Launcher App suddenly inaccessible

[Wombat Pete]

Android 12, Ulefone Power Armor 18T
I was creating, essentially, a new GUI in Total Launcher. It's been working really well for months now.
A few days ago, I must have accidentally changed a setting - and Total Launcher is no totally unavailable.
It's there under Settings/Apps, but the "open" button is missing.
The icon for TL is there in the app tray, but when I hit it - this may be the weirdest thing - it takes me to the settings page for the TL app (with the missing "open" button).
Total Launcher is NOT in the list of available home (launcher) apps any longer.
If I open the app page for TL, it appears to running. I can force stop it - that changes nothing, and doesn't solve the problem - which entrenches my suspicion that the problem is a system setting.
All that's left to do is uninstall and reinstall the app, but that would mean a tremendous amount of work, and I have the sense that there's a button accidently pushed somewhere that merely needs to be released to fix the problem!
Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions/solutions/help!

 

[Dannydet]

Try rebooting the device

 

[nickdalzell]

Try clearing the app defaults. Settings, applications, default apps, reset default apps. then tap the home button, or swipe up for home, and it should ask which default launcher to use. Tap 'Total Launcher' and then 'always'.

Otherwise, it might be incompatible with Android 12. I was saddened when discovering that AOSP Music that I've used since Android 2.3 also 'disabled itself' and did the same behavior you're experiencing whenever my phone got Android 12. (I no longer have that phone, and yet another reason I don't believe in updates)

 

[Wombat Pete]

Try rebooting the device

That I did many, many times in trying to resolve the issue

 

[Wombat Pete]

Try clearing the app defaults. Settings, applications, default apps, reset default apps. then tap the home button, or swipe up for home, and it should ask which default launcher to use. Tap 'Total Launcher' and then 'always'.

Otherwise, it might be incompatible with Android 12. I was saddened when discovering that AOSP Music that I've used since Android 2.3 also 'disabled itself' and did the same behavior you're experiencing whenever my phone got Android 12. (I no longer have that phone, and yet another reason I don't believe in updates)believeandbelievesamesame

Thanks, I'll try that! BUT... all I see is a list from which I can choose a launcher, and "none of the above" doesn't seem to be one of the choices. how do I CLEAR the defaults?
There's no "reset default apps" that I see...

(I doubt it's a compatibility problem, as TL has been working beatifully on this system for months.)

 

[Wombat Pete]

Try clearing the app defaults. Settings, applications, default apps, reset default apps. then tap the home button, or swipe up for home, and it should ask which default launcher to use. Tap 'Total Launcher' and then 'always'.

Otherwise, it might be incompatible with Android 12. I was saddened when discovering that AOSP Music that I've used since Android 2.3 also 'disabled itself' and did the same behavior you're experiencing whenever my phone got Android 12. (I no longer have that phone, and yet another reason I don't believe in updates)

This looks, I think, like it wasn't a terribly recent update. The problem sprung up the day before yesterday. (If I'm reading it correctly.)
UPD: People on the TL forum are reporting no problems using TL with Android 12.

 

[nickdalzell]

On the Samsung OneUI 4 (Android 12) update, the reset default apps option is one of the options you see if you tap the three dot menu in upper right corner after you go to application manager, but I am unsure how on yours it works. The option varies across devices.

Have you tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it from the Play Store? Then it should give you an 'Open' button within Play Store once it finishes?

 

[Wombat Pete]

UPDfd

On the Samsung OneUI 4 (Android 12) update, the reset default apps option is one of the options you see if you tap the three dot menu in upper right corner after you go to application manager, but I am unsure how on yours it works. The option varies across devices.

Have you tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it from the Play Store? Then it should give you an 'Open' button within Play Store once it finishes?

That's what I was trying to avoid doing, as I might lose any number of settings. It's a launcher in which I was building a very complex GUI, in effect.
But... (see below)

 

[Wombat Pete]

Thanks to all who helped here.
Ultimately we did not determine why Android stopped recognizing the app or how to correct it.
I did, finally, uninstall and reinstall, and I was able to reimport my most recent saved back-up, and it appears that the vast bulk of my work has not been lost.