Plasma desktop icons weird since 2025-12-15 update

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1

Under Plasma Desktop, I use the old “desktop view”, meaning ~/Desktop files show up as icons upon my desktop wallpaper. Not in a widget nor plasmoid.
Since this update, when I create, modify, add files in dolphin, cli, or whatever, they don’t update on desktop. Same file icons still appear. Even restarting plasmashell doesn’t help.
Cannot find such issue on forums nor on the internet as keywords “files” “icons” “plasma desktop” refers to icons alignment/placement or some missing icons in App Menu.

[Thanks for the post move]

1 Like
2

Your posts have been moved to a dedicated topic.

Your own Support topic is less congested than Update Announcement threads and should allow others to more easily help with your issue.

Please help others to help you, by providing your system information as described (below) along with any other detail that might be relevant.

I’m sure someone will help when they are able.

Regards.

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3

German desktop here, so the names may vary.

Can you check whether the correct path is listed under System Settings > System > Session > Locations/Places/or similar > Workspace Folders?

First, back up the contents. Does it help if you enter a different folder there, does it then work? Or does it work if you switch back from the other folder to the original one?

4

Here is the french access to the settings I explained:

If I switch Disposition (from Vue de Dossier/Folder view to Bureau/Desktop), icons update but my plasmoids don’t all stay.

Icons just vanished. No more icons on desktop, even after killall -9 plasmashell && kstart plasmashell

Mod edit:- Images removed. Please avoid posting pictures when a brief description will suffice.

5

Not what you expected, but does your desktop work correctly with a new directory in which you create new items?

The idea is to check whether it works in general, because most of the things that don’t work after the two major updates can be solved by turning them on and off or recreating them.

So if you create a working new folder and, ideally, copy the old items into it and everything works, that would be a big step forward.

EDIT:

rm ~/.cache/icon-cache.kcache; rm -rf ~/.cache/plasmashell*; kquitapp6 plasmashell && kstart plasmashell

Give it a try, it will be regenerated.

Like I said in another post, after big updates I do:

rm -rf ~/.cache/* && kbuildsycoca6 --noincremental
6

Found a workaround:

In the desktop settings, I manually set the folder path to /home/user/Desktop/ as in the screenshot.

If I select from the file dialog picker, it automatically sets desktop:/ but that doesn’t work. Had to overwrite the text entry with /home/user/Desktop/.

Custom settings screenshot

image
image466×582 31.9 KB

7

@matahina – In this instance, please go ahead and mark your own post as the solution to this topic. :clap:

Regards.

8

I don’t really consider it as “solved”. It is a workaround as default settings should work out of the box…

9

Then what is your intention, to just leave it open now that you found a workaround?

You could do that, of course, but after a period of time the topic might be closed due to inactivity. If that happens, and you wish to add more useful information, you can request a Moderation staff member (via PM) to re-open it.

Regards.

10

The correct way to restart plasmashell on a systemd-based distro such as Manjaro is:

systemctl restart --user plasma-plasmashell

An alternative command which will also work on non-systemd distros is:

kquitapp6 plasmashell; kstart plasmashell

However, the systemd method should be the first choice for Manjaro users.

2 Likes
11

Settings switched back to “desktop folder” aka desktop:/ after logging out/in again. Had to revert manually settings as icons weren’t updating again. Workaround is not workaround if you have to do it every single time you log in.

12

I had a similar issue. When a new desktop symbol has been created and the position has been moved by me, this change won’t be stored, after next start of Plasma the old position is restored. In my case I corrected the specific symbol position in the file ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc in paragraph [Containments][29][General]. Maybe this is somehow helpful in your case. :innocent: