Phantom menu entry in Application Launcher (Kickoff)

Help
1

In my Application Launcher I have an entry for an application that had once been manually installed under /opt and has since been deleted.

The application does not appear when navigating the menu, but appears when searching its name. Maybe it is not relevant, but another version of the same application is installed as a Flatpak and its name appears in the menu (both in search and navigation).

If I go in “edit mode” (right click → “Edit application”) the entry is nowhere to be found in the menu editor.

Can someone instruct me on how to find the source of this menu entry?

2

You can try searching in these folders for the .desktop files you need to remove:

  • ~/.local/share/applications/
  • /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications/ (Flatpak, System-Wide)
  • ~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications/ (Flatpak, User Installs)
  • /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/ (Snap)

Hope you find the ghost files!

Tip: If you don’t want this to happen again, when creating a shortcut in the “Edit Applications” Menu, make sure to assign whatever shortcut you’re creating a Category, otherwise I’ll end up in the same “shadow realm” you’re currently dealing with.

3

Thank you. It was the first one.

I am not sure this was created manually, I suspect it was part of some install script.

4

while in “edit mode” go to settings and check the show hidden box

then re-do your search.

don’t forget to uncheck the box when you are done and save your work.