Bug 499952 - Clicking and dragging the panel's empty space moves the currently selected entry in Places
Summary: Clicking and dragging the panel's empty space moves the currently selected en...
Status: ASSIGNED
Alias: None
Product: dolphin
Classification: Applications
Component: general (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 24.12.2
Platform: Neon Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Dolphin Bug Assignee
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-02-13 04:21 UTC by Grant Gryczan
Modified: 2026-02-03 13:02 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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


Attachments
Demonstration of clicking and dragging the empty space (113.11 KB, video/webm)
2025-02-13 04:21 UTC, Grant Gryczan
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Grant Gryczan 2025-02-13 04:21:05 UTC
Created attachment 178244 [details]
Demonstration of clicking and dragging the empty space

SUMMARY
Clicking and dragging any empty space in the Places panel moves the currently selected entry unexpectedly. Where the selected entry is moved seems to depend on the distance you move your mouse up or down, but it's somewhat unpredictable to me.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. In Dolphin, click an entry under Places to select it.
2. With your cursor over the empty space at the bottom of the Places panel, click and start dragging.
3. Move your mouse vertically and release.

OBSERVED RESULT
While dragging (step 2), the cursor indicates it's currently dragging the selected Places entry. Upon release (step 3), it will attempt to reorder the entry that was selected.

EXPECTED RESULT
Clicking and dragging in the empty space shouldn't do anything.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.11.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.11.0-17-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For whatever reason, after a selected entry is dragged once, this bug no longer occurs until another is selected. Only the first drag after an entry's selection can be affected by this bug.
Comment 1 Akseli Lahtinen 2025-02-24 14:58:43 UTC
Can confirm the issue

Operating System: Fedora Linux 41
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.12.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.12.15-200.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
Memory: 15.5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 6600
Comment 2 Akseli Lahtinen 2026-02-02 14:01:16 UTC
In hindsight, I do not think this is a bug. The selection hover effect shows the user that it's going to get activated.
Comment 3 Grant Gryczan 2026-02-02 18:42:32 UTC
Huh? I'm confused why you would think it's intentional; the behavior is extremely unpredictable and confusing. I occasionally do this on accident and don't even know what I moved or where. It is not at all clear to users that this should happen. Users accidentally clicking and dragging the empty space should not be punished with any effect. If this is intentional, I would strongly argue it is bad UX. Can you elaborate why you think this behavior *should* stay?
Comment 4 kde 2026-02-02 23:26:19 UTC
I disagree that this is an intentional effect. Not only is it counterintuitive and too easy to unintentionally perform, but the 'intent' to move a folder hangs on until you actually reorder the folders, navigate to a different directory, or begin reordering and cancel by hitting escape or dropping it somewhere invalid. 

For what I mean by the intent, if you click a folder on the places panel to navigate to that directory, then drop focus on Dolphin and do anything else, when you come back to Dolphin again it will still react as if it's waiting for you to reorder the folder, even if it's days later. If you click a folder and open a file from that directory, same thing.

I spent several weeks wondering why every time I organized my places list I would go back to Dolphin and everything would be moved around. Just clicking the window on an empty spot in the places panel and moving the mouse a few pixels can be enough can be enough to trigger the reordering, which I manage to frequently do unintentionally when grabbing window focus.

Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.22.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.18.7-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (60.4 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090/PCIe/SSE2
Graphics Processor 2: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090/PCIe/SSE2
Comment 5 Akseli Lahtinen 2026-02-03 08:56:17 UTC
Oh! I'm so sorry. I misunderstood the bug completely. Yes, this is a bug, it should not do the moving like that.

I blame it on bad nights sleep. Sorry for the confusion. Can repro it, will try to fix it.

Operating System: KDE Linux 2026-02-03
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.18.7-zen1-1-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 6600
Comment 6 Grant Gryczan 2026-02-03 09:00:49 UTC
All good, appreciate it! :)
Comment 7 Bug Janitor Service 2026-02-03 13:02:30 UTC
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/merge_requests/2138