Score:4

What is the default sort order of applications in the Applications Grid?

us flag

What is the default sort order of applications in the Applications Grid in Ubuntu 21.10?

The Gnome Shell Applications Grid doesn't show applications alphabetically, and it doesn't seem to sort them based on most frequently used.

Is there some rule or algorithm that is used to list these applications?

Screenshot of the applications overview

Terrance avatar
id flag
Does the grid seem to be in order of when the applications were installed?
us flag
No. At first I thought items were listed in reverse installation order. But this is not the case. For example, I installed brasero, gnome-clocks, gnome-weather, Only Office, pdfarranger, and then simple-scan. However the applications overview lists: Weather (gnome-weather), Clocks (gnome-clocks), Videos (totem), Document Scan (simple-scan), and Settings (gnome-control-center). (Only Office is in the dock, so we can excuse it not being redundantly listed in the applications overview). Brasero is the 12th application listed.
Terrance avatar
id flag
In your image everything below the top line seems to be in alphabetical order. So my guess would be the top line is for most or frequent or recently used.
us flag
I do not explicitly use Weather and Clocks, but I guess the Gnome Notifications invokes both applications upon login (since I show both world clocks and weather under the Calendar in Notifications). I haven't used Simple Scan after I installed the OS. I use Settings a lot. Nevertheless, I have not been able to get the first row to change, even though I've tried to repeatedly launch another application in order to force it to be more frequently used. I even logged out and back-in to see if that would cause the apps to be reordered based on usage.
user535733 avatar
cn flag
On a 21.10 that I just test-installed, the default seems indeed alphabetical. However, it's also *arrangeable* - if you drag an item to a new location, then it will persist in the new location you chose.
Terrance avatar
id flag
@user535733 OK, that must be new then in 21.10. In 20.04 if you drag an item to a new location you might add it to an Unknown Folder by dropping on another item. But it defaults back to alphabetical once you remove the item from the Unknown Folder and doesn't stay persistant.
Lorenz Keel avatar
gr flag
I don't know what happens in a clean installation, but I confirm that updating from 21.04 to 21.10 I had the applications sorted in an apparently inexplicable way. I had to clean a dconf key to have an alphabetical sort order. Consider that my app grid was already sorted before the upgrade.
Gagan avatar
cn flag
@user535733 do you know how to reset it to alphabetical order?
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