GNOME Shell – Remove Extra Skype or Ghost Icons

18.04desktopgnome-shelliconsskype

When searching for "Skype" I always see these 2 entries. There is this duplicate blank Skype icon. Both of them seem to run Skype in the same way.

Skype icon screenshot

But I've checked both /usr/share/applications, and ~/.local/share/applications, and can't find the extra icon so I can delete it.

Also as described here, sometimes similar ghost icons are present even after removing associated applications.

Best Answer

It seems you have snap installed as per your reply to @Carl's question.

Installing Skype from two sources (snap and .deb) lead to some junk .desktop files after removing the snap package. You can solve this by cleaning up after removing the snap.

Check the /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/ directory for a skype_forlinux.desktop file or something with skype* in the name (or any .desktop file which may be associated to the application). If you find it, move it somewhere else (e.g. /tmp) and check again by searching though 'Activities'.

It should be fine now.

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