Created attachment 187906 [details] before_scatter.png SUMMARY To preface this, I've had issues with desktop icons in KDE for years now with this exact "layout". I always fill my desktop with shortcuts around the screen excluding the bottom right corner. There's a whole other bug if you try to do that in KDE Plasma, but I digress, I avoid it. You'll understand exactly what I'm talking about when you open the attachments, it's a very specific setup which is simple enough to reproduce. My setup: - I have two displays, the second of which is set to "Layout" -> "Desktop" - First (primary) is 2560x1440 (144Hz), second is 1920x1080 (75Hz) - Distro is Arch Linux, packages are updated to the latest as of December 23rd of 2025, Wayland is used The icons are supposed to look like the ones in the first attachment [before_scatter.png]. In the past the icons used to get scattered around the screen every time the second display was unplugged & plugged back in, or sometimes when logging in. After I saw https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=512381 and plasma-desktop 6.5.4 was released, I wiped all of my configuration and made my desktop from scratch. I have tested this release for a bit and so far they seem to stick like usual, although I wouldn't bet on it seeing the fragile state of the desktop icon implementation. Cut to the issue, I locked the screen once and the result was the second attachment [after_scatter.png]. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Put your desktop icons in a layout resembling the first attachment [before_scatter.png] (Desktop folder settings attached in third attachment [desktop_folder_settings.png]) 1.5. Play around plugging and unplugging the second monitor, maybe also signing out (will not yield any changes or affect anything hopefully) 2. Lock the session using Modkey + L 3. Log back in and watch OBSERVED RESULT Can be seen in the second attachment [after_scatter.png] EXPECTED RESULT Can be seen in the first attachment [before_scatter.png] SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS # /usr/bin/kinfo Operating System: Arch Linux KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.4 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.21.0 Qt Version: 6.10.1 Kernel Version: 6.12.63-1-lts (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Closing this off, I am aware my desktop layout may look a bit weird or "rare", however I believe that it keeps exposing small edge cases in said implementation and is a good way to detect and eliminate these tiny inconsistencies. I hope the issue can be resolved as it has greatly impacted my workflow through the past more than 5 years, which is a shame as I otherwise really enjoy using KDE Plasma.
Created attachment 187907 [details] after_scatter.png
Created attachment 187908 [details] desktop_folder_settings.png
Does it stop periodically happening if you uncheck "Folders first"?
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #3) > Does it stop periodically happening if you uncheck "Folders first"? Having set "Sort by" as "Manual", both checkboxes for "Descending" and "Folders first" are disabled and cannot be changed. So these are the exact steps I did: 1. Set "Sort by" -> "Name" 2. Disable "Folders first" 3. Set "Sort by" -> "Manual" 4. Finally apply changes and click OK After that I re-arranged the icons exactly like the first attachment of the initial post [before_scatter.png] and proceeded to do a few session locks, sign outs, display re-connections and the icons seem solid. But wait! Desktop icon related problems have been longstanding in KDE Plasma (as I initially described) and I have some thoughts as to not completely waste this already open issue (only for another one to potentially be opened later on): 1. How are we sure that this was the actual culprit? I'm not familiar with KDE's codebase, hence I unfortunately cannot verify that myself. However, it would greatly benefit everyone if you (or someone with such experience) could check out whether or not the "Folders first" codepath messed up the icons while ignoring the "Sort by" -> "Manual". That'd be interesting too, as the checkboxes are clearly disabled. That brings me to... 2. Why is this default behavior? As initially stated, I removed every last piece of KDE related configuration before trying the plasma-desktop 6.5.4 release. Shouldn't it be completely disabled or (even better) ignored when "Sort by" is either directly set by the user or (as I'm assuming) automatically set when an icon is moved? Again, this is another thing that should be double-checked with the respective code segments.