[Updated: Sep 02] Facing disappearing Google Chrome shortcuts issue on your Android device? Try this workaround

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…

Original story (published on May 05, 2021) follows:

Google’s Chrome browser is absolutely dominating the web today with a monopolistic ‎64.19% market share, at least going by the latest 2021 statistics.

This, therefore, means that there are millions of users across the globe that use Google Chrome to browse the web, not only on their PCs but also on their smartphones.

While the browser, along with any other modern browser for that matter, offers users a way to bookmark and save web pages, one easy way is to add shortcuts to the home screen.

This allows users a quick and easy way to get back to those important web pages or web services. However, there seems to be a problem with this feature.

A quick scroll through the web reveals reports from Google Chrome users on various Android devices noting that their shortcuts are disappearing following recent updates.

All Chrome shortcuts (icons) disappeared from 5 pages without any warning. I saw that all my 5 pages were almost empty when I opened my phone yesterday morning. I have not done any software updates by myself. The device is OnePlus Nord. Oxygen OS 11.1.1.1 AC01BA.
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I’ve been adding shortcuts to my home screen for different cars/parts and they all just disappeared after I restarted my phone. There were probably over 60 different websites I had saved (which was hours if search) how do I get it back.

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Have created multiple shortcuts for recently used icons and websites however after restarting the phone all the icons got deleted on their own, which happened for the second time during this week.
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This issue is not exclusive to OnePlus users as the same has been reported by users of Google Pixel devices (1,2,3) and even a number of Samsung users.

For such a widespread issue, it is interesting that this hasn’t since been addressed or even acknowledged by any implicated or involved parties.

Luckily, there might be a workaround to this issue after all. A chat with Google Support rep reveals a possible workaround to this issue.

Go to Settings, then Apps and Notifications, then select See All Apps. Select the three dots at the top right, select Reset App Preferences, then reset apps.
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We still don’t have much for these affected users so this is the best they can have until Google or one of these affected OEMs can come up with a better solution.

We shall continue to keep an eye on this Google Chrome disappearing shortcuts issue and update as and when we get more info so stay tuned to PiunikaWeb.

IST 07:25 pm: According to multiple reports from the Google Support community, it seems that the Google Chrome disappearing shortcuts problem is still at large. Also, there is still no acknowledgement from the tech giant.

IST 03:53 pm: Well months later, Google has officially acknowledged this bug, noting that the team is working on it. Further, users are advised to save the links as bookmarks.

Hi Jennifer,
This is a known issue and the team is working on this. In the meantime, it would be best for you to save the links as bookmarks instead of adding them to the home screen.
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