Tray and desktop icons show as symbolic

Boohoo · 2025-05-20 20:21:43

I'm running Manjaro with XFCE and I’ve been struggling with an icon rendering issue that I can't seem to resolve.

The problem:
No matter what icon theme I choose (Papirus, Tela, etc.), tray icons and some desktop/launcher icons always appear as white symbolic icons. This happens even with well-maintained, complete themes like Papirus, which should show colorful icons by default.

This affects:
-System tray (e.g. network, Dropbox, Redshift, etc.)
-Desktop icons (e.g. Home, Trash)
-Thunar icons and launchers

What I’ve tried:
-Reinstalled GTK and icon-related packages (gtk3, gdk-pixbuf2, shared-mime-info, etc.)
-Rebuilt icon caches and mime databases
-Tested with a brand new user account (same issue)
-Used Timeshift to restore the system (no change)
-Created proper fallback chains in index.theme
-Tried multiple icon themes (Papirus, Tela, Qogir, Obsidian)
-Ensured symbolic overrides weren’t forced via .xprofile or settings.ini

Is there a known issue or a configuration that forces XFCE or GTK to prefer symbolic icons?
Or is there a better way to completely override this fallback behavior?

Thanks in advance — I’ve gone through a lot of trial and error and would really appreciate any insight.

eriefisher · 2025-05-20 20:40:14

In the system tray settings there is an option to request symbolic icon if selected. I don't use desktop icon so I'm not sure there.

Boohoo · 2025-05-21 05:55:23

I did not realize that but I just checked and it is not marked. Anyway my issue is not only affecting the system tray, it is affecting desktop icons and thunar icons too

ToZ · 2025-05-21 11:46:06

Can you post images of the issues?

There is also a system-wide override in /etc/gtk-3.0 that you should check.
Thunar also has a "Use symbolic icons" option in Edit > Preferences > Side Pane.
Systray icons will only display what the app sends.

Also try with the fallback icon theme to see if there is a change:

xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/IconThemeName -s ""

Last edited by ToZ (2025-05-21 11:49:29)

Boohoo · 2025-05-21 19:26:59

I did not find anything about icons in /etc/gtk-3.0. there was only a file called im-multipress.conf.
I checked Edit > Preferences > Side Pane the "use symbolic folder icons" it is not ticked.
If I run xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/IconThemeName -s "" I get a broken icon theme

Here’s what I see i status tray after running the fallback command:

This is status tray with elementary set:

This is using High contrast:

Last edited by Boohoo (2025-05-21 19:28:04)

ToZ · 2025-05-22 09:49:12

I was curious more about the issue with the desktop and thunar.

With respect to "systray icons", it will use whatever icon the application serves up - Xfce can't control this. You might have more flexibility with "Status Notifiers". What does the following return?

xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -lv

Boohoo · 2025-05-22 11:59:53

That returns the following:

/configver                                     2
/panels                                        [1,2,3]
/panels/dark-mode                              true
/panels/panel-1/icon-size                      44
/panels/panel-1/length                         100
/panels/panel-1/plugin-ids                     [13,2,3,6,7]
/panels/panel-1/position                       p=8;x=960;y=1066
/panels/panel-1/position-locked                true
/panels/panel-1/size                           31
/panels/panel-2/plugin-ids                     [11,12,14]
/panels/panel-2/position                       p=4;x=3744;y=1055
/panels/panel-2/position-locked                true
/panels/panel-2/size                           48
/panels/panel-3/plugin-ids                     [15]
/panels/panel-3/position                       p=8;x=2016;y=1051
/panels/panel-3/position-locked                true
/panels/panel-3/size                           31
/plugins/notes/global/version                  1.11.2
/plugins/plugin-11                             clock
/plugins/plugin-11/digital-date-format         %A, %d %b
/plugins/plugin-11/digital-layout              1
/plugins/plugin-12                             weather
/plugins/plugin-12/cache-max-age               172800
/plugins/plugin-12/forecast/days               5
/plugins/plugin-12/forecast/layout             1
/plugins/plugin-12/location/latitude           xxx
/plugins/plugin-12/location/longitude          yyy
/plugins/plugin-12/location/name               Carrer 
/plugins/plugin-12/msl                         31
/plugins/plugin-12/offset                      +02:00
/plugins/plugin-12/power-saving                true
/plugins/plugin-12/round                       true
/plugins/plugin-12/scrollbox/animate           true
/plugins/plugin-12/scrollbox/color             rgba(0,0,0,0)
/plugins/plugin-12/scrollbox/lines             1
/plugins/plugin-12/scrollbox/show              true
/plugins/plugin-12/scrollbox/use-color         false
/plugins/plugin-12/single-row                  true
/plugins/plugin-12/theme-dir                   /usr/share/xfce4/weather/icons/liquid
/plugins/plugin-12/timezone                    Europe/Madrid
/plugins/plugin-12/tooltip-style               1
/plugins/plugin-12/units/altitude              0
/plugins/plugin-12/units/apparent-temperature  2
/plugins/plugin-12/units/precipitation         0
/plugins/plugin-12/units/pressure              0
/plugins/plugin-12/units/temperature           0
/plugins/plugin-12/units/windspeed             0
/plugins/plugin-13                             whiskermenu
/plugins/plugin-13/button-icon                 distributor-logo-manjaro
/plugins/plugin-13/recent                      [xfce-wm-settings.desktop,xfce-wmtweaks-settings.desktop,xfce-keyboard-settings.desktop,xfce-settings-manager.desktop,xfce4-settings-editor.desktop,org.pulseaudio.pavucontrol.desktop,dropbox.desktop,brave-browser.desktop,appimagekit_ca562d0706298dfa907e80ebe5401495-Espanso.desktop,xfce-ui-settings.desktop]
/plugins/plugin-14                             actions
/plugins/plugin-14/appearance                  1
/plugins/plugin-14/button-title                0
/plugins/plugin-14/items                       [+lock-screen,-switch-user,+separator,-suspend,-hibernate,-hybrid-sleep,-separator,+shutdown,-restart,+separator,-logout,-logout-dialog]
/plugins/plugin-15                             tasklist
/plugins/plugin-15/include-all-monitors        false
/plugins/plugin-15/show-only-minimized         false
/plugins/plugin-2                              tasklist
/plugins/plugin-2/grouping                     true
/plugins/plugin-2/include-all-monitors         false
/plugins/plugin-2/show-handle                  false
/plugins/plugin-2/show-labels                  true
/plugins/plugin-2/show-only-minimized          false
/plugins/plugin-2/show-tooltips                true
/plugins/plugin-2/sort-order                   2
/plugins/plugin-2/window-scrolling             false
/plugins/plugin-3                              separator
/plugins/plugin-3/expand                       true
/plugins/plugin-3/style                        0
/plugins/plugin-6                              systray
/plugins/plugin-6/hidden-items                 []
/plugins/plugin-6/known-items                  [dropbox-client-9478,TelegramDesktop,chrome_status_icon_1,albert,dropbox-client-7,CopyQ_copyq,redshift,flameshot]
/plugins/plugin-6/known-legacy-items           [xfce terminal,clipman,pamac-tray,networkmanager applet,flameshot,redshift-gtk,notes,ethernet network connection “wired connection 1” active]
/plugins/plugin-6/square-icons                 true
/plugins/plugin-7                              separator
/plugins/plugin-7/style                        0

I did a TTY reset and I managed to find a icon theme that works, perhaps not my favorite but hey. The issue I still am struggling with is that all windows and the panel get this dark brown color no matter what style I chose.

Added later 2 h 51 min 30 s:
I finally managed. .xprofile had this:
export GTK_ICON_THEME=Obsidian-Aqua
export GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark
export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=XFCE so I put an # in front of export GTK_ICON_THEME=Obsidian-Aqua

So whatever I changed had no effect. Also the Obsidian theme was broken, but I am on the right path now.

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#1 2025-05-20 20:21:43

Tray and desktop icons show as symbolic

#2 2025-05-20 20:40:14

Re: Tray and desktop icons show as symbolic

#3 2025-05-21 05:55:23

Re: Tray and desktop icons show as symbolic

#4 2025-05-21 11:46:06

Re: Tray and desktop icons show as symbolic

#5 2025-05-21 19:26:59

Re: Tray and desktop icons show as symbolic

#6 2025-05-22 09:49:12

Re: Tray and desktop icons show as symbolic

#7 2025-05-22 11:59:53

Re: Tray and desktop icons show as symbolic

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