Green Phone Icon Missing from tray

[Cat_S]

It was there last night, it's not there now. There should be five stationary icons on the home screen "tray" of my brand new Galaxy S III - Phone, Contact, Messaging, Internet and Apps. Right now I can clearly see an empty space where the phone Icon sat. It is not there. So I opened up the Apps Icon to try to drag it back to that tray. No Go. I got an error message that said there is no room on the home screen. So I tried it again and I drug the little phone Icon somewhere - It didn't go into that tray and NOW it's not even in the apps. Nope - it's not there. What on earth did I do, and can I fix it. I tried shutting the phone off and back on, but that didn't help anything.

[mark22]

Can you swipe the tray left or right and see if you accidently moved it there? Can't remember if touchwiz does this but it must be there somewhere.

[Cat_S]

No - the lower tray is stationary. There are icons above it which can be swiped but not these. The little phone icon is nowhere.

[Tufftoad]

The app you want is called 'Phone' and can be found in your app draw (where all your apps are found). Long press the Phone app icon and move it to your home screen, then from the homescreen long press it again and put it back on the bottom.

All the apps on the bottom of the screen (the dock) can be swapped for which ever app you want.

Edit: You've somehow accidentally swapped some shortcuts about, maybe when removing an app from the homescreen.

[Cat_S]

I appreciate your response - but the icon is NOT in the apps draw. I was trying to move it to the home screen - I got an error message that said there's no room. I tried again and now the phone icon is also missing from the apps draw. I've done a soft reset.

[Tufftoad]

Oh apologies Cat_S you did mention that. How's the soft reset working out?

Was going to suggest either:
using the contacts app to make a call, see if that would kick start it
or
clearing any data or settings from the applications menu under settings.

[Cat_S]

Hi - the soft reset had no effect. Believe it or not - I'm online with the Samsung Live Chat to try to resolve this and we're getting nowhere. I'm afraid to just do a factory reset - not know what I will lose.

[Tufftoad]

A Factory Reset will mean you lose:

Apps
Contacts
Accounts
Settings

You should keep photos taken with the camera and any media on your phone. Basically just how your phone was when you got it (except any firmware updates).

You can use Samsung Kies to backup as much of your phone's content as possible, then Factory Reset?

[Cat_S]

UPDATE - after a painfully long and convoluted chat session with a Samsung agent I finally have that icon back where it belongs. Thanks to all who attempted to help here. I still have no idea how it went missing, but I THINK I'd be able to get it back again if it happens again. Sheesh. I can't believe how awful that chat session went. Oh well. Thanks everyong.

[Tufftoad]

Do you mind sharing in case it happens to anyone else?