SUMMARY After an update KDE stopped showing flatpak applications in the menu, and the only way to launch them is through discover. When launching any of these apps via konsole, it gives the following warning: Note that the directories '/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share' '/home/squidink7/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share' are not in the search path set by the XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable, so applications installed by Flatpak may not appear on your desktop until the session is restarted. I tried restarting my session and rebooting several times but it didn't fix the issue. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Install a flatpak application. 2. look for it in the menu 3. even try searching using krunner 4. open discover and search for it there 5. use flaptak run [application] to see warning OBSERVED RESULT the application looks like it doesn't exist in all the menus but does show up in discover. EXPECTED RESULT the flatpak applications should appear with all the others like normal. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: Manjaro (available in About System) KDE Plasma Version: 5.20.80 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.76.0 Qt Version: 5.15.1 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION I am using the fish shell which may have an effect on the environment variables, however it was working in earlier versions of 5.20
The error message is telling you the exact problem. :) Somehow your XDG_DATA_DIRS variable has gotten messed up. Using the fish shell can indeed sometimes cause these issues. Not a Plasma issue; more likely to be a fish issue or a local configuration issue.
That's what I thought originally, but I switched from Manjaro unstable to testing and noticed that fish didn't get downgraded, only KDE applications and parts of plasma. Rebooting with the old version fixed it which is why I brought the issue here. I'll try chshing to bash when I get to my laptop next and see how that goes.