It’s an unimportant problem with, I hope, a simple fix.
I’m running KDE Plasma 6.36 on Debian Stable, which I installed a few days ago.
I added some of my own images using the “Wallpaper” tab in System Settings and the “Add” tab. A few minutes later, they popped up as icons on the top of the start screen (the one you get after the login screen; is there a better name for it?). I changed the wallpaper back to the stock image that Debian defaults to, then I moved my images to a new folder and deleted the folder that they were in, the one that the Wallpaper function knew about. Sure enough, the icons were gone. I repeated the process, taking my images from the new folder, and the same thing happened.
I have this feeling that I’m…uh, doing something wrong. Anybody know what it might be?
I’m not sure what the problem is. From what you have described everything sounds as though its doing what it’s meant to.
If it’s a wallpaper image folder your looking for there is a little icon on each wallpaper in the system settings that takes you to the folder they’re in.
I have a system for mine - I throw all the images on HDD/resources/backgrounds…
Then within that folder, I make subfolders where I drag (link) images into sub-categories (purples, greens, pinks - to go with themes/moods or whatever)…
So then sure - you go to system settings and add individual files, or you can add folders for slideshow… but I’m not sure what ‘start’ screen you’re talking about.
After the login screen, I see a desktop - so maybe you have some kind of splash screen enabled???
If icons are appearing on the desktop, something is definitely strange (but I think you explained it wrong)…
Is it possible you’re talking about some desktop widget you have enabled?
Maybe you have a ‘Recent Documents widget’ - that’d follow your description.
For many things, including Wallpapers, KDE Plasma searches for Wallpaper images in directories defined by the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, which used to be maintained by the Linux Foundation but, since late 2025 has been taken over by the FreeDesktop(.org) – <Filesystem Hierarchy Standard>
Your distribution places Wallpapers in – /usr/share/wallpapers/
Your administrator(s) place site local Wallpapers in – /usr/local/share/wallpapers/
Individual users place their personal Wallpapers in – $HOME/.local/share/wallpapers/
Wallpapers located in any of the “wallpapers” directories mentioned above will be auto-magically picked up by the KDE Plasma System Settings and offered for use as Desktop Wallpapers or, Screen Lock Wallpapers or, the SDDM login Wallpaper.
Ah, OK - I just cut all the images out of the folder I made, placed them in ~/.local/share/wallpapers, and as if by magic those thumbnails disappeared and I could change the wallpapers like I’d been doing that all my life. So thank you very much!
Oh, desktop. That’s the word I wanted! I was wondering if Windows 11 was taking chunks out of my brain. I had to move back to Windows a few years ago; someday maybe it will all come back to me….