Clear App Data
If an app on your OnePlus keeps crashing, freezing, or showing broken content even after you cleared its cache, the stored app data itself is likely corrupted. Clearing app data removes saved settings, sign-in sessions, and local files, resetting the app to its original state. Any information not backed up separately is lost once you confirm the reset.
Enable or Disable Background Data for Apps
If an app keeps draining your mobile data even when you are not actively using it, background data usage is likely still switched on for that app. On OnePlus phones this permission runs separately for every installed app, so a messenger might need it while a rarely used game does not. Turning it off selectively can noticeably cut your monthly data consumption.
Enable or Disable the App Drawer
If every installed app sits directly on your OnePlus home screen, finding anything quickly gets messy fast. Swiping up on a free area does nothing when the app drawer is turned off, leaving all icons scattered across multiple screens instead of tucked away in one list. This setting controls whether OnePlus keeps app icons on the home screens or moves them into a separate drawer you reach with a swipe.
Manage Game Space Settings
Install a game from the Play Store on a OnePlus phone and the icon never lands on your home screen - it only shows up inside the Game Space library. That trips up a lot of players who assume the install failed. Game Space also decides whether calls, notifications and screen taps get blocked while you play, so the wrong toggle can cost you a message or an incoming call mid-match.
Change App Icon Shape and Style
If every app icon on your OnePlus home screen still looks like a plain square or circle, the icon shape setting is likely still on the default option. Switching between the pre-installed icon packs or a downloaded one changes the outline of every app symbol at once, but the option is easy to miss inside the home screen settings. Some downloaded packs also only apply partially if a step gets skipped.
Add an App Shortcut to the Home Screen
When the app drawer is turned on, your home screen stays mostly empty and every app only shows up in the full overview list. That means an extra swipe and tap each time you want to open something you use daily. Adding a direct shortcut fixes that without switching off the drawer.
Install an App from the Google Play Store
Not sure whether the app you found online is safe to install on your OnePlus, or why the Install button in a store listing sometimes stays greyed out? The Google Play Store is the built-in source for messengers, games and system tools, but search results, region locks or missing sign-in can get in the way of a straightforward install.
Set App Time Limits
If a game or social app keeps eating more of your day than you planned, screen time alone will not fix that. OnePlus phones running OxygenOS include an app timer inside Digital Wellbeing that locks an app once its daily allowance runs out. Without setting a limit, the app stays fully accessible no matter how long you use it.
Fullscreen app display settings
When an app opens with black bars on top and bottom instead of filling the whole screen, OxygenOS has not whitelisted it for fullscreen display. This usually happens with less common or older apps that were never updated for taller aspect ratios. A quick toggle in the display settings fixes the layout without needing an app update.
Add App to Data Saver Exception List
When Data Saver is active on your OnePlus phone, background data gets blocked for most apps. WhatsApp and other messengers can then miss incoming messages until you open them manually. Adding an app to the unrestricted data list keeps it connected even while data saving stays on.
Change Default Apps
If tapping a link or asking for voice assistance keeps opening the wrong app on your OnePlus phone, a default app assignment is pinned to a tool you no longer want. This happens after installing a new browser, messaging app or voice assistant that never took over the role automatically. The system keeps using the old default until you switch it manually.
Hide Apps on Home Screen and in App Drawer
If an app keeps showing up on your home screen or inside the app drawer even though you never use it, the shortcut is simply set to visible in the launcher settings. This is common for pre-installed apps or tools you only open occasionally and do not want cluttering your layout. The fix works whether or not the App Drawer is switched on, since OxygenOS handles hidden shortcuts separately from the visible grid.
Read in Background for Select to Speak
When Select to Speak is reading text aloud on your OnePlus phone, switching to another app usually stops the narration mid-sentence. The Read in background option keeps the voice going while you jump between apps, but it stays an experimental feature that can behave inconsistently. If speech cuts out unexpectedly or keeps running when you do not want it to, this setting is the reason.
Add apps to a home screen folder
A cluttered home screen with dozens of loose app icons makes it hard to find anything fast. On OnePlus phones, apps do not merge into folders automatically, so you have to drag them in manually or they just sit scattered across your screens.
Control App Data Usage
If YouTube or Netflix keeps burning through your mobile data plan even when you did not mean to stream over cellular, a background permission is usually the cause. OxygenOS lets you set a data policy for every single app, but most people never open that screen. Without a manual override, apps default to using whatever connection is available, including your mobile data.
Add a New Tab in Chrome
Switching between product pages on different shopping sites usually means losing the page you were just looking at. On OnePlus phones running the Chrome app, you don't have to close anything to compare prices or articles side by side. A quick tap opens a fresh tab while every other page stays loaded in the background.
Find a Keyword on a Website in the Browser
Scanning a long article on your OnePlus phone for one specific word can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. The browser's built-in find function highlights every match in yellow, so you do not have to scroll through walls of text. Knowing where this tool hides in the menu saves real time.
Force Stop an App
When an app on your OnePlus phone freezes, drains the battery in the background, or simply refuses to close, the usual back button and recent-apps swipe often do nothing. This happens when a process gets stuck in memory and stops responding to normal system commands. Force stopping kills the app directly through the system, though any unsaved data inside that app will be lost.
Reset App Preferences
If several apps on your OnePlus suddenly stay silent, open the wrong default app, or get stuck with a permission you blocked weeks ago, tracking down the exact toggle takes forever. Usually a mix of disabled apps, blocked notifications, stuck default app choices, and background data limits piles up over time. A single system reset clears that whole layer without deleting any app data.
Remove an App from a Folder on the Home Screen
If an app landed in the wrong folder by accident, or you are opening one app so often that digging through a folder feels like a detour, you can pull it back out onto the OnePlus home screen. The app stays installed and keeps its data - only its position on the home screen changes. This works the same way whether the folder has two apps or a dozen.
Disable Automatic App Shortcuts on Home Screen
Every time you install an app on your OnePlus phone, a shortcut lands on the home screen whether you want it there or not. If you prefer to arrange icons yourself, this default behavior gets messy fast, especially after installing several apps back to back. The setting behind this sits in the home screen preferences, not inside individual app settings.
Install a Manufacturer Print Service
If your printer does not show up or only prints in a stripped-down mode, the built-in print service on your OnePlus phone likely does not support the full feature set of your model. Many manufacturers publish their own print service in the Play Store with drivers for options like duplex printing, tray selection or higher print quality. Without that specific app, OxygenOS falls back to a generic driver that covers only basic printing.
Change Web Text Size in the Browser App
Web pages in the browser app on your OnePlus phone always start out at 100 percent text size, which can feel too small on long articles or awkward after you have pinch-zoomed once. A dedicated slider lets you push scaling up to 200 percent, but some pages with fixed layouts ignore it completely. If text stays the same size no matter how far you move the slider, one specific toggle is almost always the reason.
Share a Website via an App
Sending a friend a link from Chrome on your OnePlus phone usually means copying the address bar URL and pasting it manually into a messaging app. That extra step slows things down and risks a broken or incomplete link. Chrome's built-in share function skips the copy-paste step entirely.