thing as things stand. And to be clear: it’s not just web shortcuts, any sort seems potentially affected, all mine disappeared at the same time.
I have informed Fairphone.
4th occurrence this morning. Phone was running slowly and Ecosia kept crashing so I rebooted. All Internet shortcuts gone and all WhatsApp chat shortcuts gone, from the home screen.
Don’t know about Drive shortcuts because I hadn’t bothered recreating them after the 3rd loss. Box shortcuts survived this time.
I’m getting closer to giving Nova another try since Fairphone Support had nothing better to suggest than a factory reset.
It’s a long shot, but there has been a plethora of people complaining that launchers keep asking to be set as default, the problem being attributed to the ‘Well being’ app. Maybe something similar is happening here
Have you tried a) A Safe mode start and b) disabling the Well being app and as many others of the default you can?
https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048843571