Application won't appear in the Gnome app grid or the search

I have a bothersome issue that I suspect is remnant of some past configuration but I cannot figure out where to look to solve it. I hope someone might have a suggestion.

Essentially, I have one particular application installed, which does not show up (no icon or text) in the Gnome app grid. It also does not show up if I type its name in the search. It does start normally if I hit ALT-F2 and then enter its name.

I do not have a .desktop file in .local/share/applications/ but the application does have its .desktop file in /usr/share/applications/ (from installing it with pamac). If I manually add a .desktop file to .local/share/applications/ it still does not show up.

I have another computer that is practically identical hardware and software (both Manjaro testing, up-to-date). I’m using the plain/non-Manjaro Gnome desktop on both, no custom themes, and only AppIndicator extension enabled. This other computer has this same application installed, the same way, and does appear in its app grid and search.

I’ve tried uninstalling it and re-installing it. I’ve tried running update-desktop-database, and neither of those things worked. I can install other applications and they show up in both the app grid and the search right away.

If I open the Gnome Extensions and enable the Applications Menu that appears at the top bar of Gnome, this application DOES appear in that menu but still not the app grid.

For the record, the application is Zettlr and it is in the community repository but I really don’t think this is the fault of the application since it behaves as expected on my other computer.

Any suggestions to help me troubleshoot this? Thank you.

What program is it? Can you share the contents of the .desktop file?

Sure, it’s Zettlr.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Zettlr
Comment=A Markdown Editor for the 21st century
Exec=zettlr
Icon=zettlr
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=false
Categories=Office;;
MimeType=text-markdown;;
StartupWMClass=Zettlr

There are some issues with the desktop file, though it appears in the app grid for me.

❯ desktop-file-validate /usr/share/applications/zettlr.desktop
/usr/share/applications/zettlr.desktop: error: value "Office;;" for key "Categories" in group "Desktop Entry" contains an unregistered value ""; values extending the format should start with "X-"
/usr/share/applications/zettlr.desktop: error: (will be fatal in the future): value "text-markdown;;" for key "MimeType" in group "Desktop Entry" contains value "text-markdown" which is an invalid MIME type: "text-markdown" does not contain a subtype
/usr/share/applications/zettlr.desktop: error: (will be fatal in the future): value "text-markdown;;" for key "MimeType" in group "Desktop Entry" contains value "" which is an invalid MIME type: "" does not contain a subtype

I corrected the above issues, try using the following as ~/.local/share/applications/zettlr.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Zettlr
Comment=A Markdown Editor for the 21st century
Exec=zettlr
Icon=zettlr
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=false
Categories=Office;
MimeType=text/markdown;
StartupWMClass=Zettlr

That’s great, thanks for your recommendation. That did make it appear in the app grid.

I wish I knew why the original .desktop file worked on one computer but not another.

I filed an Arch bug report: FS#74119 - [zettlr] Invalid desktop file entries