Newly Installed App Not Showing Up in KDE Plasma Application Menu — SOLVED

KDE Plasma Desktop (Image from: Home — KDE Community)

The KDE Plasma desktop environment provides a user-friendly and customizable interface for Linux users. It offers a variety of features and tools to enhance productivity and user experience. However, like any software, it can sometimes encounter minor issues that may perplex users. One such issue is when a newly installed application fails to appear in the KDE Plasma application menu. It is a very common problem in fresh installs of a distro. I faced this issue mostly on Manjaro Linux with Plasma Desktop.

Let’s dive into the very simple solution.

KDE Plasma maintains a cache of installed applications to improve performance and ensure that they appear in the application menu promptly. Sometimes after installing a new application, the cache does not get automatically updated. Firstly, make sure that you have installed the desired application correctly. Then to update this cache, open a terminal and execute the following command:

kbuildsycoca5

This command should refresh the application cache and make the newly installed application visible in the application menu.

However if updating the application cache did not solve the issue, you can try restarting the Plasma shell. This action reloads the desktop environment, allowing it to detect and display the newly installed application in the application menu. press Alt + F2 to open the Run Command dialog, then type:

kquitapp5 plasmashell

and press Enter. After the shell disappears, press Alt + F2 again and type:

plasmashell

to restart it. Check the application menu to see if the newly installed app is now visible.

Hopefully, this will resolve the issue.