Bug 508394

Summary:	Use the "you missed some notifications" system for the case of waking up the system or unlocking the session too
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	fallbork
Component:	Notifications	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	kde, kdedev, kristen, nate
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version First Reported In:	6.4.4
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Fedora RPMs
OS:	Linux
See Also:	https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=441906
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description fallbork 2025-08-17 17:28:43 UTC

TL;DR: Plasma staggers and locks up after unlocking computer with multiple pending notifications, and only unfreezes after processing them all.

Hello!
This is my first post on here, so please excuse any mistakes I might make (or if I flagged the wrong product). I've noticed a repeated pattern that happens when I leave my computer locked for medium-to-large periods of time, often to help family and whatnot; we're talking 15 to 20 minutes of inactivity.

As context: the internet connection where I use my laptop is pretty bad, so it's common for the connection to falter or completely die down, reconnecting moments later. This behaviour, as expected, creates a "Network management: XYZ: Connection 'XYZ' activated/deactivated." notification. When my user is locked, these notifications start to pile up quickly, and when I unlock my computer, these notifications quickly begin to be processed by plasma, which hangs and staggers until they're ready to be displayed.

The actual displaying of notifications is completely fine. I see a wall of notifications of connections and disconnections, but that's to be expected. The slowing down only happens as it's trying to process things.

I've tried reinstalling the entire system to check if it was a localized problem, but even with a fresh installation, the problem persists.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Lock user while repeatedly receiving notifications (for some amount of time, allowing them to pile up);
2. Unlock user.

OBSERVED RESULT
Computer staggers or freezes up for some amount of time as it's processes the notifications.

EXPECTED RESULT
Process and bundle the notifications even when the user is locked, and possibly display a "X notifications have been received while away. Click the notification tray icon to check them out." notification. Or allow for that behaviour to be optionally activated if the default behaviour of displaying them all is to be maintained.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.17.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i5-10300H CPU @ 2.50GHz
Memory: 8 GiB of RAM (7.5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: Intel® UHD Graphics
Graphics Processor 2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

Comment 1 TraceyC 2025-08-18 22:22:41 UTC

Thanks for the bug report. Your first report is just fine!
I attempted to replicate this on our git-master branch by doing the following:

1. Enabled notifications for Device plugged in and Device unplugged
2. Locked the user session
3. Unplugged and plugged in an HDMI monitor repeatedly.

While the notifications weren't collected for me while the session was locked ( I see " No unread notification"), I did see a noticeable delay between when the session started loading and finished (with the wallpaper, panels etc)
When unlocking the session without having done that, all elements load immediately
This delay is something the Plasma developers can look into.

In the meantime, there are a couple of things you might do to mitigate this 

- Through the notification settings (there's a gear icon in the notification popup), go to System Notifications and disable the entries for when devices connect and disconnect
- Use the Do not Disturb toggle on the notification panel before you lock the computer. You can set a shortcut for this in settings to make it more convenient.

Comment 2 Nate Graham 2025-08-19 19:49:06 UTC

> possibly display a "X notifications have been received while away. Click the notification tray icon to check them out." notification

I think this is the best approach. We already have this system implemented for notifications that come in while Do Not Disturb mode is engaged, and we could extend it to the case of notifications that are received within N seconds of waking up the system or unlocking the session. This would be a big help, and provide a more generic solution to the long-standing Bug 441906.

Comment 3 fallbork 2025-08-19 22:47:53 UTC

@TraceyC (comment #1):
I'm glad to hear it was a good report! And also relieved to find out it wasn't just my system - I was afraid it might have been a fluke of my own hardware in response to Plasma. That takes a huge weight off my chest.

@Nate (comment #2):
That's actually where the inspiration for the suggestion came from! I didn't know wether the system could be reused (I don't really know much about the inner workings of Plasma), but it makes me happy that it can help solve other issues along with this one.

It's been nothing less than a pleasure to work with Plasma as my DE, and I really hope these minor bug reports aren't much of a burden on you all..


As always, I'll be avalilable in case any other questions regarding this topic arise. :D

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2025-08-20 16:49:25 UTC

You did great! The bug reports are no burden at all; in fact they're critically important for the project. So you're welcome to keep submitting them, especially if they're good high quality ones. So following the template it much appreciated.