How do I remove trash icon from GNOME desktop?

Question

How do I remove the "Trash" icon from GNOME 3 desktop? I'm running Ubuntu 17.10 with GNOME shell.

Solution 1

Up to Ubuntu 18.10

You may use (GNOME) Tweaks (aka GNOME Tweak Tool) to do that. First install it (if it is not installed) by running the following command in Terminal

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

or

sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

Launch Tweaks and go to Desktop section. Then toggle off (or uncheck) the Trash (or Rubbish bin or Wastebasket) option under "Icons on Desktop".

Alternatively you may run the following command in Terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop trash-icon-visible false

Solution 2

_{After following Exien's answer on Ubuntu 20.04, the GUI became extremely slow and unresponsive. I had to reinstall Ubuntu even after reverting the value to true which did not fix the problem it generates.}

In Ubuntu 20.04

It is actually easy:

1. Search for Extensions (preinstalled) in the Activities overview.

   

2. Click on the Settings gear icon next to the Desktop Icons toggle

   

3. Toggle icons as required

   

Solution 3

Ubuntu 19.04 and later

The following terminal command works:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.desktop-icons show-trash false

Comments

[Videonauth]

Just tested it in a VM. Works as advertised. Tested the GUI solution with tweak tools and the command line solution.

[Brett Beatty]

Can also confirm the terminal command works as advertised

[Tomislav Nakic-Alfirevic]

For the CLI-oriented, the command is gnome-tweaks.

[pomsky]

@tomislav They're the same thing.

[Tomislav Nakic-Alfirevic]

@pomsky Yes, just thought if anyone wants to start it from the CLI, that's the name.

[Scott Stensland]

on 19.10 tab Desktop no longer appears ... instead in tweaks hit Extensions -> wrench on Desktop icons and switch off trash

[pomsky]

@scott Yes, because the way desktop icons are handled is changed fundamentally (handler changed from Nautilus to a shell extension), and this is the case since Ubuntu 19.04.

[pomsky]

It's probably just a red herring; your issues may have appeared coincidentally after running the command, but most likely only the command itself is not the cause. Running the command does (under the hood) exactly what toggling off in the Extensions app does.

[Nav]

Thank you for this. It's annoying that the developers didn't just provide this option in the properties menu of the icon or in a more accessible place in settings