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With Ubuntu 18.04, I can drag and drop files from Desktop to File manager and vice versa.

On my other Ubuntu 20.04 install, this is no more possible.

Has this fetaure been voluntarily removed or is it an accidental regression?

How to enable it again?

Many people seem to have noticed the same problem, see for example the 100+ voted comment about this on the video Ubuntu 20.04 LTS: What's New?: "Love Ubuntu, but I'm still disappointed a basic feature like drag & dropping files to/from desktop into the file manager is missing.".

Note: This is strange for a LTS; why did they accept this a-little-bit-broken state for a Release version, did they consider it's not important? All major OS support drag n drop out-of-the-box from/to Desktop since Win 95 probably. (Without having to tweak some parameters). Do you think there's a hope to have this solved in 20.04.1 or 20.04.2?

Basj
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  • This is because there is a huge changeover (between those two aforementioned Ubuntu versions): from the file-manager (Nautilus) handling the desktop items in 18.04 to a GNOME Shell extension handling them instead in 20.04. Refer to this for the official reasons provided to remove the desktop items handling feature from Nautilus: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/issues/158 – pomsky Jun 26 '20 at 16:21
  • If you open TWO Files windows, one open to the Desktop, and the other open to where your file is, you can drag the file icon between the two open windows. – heynnema Jun 26 '20 at 16:58
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    @pomsky This is strange for a LTS... Why did they accept this a little-bit-broken state for a Release version? All major OS support drag n drop out-of-the-box from/to Desktop since Win 95 probably. (Without having to tweak some parameters). Do you think there's a hope to have this solved in 20.04.1 or 20.04.2? – Basj Jun 26 '20 at 17:37
  • There is no hope, there is new GNOME "desktop". You can remove it and use MATE, Xfce, KDE instead. – N0rbert Jun 26 '20 at 21:12
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    @N0rbert Yes but even the new GNOME will have to add this feature sooner or later, don't you think so? They can't seriously say "You shouldn't use desktop for files, period.". All OS have this feature since decades; it's very strange to remove it like this. (Note: I know it's sometimes good to start something new/fresh and remove old features, but here this argument clearly doesn't apply) – Basj Jun 26 '20 at 21:28

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