SUMMARY The KDE Plasma desktop does not remember manual positioning of desktop icons. I have had this problem with Plasma 5 and it still occures with Plasma 6. KDE Plasma 6 is almost perfect, runs really well. I have only two issues - this icon problem and the fact that Wayland don't support window positioning so I again can use the window rules to position my windows and dialogboxes where I want them. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Manually position your desktop icons 2. Use your computer, or reboot your computer, or turn the monitor off OBSERVED RESULT My computer always runs, the icon repositioning sometimes occures when I turn off the monitor and go to bed, the next day I turn on the monitor and the icons have been repositioned. Other times it occures when I log on again after either reboot or logoff. EXPECTED RESULT I expect that manually positioned icons STAY at their position in the grid, regardless of what happens. New icons can be placed as configured in "Arrange" and "Align", as it is working today. When a icon is outside the screen bounds, the icon can be moved into view as if it was a new icon - or better yet, a new configuration could be added with options like "Scroll desktop", "Move icon", "Do nothing". A new feature could be a "Lock position" toggleble option on each desktop icon, so you can lock a icon on another monitor even when that monitor is turned off. There should also be a menu option (function) like "Move hidden locked icons into view". NOTES Desktop icon positions are stored in the configuration file "$HOME/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc" Other bug reports can be opened with "https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=######" SIMILAR/RELATED BUG REPORTS Here is a compiled list of similar, perhaps related, bug reports, regarding desktop icon positioning. 482875 6 ? Desktop icons reset positions to alphabetical order after a long time from auto shut-off of screen (Wayland) 484806 6 ? Desktop icons rearrange when disconnecting and reconnecting external screen 486528 6 W Desktop icons being mixed sometimes after a reboot 483770 6 ? Icons position on the desktop get scrambled with multimonitor 482211 6 W Desktop icons sorted by name were occasionally unsorted when starting Plasma 476928 5 X Plasma Desktop Icons are regularly scrambled after boot 472137 5 ? Icons are changing positions after some time 471045 5 W Dolphin 24.02.2 - Plasma 6.04 Wayland is not respecting the positions of the icons on the desktop 469276 5 ? Desktop icons reset positions to alphabetical order at random time when fullscreen app is open 467405 5 ? Desktop Icons that were arranged in a custom order become alphabetically sorted automatically after a period of time 466869 5 X Desktop icons reset positions after changing screen setup 453314 5 ? When changing display resolutions, desktop icons should try to keep the same position as much as possible 469062 5 W Moving some icons on primary screen while secondary screen is unplugged resets icon positions on the secondary screen 468546 5 X Desktop icons reset position when switching between laptop and external displays with different resolutions 433867 5 ? Icons on rotated secondary screen reset to default positions or move to random positions on login/wake-from-sleep SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: KDE Neon 6.0 KDE Plasma Version: 6.1.3 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.4.0 Qt Version: 6.7.0 Kernel Version: 6.5.0-44-generic (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland
It just happened again, and this time my icons was locked ! I turned off my monitor and went to bed. When I got up, I turned on my monitor and the icons was moved as if I selected: * Locked (uncheck because they are still locked, yeah really) * Folders first (is always set) * Top to bottom (is always set) * Left (is always set) * Sort by name (is still set to Unsorted) So now I have to UNLOCK my icons, move them back, and don't bother to lock them again.
There are multiple bugs describing the same or similar behavior for icon positioning on the desktop not being saved. Thank you for compiling the list of possibly related bugs, that's helpful! Since 468546 is the oldest I see, I'll use that as the main one for this behavior. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 468546 ***
This still happens, even with Plasma 6.3.
I'm sorry to hear this is still a problem on your system. It seems related, at least in behavior to bug 482211 (also, the order of icons isn't remembered)
My experience with KDE Plasma and desktop icons has improved during the recent weeks - and definitely this year! I can only recall experiencing this issue two or tree times, since mid February 2025. I will write again in one or two months, reporting my experience. Perhaps I should make it clear, that I have my menubar/panel at the top, and that might provoke the issue. Last year I recorded this video of a successful login. The icons still "fan-down", but jumps up to their right place. This "fan-down" still happens to this day. Link to the video: https://rpc-scandinavia.dk/api/webpage/GetFileResource/Public/2024-10-09%20KDE%20Neon%20Login.mp4 Kudos and thanks to whoever worked on this. Operating System: KDE neon 6.3 KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.3 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.11.0 Qt Version: 6.8.2 Kernel Version: 6.11.0-17-generic (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i5-10210U CPU @ 1.60GHz Memory: 31,2 GiB of RAM Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics Manufacturer: HP Product Name: HP 260 G4 Desktop Mini PC
*** Bug 503061 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comments from the duplicate. Note that there are a number of screenshots attached to the other report. zupnikszydlik@gmail.com 2025-04-20 13:46:40 UTC SUMMARY When the monitor is turned off and on again, the desktop icons change their positions. This bug has been present since the first release of Plasma 6 and has still not been fixed. Initially, the desktop would expand, allowing you to scroll due to icon placement, but now the icons move completely at random. This issue is particularly frustrating as it can even be triggered by the screensaver. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Turn off monitor 2. Turn on monitor OBSERVED RESULT Desktop icons change their position EXPECTED RESULT Desktop icons stay in their position SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Operating System: Manjaro Linux KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.4 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.12.0 Qt Version: 6.9.0 Kernel Version: 6.6.85-2-MANJARO (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor Memory: 15.5 GB of RAM Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Problems: 1. 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' does not update after a directory on the desktop has its name changed. It continues to show the previous name as another item. 2. After turning on the monitor, the positions of the desktop icons change, and the data in 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' also updates. What I included: - Screenshots (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4) - Videos (ev1, ev2, ev3, ev4, ev5) - When I turn off and on my monitor, you can hear a sound from Plasma (similar to disconnecting a device). - Changes in 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' (edits) What I did: - Tested on a new account created in version 6.3.3 - Created a new account in version 6.3.4 Both accounts experienced the same problems. My thoughts: There seems to be an issue with maintaining the `plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc` file. The positions of the icons change, and perhaps the file is storing incorrect data that fails to update properly. ************ Evidence: 1. Changed the name of the directory from "lol" to "Items" but the entry for "lol" was still present in 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' (pic1). (bug?) 2. Pic2 and pic3 show changes in 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc': - The first change occurred after moving one file from another directory to the desktop. - The second change occurred after creating two new files. I think those are normal. Videos: 1. ev1 - Shows the change in the position of files. However, 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' was NOT edited by Plasma—it was just loaded (edit1)(strange). 2. ev2 - Demonstrates the removal of the section related to the no-longer-existing "lol" directory and the position change of icons. - Note how only 'new1.txt' changed its position. - Also, 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' updated after turning on the monitor (edit2)/(pic4). 3. ev3 - Added several new files, causing 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' to update (edit3). - The video shows the icons' positions changing, and the 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' file also updating (edit4). 4. ev4 - Several files were deleted, and the 'plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc' file updated; however, the problem persisted. 5. ev5 - Additional video evidence. 6. ev6 - Shows a brand-new account (created on 6.3.4) experiencing the same symptoms (edit-new-account).
I thought this bug had been previously fixed. Alas, it has returned...:-( My desktop icons (which I had locked in place) suddenly formed a horizontal row at the top of the screen. I am using Wayland on Mageia 9 with all the latest updates.
I set the Version and Platform back to what they were. Please don't change these. See the field descriptions here for an explanation https://bugs.kde.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html Please (In reply to Lloyd Osten from comment #8) > I thought this bug had been previously fixed. Alas, it has returned...:-( > My desktop icons (which I had locked in place) suddenly formed a horizontal > row at the top of the screen. > I am using Wayland on Mageia 9 with all the latest updates. Please provide the output of `kinfo`. Thanks.
Here are the results you asked for regarding kinfo... $ kinfo Operating System: Mageia 9 KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.10 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.114.0 Qt Version: 5.15.7 Kernel Version: 6.6.88-desktop-3.mga9 (64-bit) Graphics Platform: offscreen Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor Memory: 31.2 GiB of RAM Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
(In reply to Lloyd Osten from comment #10) Thanks for adding your system information, Lloyd. Unfortunately, Plasma 5.27.10 is out of support. At this point, if a fix is merged it will be to Plasma 6.4.0 and *may* be backported to 6.3.x. The Plasma developers will need to take it from here.
@TraceyC, I promised to report back in a couple of months, but I can already say that I haven't experienced problems in a long time. There was one minor incidence some time ago, but I don't recall the details. I greatly anticipate the arrival of KDE Plasma 6.4 in a couple of weeks, and then I will report back, and test with a second screen as well. I can only recommend Lloyd Osten to upgrade if possible - getting the newest KDE Plasma is the reason I use the KDE Neon distro as my daily OS. And the quality have improved greatly during the 6 series. It is a shame that some distros lack behind with new KDE Plasma versions, and Gnome for that instance, because lacking one year or more behind mean that many improvements have been fixed in newer versions, and every bugfix can't be backported to every previous version! New versions IS for improvements and fixes. Operating System: KDE neon 6.3 KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0 Qt Version: 6.9.0 Kernel Version: 6.11.0-17-generic (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i5-10210U CPU @ 1.60GHz Memory: 31,2 GiB of RAM Graphics Processor: Intel® UHD Graphics Manufacturer: HP Product Name: HP 260 G4 Desktop Mini PC
(In reply to René Paw Christensen from comment #12) @René, thanks so much for the update. I hope things continue to work well when your system updates to 6.4. Is anyone else able to reproduce this bug with 6.3.5 or later?
(In reply to TraceyC from comment #13) > (In reply to René Paw Christensen from comment #12) > @René, thanks so much for the update. I hope things continue to work well > when your system updates to 6.4. > > Is anyone else able to reproduce this bug with 6.3.5 or later? Yes, I am still able to reproduce this bug. I created brand new account and it still happens. Operating System: Manjaro Linux KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0 Qt Version: 6.9.0 Kernel Version: 6.12.28-1-MANJARO (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor Memory: 15.5 GB of RAM Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Created attachment 181863 [details] Icons change their position when the monitor is turned off and on again The sound you hear happens when the monitor is turned on and off
Created attachment 181867 [details] 2025-05-29 A1 Before screen off-on
Created attachment 181868 [details] 2025-05-29 A2 After screen off-on
Created attachment 181869 [details] 2025-05-29 B1 Before screen off-on
Created attachment 181870 [details] 2025-05-29 B2 After screen off-on
Created attachment 181871 [details] 2025-05-29 C1 Before screen off-on
Created attachment 181872 [details] 2025-05-29 C2 After screen off-on
(In reply to zupnikszydlik from comment #15) > Created attachment 181863 [details] > Icons change their position when the monitor is turned off and on again > > The sound you hear happens when the monitor is turned on and off I can reproduce this. I can't record video that remains recording while turning off the monitor and turning it on again. A) Attachments A1 and A2 are my initial screen off/on, notice the selected files, they don't move. B) Attachments B1 and B2, after I moved the icons down to the right/bottom corner. C) Attachments C1 and C2, after I moved the icons down to the left/bottom corner. The most important observation I made just now is this: Only icons that I have moved since last logon, might be moved when I turn off the monitor and turn it on again. If I place the icons as in B1 or C1, and logoff and logon again, they remain as expected, even when I after logon turns off my monitor and turns it on again. So my experience show that a logoff and logon stores/remembers the current icon position, which persists until a icon is moved. If I right-click and create a new file, this new file don't move when I turn off/on the monitor. But if I then move this new file (or any other), it will most likely move when I turn off/on my monitor. @zupnikszydlik, retry your experiment where you logoff and logon instead of turning off/on your monitor - to see if my observation can be reproduced.
B) Attachments B1 and B2: Sometimes the icons are moved within the desktop, so I don't always get the desktop scrollbars. I think I have seen them 4 or 5 times in all the time I have used KDE Plasma, but I rarely have icons in the right/bottom corner. The desktop scrollbars are automatically removed when they are no longer needed, after I move the icons into the normal desktop area.
(In reply to René Paw Christensen from comment #22) > I can reproduce this. > I can't record video that remains recording while turning off the monitor > and turning it on again. You can try GPU screen recorder, a pretty handy tool, it is available on flatpak and in AUR (I use AUR ver.) > @zupnikszydlik, retry your experiment where you logoff and logon instead of > turning off/on your monitor - to see if my observation can be reproduced. After reading your report, I tested it I am also able to reproduce bug with scrollable desktop, the icons must be at the bottom. BUT I think you just discovered something important, I tested the icons with logging out. When logging out and logging in again icons remain in their position (This was already working, but I never thought about it the way you did). FURTHERMORE I can reproduce the exact same behaviour as you - when I turn off the monitor and turn it on again icons stay in their position. But if I move an icon or icons, then turn off and on monitor again it changes its position! Logging out and in again solves the issue (icons don't change their position when monitor is turned off and on again). So, the issue now is where the source of problem actually is, is it a problem with ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc or something else?
(In reply to zupnikszydlik from comment #24) > ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc I connected to my computer with SSH, and saved "positionsB" and "positionsC" in `~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc`. They were saved/made like this: 1) Position icons, 2) Logoff, 3) From SSH copy the "positions" key/value to "positionsB/C". This was done to have the two "positionsB/C" key/value to revert back to. Now some testing: 1) * Position icons. * Logoff/on. * Turn monitor off/on. * Icons didn't move as expected. 2) * Move icons to right/bottom * Turn monitor off * Here I noticed on the SSH that the "positions" was updated. * Turn monitor on. * Icons was moved (our bug). 3) * Turn monitor off * Restore "positions" to the value when the icons were at the right/bottom (positionsB). * Turn monitor on. * Icons was moved. Here I hoped that they were moved to the right/bottom, but no such luck. 4) * Logoff * Restore "positions" to the value when the icons were at the right/bottom (positionsB). * Logon. * Icons was moved to the right/bottom. Why did 3) fail, when 4) didn't ? Probably because the configuration file is cached in memory, still saved to disk when updated in memory, but not reloaded into memory when updated on the disk. Then I thought that perhaps the issue is that the icon positions are saved when you logoff and when you turn off the monitor - and perhaps the code that saves the icon positions isn't the same - i.e. one has the bug. But no: 5) * Move icons to right/bottom * Turn monitor off * Save the "positions", which should be the buggy positions if my theory was right. * Turn monitor on, and icons was moved as expected. * Logoff. * Restore the "positions". * Logon. * Now the icons was in the right/bottom. So the positions saved when I turned off the monitor was correct - so the error must happen when the monitor is turned on. Perhaps the configuration file should be re-read into memory when changed on disk, but that is a minor "bug" (missing feature), and not the one we are chasing here.
I also noticed that plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc was being edited when the monitor was turned on again. This bug seems very odd
Just upgraded to plasma 6.4. Problem of icons rearranging when monitor is powered on still exisis
Something strange here. I've updated to plasma 6.4.1. Everything else is currently up to date also. I thought I noticed that the icons we not changing position when I turned on the monitors (I have 2). So, I rearranged them to what I prefer. I turned the monitors off and on a few times and the icons stayed where I put them. A day or two later I noticed they were scrambled again. I did not move any icons. The next time I turned on the monitors they were back to my preferred arrangement. Now when I turn on the monitors they may be scrambled or they may be back to my preferred arrangement.
Looks like something reports to the icon positioner that the screen resolution is not 0x0 anymore even when screen is off: This causes it load the icons too early and since there is no space to put them as it expects, it looks random. Definitely a bug.. The fix would have to be loading the icon positions only when we know we're showing the desktop to the user.
To follow up on my previous comment #28. If I log out of my KDE session and then log back in, the icons are scrambled. If I then simply turn off my monitors and turn them back on, the icons are back to the preferred positions. if I continue to power cycle the monitors, the icons stay in their preferred positions. So, it seems that at the start of a KDE session, the icons are scrambled but turning the monitors off and then on puts them back to the preferred positions. And I'm now on plasma 6.4.2.
Git commit 7fc477efadc783ba352bd3fbf11ee129fd237cfe by Akseli Lahtinen. Committed on 30/07/2025 at 09:51. Pushed by akselmo into branch 'master'. FolderModel: If screen is not used, clear dropTargetPositions If screen is not in use, we are not certain what our current coordinates for the icons are, especially for desktop icons. In these cases we should just clear the drop target positions and return, since this action only makes sense when the screen is in use anyway. This was also never cleared after dragging, except for the 10 second timer. This would cause edgecases where an icon is dragged around, something causes rowsInserted to be emitted and we would reuse the drag operation, which would move the icon around further. Instead we should always clear it after any drag operation. M +8 -0 containments/desktop/plugins/folder/foldermodel.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/commit/7fc477efadc783ba352bd3fbf11ee129fd237cfe
Git commit 62f1872dad6b28dccac2c0aead8513ca8fd995df by Akseli Lahtinen. Committed on 30/07/2025 at 09:51. Pushed by akselmo into branch 'master'. Positioner: Do not change anything during resolution updates On resolution update, we just want to know what the current resolution is. After resolution update, we may need to do different things in different places, so separate the loading and applying positions etc from it. This avoids unnecessary double-updates that can make the positioner confused. Also adds couple comments that should be helpful when working with this part of code M +30 -18 containments/desktop/plugins/folder/positioner.cpp M +2 -1 containments/desktop/plugins/folder/positioner.h https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/commit/62f1872dad6b28dccac2c0aead8513ca8fd995df
Git commit 559a4fa4b188410c1fcbabb3615f98afd7d98869 by Akseli Lahtinen. Committed on 31/07/2025 at 09:00. Pushed by akselmo into branch 'Plasma/6.4'. Positioner: Do not change anything during resolution updates On resolution update, we just want to know what the current resolution is. After resolution update, we may need to do different things in different places, so separate the loading and applying positions etc from it. This avoids unnecessary double-updates that can make the positioner confused. Also adds couple comments that should be helpful when working with this part of code (cherry picked from commit 62f1872dad6b28dccac2c0aead8513ca8fd995df) M +30 -18 containments/desktop/plugins/folder/positioner.cpp M +2 -1 containments/desktop/plugins/folder/positioner.h https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/commit/559a4fa4b188410c1fcbabb3615f98afd7d98869
Git commit 5c0a0aa814cba06b7d1c067f9e6ee92b71f9aa6d by Akseli Lahtinen. Committed on 31/07/2025 at 09:00. Pushed by akselmo into branch 'Plasma/6.4'. FolderModel: If screen is not used, clear dropTargetPositions If screen is not in use, we are not certain what our current coordinates for the icons are, especially for desktop icons. In these cases we should just clear the drop target positions and return, since this action only makes sense when the screen is in use anyway. This was also never cleared after dragging, except for the 10 second timer. This would cause edgecases where an icon is dragged around, something causes rowsInserted to be emitted and we would reuse the drag operation, which would move the icon around further. Instead we should always clear it after any drag operation. (cherry picked from commit 7fc477efadc783ba352bd3fbf11ee129fd237cfe) M +8 -0 containments/desktop/plugins/folder/foldermodel.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/commit/5c0a0aa814cba06b7d1c067f9e6ee92b71f9aa6d