SUMMARY Most desktop environments (e.g. Gnome, Unity, Cinnamon) let you chose whether icons should automatically arrange themselves and remain that way, or if you are allowed to move them around wherever you want and they remain where you place them. Kde desktop seems to only have the first mode of operation, and there's no setting, at least not an easily discoverable one, to allow you to change the behavior STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Click and drag an icon on the desktop 2. move it to some arbitrary place in the middle of the desktop far away from existing icons OBSERVED RESULT the icon goes back to its original position. Actually, that is if I could start dragging it in the first place. Sometimes I can't, and the mouse cursor will just move without dragging the icon at all. But when it does seem to be dragging the icon, it goes back to its place when I release. I went to Desktop Settings -> Icons and I see a setting called "lock in place" (a name that isn't self-explanatory enough to start with). I tried changing that, but whether I have it checked or not, the behavior doesn't change. I can't in any way arrange my icons arbitrarily. EXPECTED RESULT SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Windows: macOS: Linux/KDE Plasma: (available in About System) KDE Plasma Version: KDE Frameworks Version: Qt Version: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
After I logged out and back in, I found my icons moved, presumably to the position where I attempted to move them while it didn't seem to be working. And now it works as expected. Now I also realize, the first time I logged in, I got a notification that said that "desktop effects" had been disabled for some reason and that I could turn them on with a keyboard shortcut. I didn't. I'm not sure if icon dragging not working was related to desktop effects being disabled. Effects should be an aesthetic thing, but basic functionality should still work even with effects disabled.
I can't reproduce on my desktop. Moving folder and file icons work as expected and I don't think this has something to do with desktop effects. Can you check in right click -> Configure desktop -> icons -> sorting is set to manual?
As I said, it started working as expected after I restarted. It looks like this is something sporadic and random, probably difficult to reproduce at will.
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see https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=424418#c2