Bug 465747 - desktop icons moved to secondary monitor upon login
Summary: desktop icons moved to secondary monitor upon login
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Desktop icons & Folder View widget (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 5.27.0
Platform: Neon Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords: multiscreen
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-02-15 08:09 UTC by S. Christian Collins
Modified: 2025-11-28 05:39 UTC (History)
14 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
video showing the bug (3.56 MB, video/mp4)
2023-02-15 08:09 UTC, S. Christian Collins
Details
plasma configuration file (18.61 KB, text/plain)
2023-02-15 08:10 UTC, S. Christian Collins
Details
x.org configuration file (1.81 KB, text/plain)
2023-02-15 08:11 UTC, S. Christian Collins
Details
VirtualBox plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc 1-before icon move (7.03 KB, text/plain)
2023-03-02 16:29 UTC, S. Christian Collins
Details
VirtualBox plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc 2-after icon move (7.02 KB, text/plain)
2023-03-02 16:30 UTC, S. Christian Collins
Details
VirtualBox plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc 3-after re-login (7.03 KB, text/plain)
2023-03-02 16:30 UTC, S. Christian Collins
Details
video of the bug in VirtualBox (632.38 KB, video/mp4)
2023-03-02 16:31 UTC, S. Christian Collins
Details
plasma configuration file-working now (18.90 KB, text/plain)
2023-03-06 15:50 UTC, S. Christian Collins
Details

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Description S. Christian Collins 2023-02-15 08:09:01 UTC
Created attachment 156256 [details]
video showing the bug

I have three desktop icons that have been on my primary monitor for many months. After upgrading to Plasma 5.27, these icons moved to my secondary monitor. If I try to put them back to my primary monitor, they will be forced back to the secondary monitor at the next login, or when restarting plasmashell.

I have attached a video showing this bug in action on my system. In the video, my primary monitor is on the left. To trigger the bug, I restart plasmashell via the command "kquitapp5 plasmashell && kstart plasmashell". I also disable my secondary monitor at one point via "xrandr --output HDMI-0 --off". This causes plasmashell to crash to a black screen, but I figure that should be a separate bug report.

Neither of these bugs occurred prior to upgrading to Plasma 5.27.0.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Have two or more monitors connected to the PC.
2. Place some icons on the desktop of the primary monitor.
3. Log off/on or restart plasmashell.

OBSERVED RESULT
The icons have been moved to the secondary monitor.

EXPECTED RESULT
The icons should stay where I put them.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux: KDE neon 5.27
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.102.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Screen #1 (DVI-I-1, screen 0, primary): ASUS VG248QE 24" LCD Monitor
  * Resolution: 1920 x 1280 @ 120 Hz
Screen #2 (HDMI-0, screen 1): Dell P170Sb 17" LCD Monitor
  * Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz
  * Position relative to screen 0: +1920+120
Comment 1 S. Christian Collins 2023-02-15 08:10:12 UTC
Created attachment 156257 [details]
plasma configuration file
Comment 2 S. Christian Collins 2023-02-15 08:11:32 UTC
Created attachment 156258 [details]
x.org configuration file
Comment 3 S. Christian Collins 2023-02-15 08:17:16 UTC
I should also add that two of the icons on my desktop are folders located in ~/Desktop ("Handy-Dandy" and "Quick Access"), and the third is the Trash icon, which appears in Dolphin as "trash:⁄.desktop".
Comment 4 Marco Martin 2023-02-15 09:14:49 UTC
did they move only the first time after upgrade, or they move back at every reboot?
Comment 5 Marco Martin 2023-02-15 09:51:15 UTC
We recently made a fix for a similar issue, which will be in 5.27.1

Can you test again and reopen if this keeps happening in 5.27.1 ?
Comment 6 S. Christian Collins 2023-02-23 15:56:07 UTC
After upgrade to 5.27.1, this is still happening on my desktop system as reported above. Furthermore, I have noticed this also happens on my laptop when I connect an external screen. Here is the behavior I experience on that system:
1. If I plug in an external monitor (HDMI), the icons on my desktop move over to the secondary monitor.
2. If I move the icons back to my primary screen, unplug the secondary monitor, then plug it back in again, the icons stay on the primary screen.
3. If I reboot my computer and then repeat step 1, the icons move to the secondary monitor again.

Here is the screen configuration for my laptop (OS and software versions are identical to the desktop):
Screen #1 (LVDS, screen 0, primary):
  * Resolution: 1366 x 768 @ 60 Hz
Screen #2 (HDMI-0, screen 1): Dell P170Sb 17" LCD Monitor
  * Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz
  * Position relative to screen 0: -1280+368
Comment 7 S. Christian Collins 2023-02-23 15:57:05 UTC
(In reply to Marco Martin from comment #4)
> did they move only the first time after upgrade, or they move back at every
> reboot?

They move back after every reboot.
Comment 8 S. Christian Collins 2023-03-02 14:34:03 UTC
This is still happening in 5.27.2. I thought I would outsmart the bug by changing my secondary monitor's mode from "Folder View" to "Desktop", but then my icons outright disappeared on login! So, I had to change it back.
Comment 9 S. Christian Collins 2023-03-02 16:27:51 UTC
I have an update on this bug, along with hopefully some more insights on what might be going wrong. I was able to reproduce the bug in VirtualBox (same OS, fully updated), though the behavior of the monitors is swapped from my original report. If I place the icons on my secondary monitor in VirtualBox, then they always get moved to the primary monitor on login.

For this test, I did the following steps:
1. Created "folder01" and "folder02" desktop folders on the primary screen (1366x768) in top-left position.
2. Dragged the icons to the secondary screen (1080x768), also in top-left position.
3. Logged off and back on.

RESULT: The icons had moved back to the primary screen.

I copied the ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc file before the icons move, after the icons move, and after re-login. These are attached below. A notable change happens in this file under [ScreenMapping]:

Before icon move: screenMapping=desktop:/folder02,0,ad5434dc-6a89-4476-99d9-c23bbe4122fd,desktop:/folder01,0,ad5434dc-6a89-4476-99d9-c23bbe4122fd
After icon move: screenMapping=desktop:/folder02,1,ad5434dc-6a89-4476-99d9-c23bbe4122fd,desktop:/folder01,1,ad5434dc-6a89-4476-99d9-c23bbe4122fd
After re-login: screenMapping=desktop:/folder01,0,ad5434dc-6a89-4476-99d9-c23bbe4122fd,desktop:/folder02,0,ad5434dc-6a89-4476-99d9-c23bbe4122fd

I assume the number following the desktop folder name (0 or 1) indicates the screen the icons are on. You can see this getting set correctly after the icons are moved, but then being reset to 0 again upon login.

Now, on my desktop system used in the original bug report, it would appear that my secondary monitor is identified as screen 0? If so, that would explain why on that system the icons get moved to the secondary monitor instead.

So, something is resetting the icons' screen mapping to screen 0 on login.
Comment 10 S. Christian Collins 2023-03-02 16:29:46 UTC
Created attachment 156926 [details]
VirtualBox plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc 1-before icon move
Comment 11 S. Christian Collins 2023-03-02 16:30:17 UTC
Created attachment 156927 [details]
VirtualBox plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc 2-after icon move
Comment 12 S. Christian Collins 2023-03-02 16:30:32 UTC
Created attachment 156928 [details]
VirtualBox plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc 3-after re-login
Comment 13 S. Christian Collins 2023-03-02 16:31:05 UTC
Created attachment 156929 [details]
video of the bug in VirtualBox
Comment 14 S. Christian Collins 2023-03-06 15:50:10 UTC
Created attachment 157048 [details]
plasma configuration file-working now

Over the past few days, the issue of the icons moving to my secondary monitor on has fixed itself on my desktop PC. I couldn't tell you why. Anyway, attached is my plasma configuration file for that system in case it provides any clues. Using Kompare between the first attachment ("plasma configuration file") and this one shows differences, but TBH I don't understand what is going on. I'll test on my other affected systems to see if it still happens there.
Comment 15 S. Christian Collins 2023-03-06 16:02:50 UTC
I just tested and the bug still happens on my laptop and in Virtualbox as described in comments #6 and #9.
Comment 16 Nate Graham 2023-04-10 04:35:25 UTC
Ok, how about with Plasma 5.27.4? There was one further fix related to multiscreen icon positioning.
Comment 17 S. Christian Collins 2023-04-11 03:04:59 UTC
With Plasma 5.27.4, the bug no longer happens on my laptop, but still happens in VirtualBox as reported in comment #9.
Comment 18 Nate Graham 2023-04-11 17:15:04 UTC
Thanks, this level of detail is quite helpful.
Comment 19 Marco Martin 2023-04-21 09:23:36 UTC
Can't reproduce, even on virtualbox
Comment 20 S. Christian Collins 2024-04-17 14:22:52 UTC
I can no longer reproduce this in Plasma 6. Closing.
Comment 21 boskobs 2025-11-21 23:16:12 UTC
The exact thing started happening today to me after the update (minus plasma crashing when I disable the secondary monitor).

System:
Operating System: Fedora Linux 43
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0
Qt Version: 6.10.0
Kernel Version: 6.17.8-300.fc43.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 8-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31,2 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: B550M AORUS ELITE

Monitors: 2
 0: +*DP-1 1920/527x1080/296+1080+325  DP-1
 1: +HDMI-A-1 1080/527x1920/296+0+0  HDMI-A-1
Comment 22 S. Christian Collins 2025-11-22 06:42:18 UTC
Yep, this bug is definitely back. The desktop icons I put on my primary screen are getting moved to the secondary screen on login, and if I move them back to the primary screen, they will get shifted to the secondary screen again on the next login.
Comment 23 S. Christian Collins 2025-11-22 06:43:22 UTC
Oh, I forgot to mention, I am using the same OS (Fedora 43 KDE) as the previous poster.
Comment 24 tamim 2025-11-22 06:52:33 UTC
I'm running into the same bug for the last couple of days. My desktop icons appear on my second (left of primary) monitor after every reboot. 

❯ kinfo
Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0
Qt Version: 6.10.0
Kernel Version: 6.17.8-1-cachyos (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × Intel® Core™ i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (62.7 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER


❯ kscreen-doctor -o
Output: 1 DVI-D-1 c4ad97fa-668f-4a86-b5af-d7d3f6a6186d
        enabled
        connected
        priority 1
        DVI
        replication source:0
        Modes:  1:1920x1080@60.00!  10:1024x768@75.03  11:1024x768@60.00  12:800x600@119.97  13:800x600@75.00  14:800x600@60.32  15:640x480@120.01  16:640x480@75.00  17:640x480@59.94  2:1920x1080@144.00*  3:1920x1080@119.98  4:1920x1080@99.93  5:1280x1024@119.96  6:1280x1024@75.03  7:1280x1024@60.02  8:1440x900@119.85  9:1024x768@119.99
        Geometry: 1680,0 1920x1080
        Scale: 1
        Rotation: 1
        Overscan: 0
        Vrr: incapable
        RgbRange: unknown
        HDR: incapable
        Wide Color Gamut: incapable
        ICC profile: none
        Color profile source: EDID
        Color power preference: prefer accuracy
        Brightness control: supported, set to 100% and dimming to 100%
        Color resolution: unknown
        Allow EDR: unsupported
        Sharpness control: unsupported
Output: 2 HDMI-A-2 9145e08d-3c05-4e98-9d34-1e71560e350a
        enabled
        connected
        priority 2
        HDMI
        replication source:0
        Modes:  18:1680x1050@59.95*!  19:1600x1000@60.00  20:1280x1024@75.03  21:1440x900@59.89  22:1280x960@60.00  23:1152x720@60.00  24:1024x768@75.03  25:1024x768@60.00  26:800x600@75.00  27:800x600@60.32  28:640x480@75.00  29:640x480@59.94
        Geometry: 0,0 1680x1050
        Scale: 1
        Rotation: 1
        Overscan: 0
        Vrr: incapable
        RgbRange: unknown
        HDR: incapable
        Wide Color Gamut: incapable
        ICC profile: none
        Color profile source: EDID
        Color power preference: prefer accuracy
        Brightness control: supported, set to 100% and dimming to 100%
        Color resolution: unknown
        Allow EDR: unsupported
        Sharpness control: unsupported
Comment 25 Martin Senftleben 2025-11-22 14:39:52 UTC
I have the same issue. Two monitors, the desktop icons were organized on the main monitor, now, after suspend or power-save monitor off,  the icons are all organized alphabetically on the secondary monitor. I need them on the primary monitor in a certain fashion for quick access, this re-shuffling is disturbing. I don't know what kind of info can help you. I know that the icons were, before the latest upgrade, always staying in the position where I had put them. The upgrade was performed yesterday, the current system info is:

Operating System: Manjaro Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0
Qt Version: 6.10.0
Kernel Version: 6.17.8-2-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (62.7 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 570 Series
Manufacturer: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
Product Name: MS-7B79
System Version: 1.0
Comment 26 Jordan 2025-11-23 09:59:03 UTC
Currently experiencing this on every reboot. Possibly important notes:

- Let's call them monitors 1 and 2. They are both identical, which renders the labeling in the settings meaningless.
- Monitor 1 is on my right, monitor 2 is on my left.
- Upon installation and before logon takes my settings into effect, monitor 1 is treated as my left monitor and 2 is treated as my right. That is the opposite of the case.
- In the settings I've set monitor 2 (real left) to be my primary. 
- I only have three desktop icons and on every boot they come on the right monitor, which is pre-settings default primary.
Comment 27 KC 2025-11-23 11:43:32 UTC
I have the same issue, it started with the Plasma 6.5.3 update.  It's doing it on Fedora 43 and a clean test install of CachyOS.  I have two identical 144hz monitors.

A few things I tried... 
 
1. Deleted KDE files from .cache.  
2. Tried locking the icons.  
3. Deleted/renamed  .config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
4.  Switched monitors from Folder View to Desktop View and back.
Comment 28 Nate Graham 2025-11-28 05:39:36 UTC
Let's not re-open very old bug reports; new issues that look the same will almost end up having a different root cause, confusing everyone involved.

There's a new bug report for newly-reported occurrences of what look like this old issue; see Bug 512381.

Thanks!