Bug 514788 - Media player widget quickly loses album art after turning on/switching track
Summary: Media player widget quickly loses album art after turning on/switching track
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Media Player widget (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 6.5.5
Platform: Arch Linux Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2026-01-18 11:45 UTC by uenatole
Modified: 2026-01-19 13:21 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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


Attachments
Demo (349.38 KB, video/mp4)
2026-01-18 11:45 UTC, uenatole
Details

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Description uenatole 2026-01-18 11:45:08 UTC
Created attachment 188641 [details]
Demo

SUMMARY

Media player loses album art after turning track on YouTube Music (shows ~1 second and then switches to stub).

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Start track list on YouTube Music.
2. Open Media Player applet.
3. Switch to next track.

OBSERVED RESULT

Media player widget shows album art but but quickly switches to the stub.

EXPECTED RESULT

Media player shows album art.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Arch 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.22.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel Version: 6.18.5-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Comment 1 Akseli Lahtinen 2026-01-19 12:17:59 UTC
Can confirm this, but it only happens with Youtube music. Maybe problem with the plasma integration addon? 

What browser were you using? For me it happens with librewolf.

Operating System: KDE Linux 2026-01-18
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel Version: 6.18.5-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 2 uenatole 2026-01-19 13:21:43 UTC
 (In reply to Akseli Lahtinen from comment #1)
> Can confirm this, but it only happens with Youtube music. Maybe problem with
> the plasma integration addon? 
> 
> What browser were you using? For me it happens with librewolf.
> 
> Operating System: KDE Linux 2026-01-18
> KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.80
> KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
> Qt Version: 6.10.1
> Kernel Version: 6.18.5-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

I'm using Firefox. There are some observations of what happens when track is toggled:

> playerctl -F metadata
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   1749
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:artUrl              file:///tmp/plasma-browser-integration_artwork_yvdmtk.jpg
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              248000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:album               Бодун
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               День победы
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z40a0EOaN7s&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> firefox mpris:trackid             '/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2/firefox'
> firefox xesam:title               День победы | YouTube Music
> firefox xesam:album               
> firefox xesam:artist              
> firefox xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z40a0EOaN7s&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> firefox mpris:trackid             '/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2/firefox'
> firefox xesam:title               YouTube Music
> firefox xesam:album               
> firefox xesam:artist              
> firefox xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHbRNCwSa8&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   1749
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              248000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               Дорога
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z40a0EOaN7s&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> firefox mpris:trackid             '/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2/firefox'
> firefox xesam:title               YouTube Music
> firefox xesam:album               
> firefox xesam:artist              
> firefox xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHbRNCwSa8&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> firefox mpris:length              198000000
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   1749
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:artUrl              file:///tmp/plasma-browser-integration_artwork_sUtibk.jpg
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              198000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               Дорога
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHbRNCwSa8&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> firefox mpris:trackid             '/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2/firefox'
> firefox xesam:title               Дорога | YouTube Music
> firefox xesam:album               
> firefox xesam:artist              
> firefox xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHbRNCwSa8&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> firefox mpris:length              198000000
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   1749
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              198000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:album               Птица
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               Дорога
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHbRNCwSa8&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
```

As you can see, xesam:url remains the same, but mpris:artUrl disappears, and along with it the album art image on the widget is lost.

Looked at "firefox" entries in log I remembered one issue with media controls duplicate in KDE Connect (https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/li9d64/tip_fix_firefox_duplicate_media_player_controls/) and decided to set `media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled` configuration option to 'False'. 

After this the situation changed a little:
> playerctl -F metadata
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   263104
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              198000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:album               Птица
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               Дорога
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHbRNCwSa8&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   263104
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              198000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               День победы
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHbRNCwSa8&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   263104
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:artUrl              file:///tmp/plasma-browser-integration_artwork_EVqjvF.jpg
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              248000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               День победы
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z40a0EOaN7s&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   263104
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              248000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:album               Бодун
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               День победы
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z40a0EOaN7s&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg
> plasma-browser-integration kde:pid                   263104
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:artUrl              file:///tmp/plasma-browser-integration_artwork_arJmxK.jpg
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:length              248000000
> plasma-browser-integration mpris:trackid             '/org/kde/plasma/browser_integration/1337'
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:album               Бодун
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:artist              Аукцыон
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:title               День победы
> plasma-browser-integration xesam:url                 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z40a0EOaN7s&list=RDEM0862eoObfg3DjHQ48x19Cg

The action I done to recover mpris:artUrl and get album art visible again (permanently for this track) is pause/resume after toggle.

So perhaps the problem is a little more complex, and perhaps specific to certain applications.