Why do all files and directories from my home directory appear in Desktop?

Question

Suddenly I started seeing an icon for each file and directory from ~ in my Desktop.

The icons do nothing -- they do not work to open these items.

If I rename one of these odd Desktop icons, the item in ~ is renamed as well. Likewise if I delete the icon.

Also, ls or Nautulus on the Desktop directory correctly shows an empty listing.

How do I resolve this?

(Ubuntu 17.10)

Note that my ~/Desktop is actually a link to /data/Desktop

This, however, worked fine until two days ago and I don't believe that it is the cause.

~$  cat ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
# 
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/"

Possible duplicate of [Why is my desktop the same as home folder?](https://askubuntu.com/questions/523167/why-is-my-desktop-the-same-as-home-folder) — muru, May 09 '18 at 08:02
What does: `cat ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs` show? If this awry an answer is here: https://askubuntu.com/a/737236/57576 — andrew.46, May 09 '18 at 08:05
@andrew.46 I added that to the question. Does "$HOME/" indicate that the value is missing? — Joshua Fox, May 09 '18 at 08:30
@andrew.46 Thank you! Please give an answer so I can accept. My question is similar to the one you linked but the strange behavior of the icons perhaps means that it should be treated as non-duplicate. — Joshua Fox, May 09 '18 at 08:33
@muru Indeed, that is similar. But the icon behavior is a an interesting clue added here. — Joshua Fox, May 09 '18 at 08:35
@JoshuaFox Good news is that hopefully you have rectified your issue and all is well on your setup now. Bad news is that the question probably should be marked as a duplicate so I will refrain from posting a formal answer. But good to see the issue resolved :) — andrew.46, May 09 '18 at 09:21

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 23 '18 at 08:28

Edit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs. You may find that all values are reset to $HOME. Edit it to something sane like this. Restart your windowing session (or just reboot).

# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
#
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

Why do all files and directories from my home directory appear in Desktop?

1 Answers1