Do green numbers on icons in the dock mean I should be doing something?

Serah Allison

4/22/24, 12:22 AM

I just now upgraded from Ubuntu 22.10 to Ubuntu 23.04 using the GUI upgrade tool. Since the upgrade, little green circles with numbers have appeared in the upper right corner of some of the icons in the Dock. For example:

The Files icon has a green circle with '3' in it, even when I don't have a Files folder open.
Firefox does not have any green circle/number on it when it is not open, but when I run a single instance of Firefox a green '2' appears.
Calculator does not have any green circle/number on it at any time, whether it is open/running or not.

Here's a partial screenshot of my Ubuntu Dock, showing the green circles and numbers this post is about

In a search, I have not been able to find documentation of this. The behaviour is a little like what is described in this user's question: What do the RED numbers on the Gnome Files Dock Icon mean? ...but the numbers are not consistent with the number of GUI windows I have open and are not shown at all for some apps.

Please could the community advise:

What do these numbers mean?
If they mean I'm supposed to do something, then what do I do to address that 'something'?
If they are not useful, how do I turn them off?

Thanks for your time!

1651

1 + 0

upgrade

dock

23.04

Score:17

Ubuntu

Bram

4/22/24, 12:31 AM

Those are notifications.

Click on the date/time to see them.

+ 5

Organic Marble

4/22/24, 12:37 AM

What "notifications" does the file manager give?

Bram

4/22/24, 12:48 AM

@OrganicMarble I had one saying that the SD card drive was removed.

Organic Marble

4/22/24, 1:54 AM

Great example!!

Serah Allison

4/22/24, 2:58 AM

Thank you!! Following your advice I discovered old notifications for USB storage devices being removed (the File notifications) and a notification that Snap wanted me to close Firefox to do an update. Once I'd cleared those notifications, the green circles/numbers went away as would be expected.

user643722

6/26/24, 8:39 AM

Where is the date/time? In the Dock? When I open the Files program? I don't see any more green circles when I open the Files application.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Do green numbers on icons in the dock mean I should be doing something?

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