[Solution] Empty Stickers & Error Emojis in WhatsApp and Instagram

Emojis and stickers bring life to the conversations. In fact, they help convey the right message along with words. It is not always possible to mean something for the other person with words. Sometimes, a word can mean different meanings depending on the mood of the receiver.

Issue: The issue is with disappearing stickers or ghost stickers where they take space and look like empty shells in the WhatsApp messenger or but won’t display.

Similarly, emojis sent on Instagram direct message appearing in invisible ‘X’ boxes are also caused due to the same reason. Let’s find out the solution to this problem.

Occurrence: This issue appeared with third-party sticker apps on WhatsApp and with normal keyboard emojis on Instagram.

Analysis: It is not a major issue. It can be solved within two or three steps by checking the memory management on the phone.

Solution for WhatsApp Stickers not appearing problem

Have you updated your phone to the latest Android version lately? This problem is appearing on Android 9 Pie devices mostly as the memory management is optimized on this version with adaptive battery option in the settings.

You don’t need to turn it off. It is indeed a wonderful option that turns off battery utilization to long unopened apps in the cache.

The problem is with the third-party stickers app that you use. After updating to the latest version of Android, the app might not have updated to the latest version of the platform. This results in the abnormal behaviour of the app – leading to the problem.

Try the following method to restore it back to working condition.

1. Tap and hold the sticker app > Tap on the ‘i’ button (info button) > Storage > Clear Cache. You can also do it by directly going to Settings > Apps > Sticker app.
2. Now go to keyboard app that you are using in the same way or through Settings > Apps > Keyboard app, and clear its cache as well.
3. Clear all your recent apps and try opening the WhatsApp once. Try using the installed stickers now. It should work properly if you had done through all the above steps.

Solution for Instagram emojis not appearing problem

For Instagram, as there is no sticker sharing feature yet in 'direct messaging', the above-discussed issue will not appear. But, sometimes, emojis received won’t show up as they should. This problems also have a similar solution.

Go to Settings > Apps > Keyboard app > Storage > Clear Cache. Clear all the recent apps once and try reopening Instagram. It should now show up all emojis received.

If the problem still persists, try clearing the cache for Instagram either. For this, go to Settings > Apps > Instagram > Storage > Clear Cache.

It must work now. If still doesn’t, check if you are using a good keyboard app. Try changing the keyboard to Gboard or SwiftKey keyboard or any popular app and test it out.

The final try: If all the above solutions did not work, try uninstalling the app and reinstalling it. If you cannot do it, describe the issue clearly in comments below. I will try to help you out with a possible solution.

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