Progressive web apps disappearing after last two updates

jdoe

Hi, like the title says, after updating and rebooting all the web apps that I save on my home screen disappear. This is really frustrating. It happened a while back in the first few updates after I installed Graphene but hasn't happened since. Now it's two times in a row... Anybody have a solution for this?
Thanks

DeletedUser495

jdoe this is known to happen in secondary profiles. Are you using built-in launcher? Not that I can help you really. Would help bookmarking them so you can easily reinstate them later.

DohnJoe

jdoe Anybody have a solution for this?

I also don't have a second user on the smartphone and I am using the official launcher.
The only difference I might have is that I grouped PWAs on a folder.

I don't know if this actually make any difference, but because we do not have a list of steps to reproduce this bug, you might want to try this if you didn't already.

DeletedUser495 I don't know why people get so worked up about placing their shorcuts on homescreen.

Personally, I do not have any app on my "desktop", but PWA cannot be listed on your launcher (at least not the official one), so the homescreen is the only place where to put them.
I never owned an iPhone, but I see that a lot of Android brands also have launcher and drawer unified.

jdoe

DeletedUser495 This happens in the main profile, I don't have secondary profiles, only a private space. I create the apps in vanadium > add to home screen option.

DeletedUser495

jdoe I don't know why people get so worked up about placing their shorcuts on homescreen. Is this some kind of iPhone derelict? I access my frequest list of links from the pop up list that gets populated upon tapping on address bar, of course I don't use lots. If you're not comfortable with bookmark widget that can contain all your links, I have been toying with bookmark list in markdown in my note app (Quillpad). Saves space on homescreen for more important widgets.

jdoe

DeletedUser495 I just like to open stuff with one click/touch, it's faster. Also I think it's more secure to run stuff in Vanadium than to install apk's.

Russpelz

Hi,

I have the same issue on a Pixel 8a running GrapheneOS build 2026071500.

For me, this only happens after GrapheneOS OTA system updates and the required reboot. It has never happened after updating Brave or Vanadium themselves.

The browser remains installed and all browser data (bookmarks, settings, etc.) is still there, but all installed PWAs/Web Apps are completely gone. They are no longer listed under Apps and have to be installed again.

This has already happened twice in a row:

First with PWAs installed using Vanadium.
After reinstalling them with Brave, they disappeared again after the next GrapheneOS system update.

I'm using the owner profile only (no secondary user profiles).

Has anyone found the cause or a workaround?

Russpelz

Thanks for the additional information.

I also use the official launcher and I don't have any secondary users.

I did not group my PWAs into a folder; they were placed directly on the home screen.

In my case the issue is reproducible after a normal reboot: after restarting the phone, all installed PWAs disappear completely.

Device: Pixel 8a, GrapheneOS build 2026071500.

Hatchet0713

Made an account just to throw in my own experience here. Been experiencing the same behavior since about April or May 2026.

Device is Pixel 10 Pro, just updated from GrapheneOS build 2026070501 to build 2026071101 and experienced the behavior yet again.

Using Niagara Launcher, issue occurs with both Vanadium and Brave PWAs.

On startup, shortcut and icon are briefly visible, then disappear. Tapping the shortcut at this time pulls up a Niagara error: Error - Shortcut isn't available.

Differing from Russpelz most recent message, my PWAs did not disappear after a non-system-updating restart.

Using Private Space and work profile via Shelter, but Brave and the PWAs are all in the Owner profile.

Russpelz

Thanks for the report. My case is slightly different: on my Pixel 8a (build 2026071500), the issue is now reproducible even after a normal reboot, without installing a system update first. The browser and all its data remain intact, only the installed PWAs disappear.

DeletedUser1018

For some reason i am not affected by this issue, after a reboot and even after a software update.
Vanadium pwa tested in pixel 8.

Russpelz

Thanks for confirming. That's useful information.

So far, the issue seems inconsistent. On my device, the installed Vanadium PWAs disappeared after a reboot and also after a system update, while on your Pixel 8 they remain unaffected even after both.

This suggests the issue may depend on a specific combination of device model, GrapheneOS build, Vanadium version, or another factor that we haven't identified yet.

r134a

I believe it has something to do with the amount of pwa's. I had this happen a year or so in the past aswell, but had many pwa's. Now i have 2 and in that year it didn't occur again.