Bug 506792

Summary: "Recent Files" in Application Launcher and KRunner contain entries, that no longer exist, and is slow to pick up new entries.
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: Klaus <bauer.klaus.dieter>
Component: Application Launcher (Kickoff) widgetAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: normal CC: djmenig, d_debnath, findanotherplace, mikel5764, noahadvs
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 5.27.11   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: PDF-export of the discussion in discuss.kde.org/t/36721

Description Klaus 2025-07-09 10:14:23 UTC
Created attachment 183083 [details]
PDF-export of the discussion in discuss.kde.org/t/36721

SUMMARY

"Recent Files" in Application Launcher and KRunner contain entries, that no
longer exist, and is slow to pick up new entries.

Left-clicking on them / pressing Enter silently fails with no error message.

Subsequently, Libreoffice writer serves purely as ane example software, but the
issue is independent of it.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE

1. Create a document for testing.
   1.a. Open Libreoffice Writer
   1.b. Write "Hello World"
   1.c. Save as ~/Documents/very-specific-filename.odt
   1.d. Close Writer.

2. Look for the file with KRunner.
   2.a. Open KRunner (default Alt+F2)
   2.b. Type "very-specifc-filename"

   The file will not show up yet.

3. Open the document by double-clicking in Dolphin or with kde-open.

4. Look for the file with KRunner was in (2).
   Now the file should show up.

5. Rename the file to "very-specific-filename-changed.odt".
   This can be done either in Dolphin or from the shell with "mv".

6. Look for the file with KRunner was in (2).

   ISSUE #2: The file "very-specific-filename.odt" is shown, the new name
             "very-specific-filename-changed.odt" is not, until opening the file
             again as in (3).

             Clicking the non-existant search result fails silently.

             The same behavior is observed in Application Launcher.


OBSERVED RESULT

1. SPURIOUS ENTRIES

   "very-specific-filename.odt" still shows up as a "Recent Files" result in
   KRunner. In Application Launcher it shows up but is not distinguished from
   results of Desktop Search. Trying to open the entry (left-click or enter)
   fails silently.

2. MISSING ENTRIES

   New files are added only when opening them through KDE, opening them through
   e.g. LibreOffice directly does not add them. When renaming files, the new
   file name does not show up, while the old file name remains in the "Recent
   Files" results.


EXPECTED RESULT

1. SPURIOUS ENTRIES

   "Recent Files" results should not display files, that don't exist anymore
   under that name. If opening a file shown in the search results fails, an
   error message should be shown instead of failing silently.

2. MISSING ENTRIES

   Ideally, "Recent Files" should pick up on newly created documents, even if
   they are not opened through KDE tools, but e.g. directly opened by an Office
   suite, a text editor, an image editor, etc.

   Note here, that these files also don't show up in the indexed "Desktop
   Search" results until long after they have been created.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS

Operating System: openSUSE Leap 15.6
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.11
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.12
Kernel Version: 6.4.0-150600.23.25-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Bugreport based on discussion in https://discuss.kde.org/t/36721
Comment 1 djmenig 2025-07-31 17:27:50 UTC
(In reply to Klaus from comment #0)
> "Recent Files" in Application Launcher and KRunner contain entries, that no
> longer exist, and is slow to pick up new entries.

I can confirm. KRunner displays deleted files even after clearing history.

> Left-clicking on them / pressing Enter silently fails with no error message.
In recent versions, this does not seem to be the case. I receive an error stating the file/entry does not exist.

____________________________

Tested System:
Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20250730
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.17.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.8-1-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Comment 2 kmdest 2025-10-13 22:32:54 UTC
Double confirm, KDE 6.4.5, Dolphin 25.08.2 basically never picks up entries outside the major folders, especially zero-byte files. Very hard to figure out when it chooses to.