Trying again... Apps are NOT closed--but they're not shown in recents

[MoodyBlues]

I tried this awhile back, and got nowhere. So I thought I'd give it another whirl!

Here's the scenario:

- when viewing recents, only a few apps are shown, like this:

- in order to access a non-shown app, I press its app drawer icon; the app opens--in the EXACT state I left it, like this:

- each app is exactly as I left it, so, for example, Chrome has all its tabs open to where I was when it hid, like this:

The 'missing' apps are not closed, but they're also not accessible/not shown in recents; I must use their icon to bring them back. Why?!

There are absolutely no memory-related settings at play here.

There are no specific apps that do this--they're all fair game.

There is no set number of apps that remain visible/accessible in recents; it can be 3, 4, 5, 6...

The only thing I can say for sure is that the last-used app doesn't hide. Knowing that, I deliberately bring ADT Pulse up just before calling it a night. That way, if I need it in a hurry, I know it'll be right there.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? PLEASE!

Moto Z² Force, Oreo 8.0.0, not rooted.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Come on, guys...really?! No ideas at all?

 

[MrJavi]

I wish I had a brilliant, informative suggestion to offer you @MoodyBlues but the issues are so uncommon. Not a single search I've done has provided anything directly related to what your experiencing. The only thing I can think of would be what you already know and that is safe mode, recovery clear cathe, factory reset and at last resort, flash the original factory firmware.

 

[MoodyBlues]

It's okay, @MrJavi, it's apparently a pretty unusual problem.

I appreciate your thoughts but, unfortunately, even a factory reset wouldn't help--it's been like this from the get-go, straight out of the box. Can't get much fresher/cleaner than that, you know?

 

[mikedt]

Could be a firmware issue Moto has with this phone? Just a guess of course.

I've never seen this problem before @MoodyBlues

 

[lunatic59]

If I had to guess, it would be a memory issue. When you switch between apps in Android, it does't necessarily close them, but tries to cache them for immediate access. However, when you reach the memory limit, it will dump the least recent app for the newest and continue to bump them from active memory. This doesn't close them, but pages the cached image to slower storage. I wasn't aware of paged apps being removed from the recents list, though. It might be a Moto thing.

 

[puppykickr]

My thoughts were exactly what @lunatic59 said about the cache.

Maybe look in your developers settings, and see if you can alternate between views of running and cached apps?

 

[MoodyBlues]

Thanks, everyone, but I've already done everything suggested. This is my umpteenth Moto phone--but the only one that's ever done this.

My 5-year-old Moto X 2nd Gen, sitting idle for weeks at a time, still has the 12 or 15 apps in recents when I go back to it. My ONE-year-old Z² Force, with quadruple the X's specs, loses/hides most of its recents throughout the day and overnight... *sigh*

What's so annoying is that they're not closed...but they're not accessible in recents like they should be. Call me lazy, but having to open my app drawer, navigate to its category, and press an app's icon--an app that immediately appears, exactly where I left off, like in the middle of typing a sentence--in order to use it, when it should've been right there in recents, is too much work!